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What you want to say – 31st of August 2016 August 31, 2016

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

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1. Admin - August 31, 2016

I wrote these twenty years ago, back in late 1995 and early 1996, but I think they hold up reasonably well:

Civil war, counter-revolution and the consolidation of the Free State:

Civil war, counter-revolution and the consolidation of the Free State

Winners and losers in an unfree state: https://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/chapt-12-winners-and-losers-in-an-unfree-state/

Philip Ferguson

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2. Joe - August 31, 2016

Dublin Festival of History, 23 Sept to 8 Oct.
http://www.google.ie/url?url=http://dublinfestivalofhistory.ie/&rct=j&frm=1&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjvi-zcoOvOAhUGKsAKHa6HAgAQFgggMAA&usg=AFQjCNEV06UW7Pr4o6EmjDbX5wViKwMEzg

For left anoraks, topics include ‘The Devil’s Alliance-Hitler’s Pact with Stalin’; ‘Red Mist-The Cultural Revolution’; ‘Stalin’s Personal Library’; ‘The USSR through Irish Eyes’.

And lots and lots of other stuff.

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3. Starkadder - August 31, 2016

More Wikiquote bias…..

The entry on India has no quotations by Jawaharlal Nehru, the heavyweight member of that country’s independence movement and first Prime Minister. The Wikiquote entry on India is 12 years old,
and has been edited hundreds of times, but no sign of Chacha Nehru’s words anywhere.

Whatever you think of Nehru’s politics or career, you’d have thought his views on the country he influenced would warrant a mention, but no.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/India

But – Wikiquote does have two quotations by convicted American felon Dinesh D’Souza telling us what a terrible place India is.

So does this matter? After all, the Internet is full of biased right-wing websites. But none of these websites are used themselves as a “reliable resource”.

Indeed, a quick search of Google News for this year shows numerous respected news outlets including “The Times of India”,
“The Guardian” and PBS using Wikiquote as a source (I counted
over 20 Wikiquote mentions in “The Guardian” alone).

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WorldbyStorm - August 31, 2016

Nehru was an interesting person. it is absurd not to have quotes from him.

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Starkadder - September 6, 2016

Aye.

Speaking of biased quote sources, did you know that the 2013 “The Dictionary of Labour quotations” by Stuart Thomson gives SEVENTEEN PAGES to quotes by Tony Blair?
By contrast, poor Edward Carpenter only gets one quote.

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WorldbyStorm - September 6, 2016

Wow. 17 pages?

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4. Joe - September 1, 2016
Joe - September 1, 2016

I thought this would have gotten more traction. It’s the OFFICIAL IRA like. Allegedly.

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sonofstan - September 1, 2016

“A Marxist offshoot of the IRA”

Well, now….

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Michael Carley - September 1, 2016

“Ultimately believed in Neo-unionism” …

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Joe - September 2, 2016

Marxist neo-unionists and neo-unionist Marxists. The lowest of the low.

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5. roddy - September 1, 2016

Stories only get traction if Adams can be got .

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6. Gewerkschaftler - September 2, 2016

Another wrinkle in the Krapple tax saga.

It means that re-domiciled or inverted capital stock of the corporate tax evaders appears on the RoI GDP. Which in turn means higher EU contributions without having recouped anything in tax. Capital assets registered in Ireland jumped by an unbelievable 30% just in 2015.

So not only do Irish citizens get no corporation tax from Krapple, but they then pay for the privilege of allow Krapple to evade tax, to the tune of a further €280m per year, according to Noonan’s own figures.

Paying the back-payments on that for a decade could be somewhat costly.

Time to take to the streets on this issue.

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7. botheredbarney - September 2, 2016

John Lennon describes his First Acid Trip in an animated video.

http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/an-animated-john-lennon-describes-his-first-acid-trip.html

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8. dublinstreams - September 2, 2016

Billionaires using their millions to alter Irish government policy, a good thing or bad thing?

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9. Tomboktu - September 4, 2016

My niece started secondary school earlier this week. I found out she’s taken up Spanish. I’ll leave the language bit to her teacher, but I’d like to get her a book to complement the language lessons. Any suggestions on something suitable for a 13-year-old?

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WorldbyStorm - September 4, 2016

I’ve been struggling to learn Spanish for a couple of years now. If she’s never done it before she could do worse than duo lingo, it’s an app on computers and tablets. Quite good for some of the basics. But I’d be interested in book recommendations too.

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10. sonofstan - September 4, 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/04/assault-on-polish-men-harlow-possible-hate-crime

More Brexit fall out.
Connected, had an interesting conversation with my landlord, second generation Pakistani, who said his dad always told him ‘ we’re not staying son; they’ll kick us out in the end’ and always kept a bag packed…

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WorldbyStorm - September 4, 2016

Wow, to have that hanging over him. Vile isn’t it? Racist attacks up on public transport too, markedly so since the result.

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11. roddy - September 5, 2016

I f you want an illustration of how small the world has become,how about this? Last week I did some work for a local man who would be “well travelled”.He told me that in the early summer he was in a very remote part of the Andes when he encountered a local “enterprenaur” trying to sell him trinkets.The salesman asked was he English and when he was told Irish,he said that he was taught for 2 years by an Irish priest and knew “some Irish songs”.He then launched into a word perfect version of “Roddy McCorley complete with all references to “the bridge of Toome”!.Here was someone standing in a remote corner of the world,thousands of mile from home being regaled about a bridge a couple of miles from his house and a bridge he crossed multiple times every day! The salesman’s efforts were not in vain and his sterling efforts clinched a sale!

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12. fergal - September 5, 2016

A few bites of the Apple…..
– Tim Cook dismissed the ruling as ‘political crap’ yet has apparently been on the phone to Enda, and literally has had about 70% of TDs batting for him- political crap too?
– Martin Shanahan head of the IDA claims that multinationals ‘crave certainty’- but what kind of certainty? Apple were not paying anything near the 12.5% corpo rate- so, what certainty do mncs like Apple crave? The certainty not to pay anything near 12.5%
– Shanahan claims that Ireland cannot be ‘the collector general for the rest of the world’- but it can be the collector general for Apple’s profits from all over the world!
-He also suggested that we have made changes over the last number of years to the tax regime- only under pressure from the OECD, the US treasury, and perhpas Brussels- We have also introduced another tax dodge called ‘knowledge toolbox’- not to talk of the Vulture funds and section 110

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Jim Monaghan - September 7, 2016

The Apple deal is disgusting. Though I do get fed up of certain people across the water who never mention the tax avoidance etc. that is the City of London and associated tax havens. What is there to stop these companies using small countries and indeed big ones in a competition to win the race to the bottom.
Replies from Lexiters and Eirexiters.
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article38913

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13. CMK - September 5, 2016
14. Gewerkschaftler - September 5, 2016

Varoufakis on the options for Europe’s Lefts after Brexit.

He favours ‘disobedience within the EU’ over Lexit.

Consider the profound difference between the following two situations. First, the European Union establishment threatens progressive, democratically elected governments with expulsion when they refuse to obey its authoritarian incompetence. Second, progressive national parties campaign alongside the xenophobic right for exit.

This is the difference between clashing with the EU establishment in a manner that preserves the spirit of internationalism, demands pan-European action, and differentiates us fully from the xenophobic right, and walking hand-in-hand with nationalisms — and, inescapably, reinforcing their hegemony — while allowing the European Union to portray the Left as indistinguishable from the likes of Nigel Farage and Marine Le Pen.

and furthermore

This left-wing objection to a pan-European movement defies understanding. In effect, it argues that supranational democracy cannot exist because a demos must be characterized by national and cultural homogeneity. I can just imagine Marx’s rage at hearing this! Just as I can imagine how puzzled it would leave the left-wing internationalists who dreamed of — and struggled for — a transnational republic.

The Left, lest we forget, has traditionally opposed the bourgeois belief in a one-to-one relationship between a nation and a sovereign parliament. The Left countered that identity is created through political struggle, whether it be class struggle, postcolonial struggle, the struggle against patriarchy, the struggle to smash gender and sexual stereotypes, and so on.

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15. Gewerkschaftler - September 5, 2016

More advances for the xenophobic, nationalist right in northern Germany.

In many ways Meclenberg-Vorpommern is core AfD territory. A long tradition of (neo)Nazism since the betrayals of German unification, low wages, high job insecurity – massive depopulation (400,000 have left the region since unification) .

They did as well as expected in the elections on Sunday becoming the second largest party in the regional parliament.

Where did they get their votes?

About 35% were non-voters
Followed by voters for the explicitly Nazi party (NPD – who didn’t get into the parliament)
Followed by voters in this order from:
CDU
SPD
Die Linke

The likely coalition is led by the SPD supported by the CDU.

Die Linke lost badly with many of its voters without and Abitur (roughly leaving cert) or higher leaving for the AfD.

The Greens also lost their position in the Parliament. They mostly have an honourable track record of not bending to the racist, anti-immigrant right, and paid the price.

That being said, the losses in Die Linke, who gave no ground to the AfD, were not greater than other parties like the CDU and to an extend the SPD who have allowed their agendas to be set by the AfD.

The MSM and the CDU/CSU continue to allow all the talk to be about the AfD and refugees.

It could have been worse. Let see if the campaigns against the AfD in Berlin have some effect in the coming elections there in two weeks time.

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Gewerkschaftler - September 5, 2016

were non-voters -> were previously non-voters

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FergusD - September 5, 2016

I think, from media reports, that many previous non-voters voted for the fist time in the UK EU referendum and voted for Brexit. Those on the TV said they felt it gave them real power, presumably they felt elections did not. Given the choices on offer the were probably right!

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WorldbyStorm - September 5, 2016

But where do they go next?

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16. Michael Carley - September 6, 2016

Amazingly, there is still a market for articles claiming that nobody talks about the crimes of communism or accepts their enormity:

Western public opinion has never come to terms with the crimes of Communism. Every school child knows about the Holocaust, Apartheid, and American slavery, as they should. But Pol Pot’s murder of a quarter of Cambodia’s population has not dimmed academic enthusiasm for the Marxism his henchmen studied in Paris. Neither the Chinese Cultural Revolution nor the Great Purges seem to have cast a shadow on the leftists who apologized for them. Quite the contrary, university classes typically blame the Cold War on American “paranoia” about communism and still picture Bolsheviks as idealists in too great a hurry. Being leftwing means never having to say you’re sorry.

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-house-is-on-fire–8466

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Starkadder - September 6, 2016

Mr. Gary Saul Morson omits to mention that the Marxist Pol Pot regime was overthrown by another Marxist government.*

Also, why is Fascism /Nazism worse than Communism? This
man (who was neither) explains:

As for my politics, you will have guessed that I am not a

Fascist. Fascism does evil that evil may come. And I am not a

Communist, though perhaps I might be one if I was a younger

and braver man, for in Communism I see hope. It does many

things which I think evil, but I know that it intends good.

E. M. Forster, “Liberty In England”, 1935.

* And yes, I know Old Karl wouldn’t have approved of the
Khmer Rouge, any more than Jesus Christ would have approved of the Lord’s Resistance Army or Muhammad would have approved of Daesh.

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WorldbyStorm - September 6, 2016

Excellent and very true.

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yourcousin - September 7, 2016

I would point out that the idea of doing evil while intending good could apply to a variety of groups. The one that sprung to mind that most folks might be able to relate to would be the Catholic Church. It is not only opponents of leftism who over simplify and gloss over things.

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WorldbyStorm - September 7, 2016

That’s true enough, but in fairness Marx himself can’t be blamed for events subsequent to his death (which divided Marxists themselves) any more than Jesus could be. And Marxism or Communism are such huge bodies of thoughts with multiple currents. Anarchists individually or collectively can’t be blamed for acts by anarchists who don’t hold precisely the same views (though obviously those who do can be blamed).

And the Catholic Church itself would in this analogy be closer say to orthodox CPs which didn’t face up to the reality of acts committed (partly) in their name while they were extant.

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yourcousin - September 14, 2016

This thread is long gone but this is the first time I’ve been in front of a computer in a couple of weeks with a free moment so here we go.

My point is that here on this very site the multiple atrocities committed by let’s just keep it to Soviets are glossed over and brushed aside academically. Even the condemnations are less than full throated. Compare that to the condemnations of the Magdalene Laundries or the events up north and you see a good deal more human feeling and nuance.

That is not to say that folks are complicit or don’t care but it is all a rather abstract concept. And as such is more open to the many short comings of the human mind and experience. People cherry pick by nature, it’s what we do. Because I’ve seen threads involving soviet era artists go on for quite a while so it’s not as if folks don’t engage with those bodies or that time. And folks are more than happy to celebrate the Soviet interventions in Africa or the North Vietnamese victory. Less so in addressing what that victory has mean in terms of boat people, ethnic conflict in Vietnam and the lack of free unions to this very day. I’m not trying to be a western apologist (though I’m sure I’m often viewed as such) but treating “The West” as if it is/was one giant monolithic structure that IS the empire is extraordinarily simplistic. And in the same breath as condemning the western empire first and foremost there is sometimes by omission and commission a defense of truly deplorable regimes and states.

Syria is the perfect example of that debacle and blind spot. Because for the most part the US has taken a hands off approach to Syria and other actors have stepped into the vacuum. So the reality of chemical weapons used on civilian populations, starvation used as a weapon and the purposeful targeting of hospitals goes by largely unremarked on.

I’m not saying that Marx or his adherents are responsible for the extreme zealots, but the idea of hear no evil, see no evil is alive and well and all sides of this debate. And as this site is “for lefties” they will be the ones I’m calling out here.

Disclaimer
I live in a world of right wing idiots. I see them every day and I see them tearing each other down over the smallest and pettiest things. The very idea of solidarity in the workplace is foreign to these people. So I’m not calling out the John Birch society here on CLR, as they would never see my critique (nor would they care).

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CMK - September 14, 2016

I think the day that the British House of Commons comes out with a report that basically vindicates everything the Left said about the intervention in Libya in 2011, is not a great day to be ‘calling out’ the Left over the Syrian catastrophe. The USSR is gone and is not coming back. The USA is still here and killing people every day and looks like it has decades if not centuries of killing left to do. I understand that right wing idiots in the US can’t will never engage in any critical scrutiny of the US and its foreign interventions, but the US Left surely should?

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yourcousin - September 18, 2016

CMK,
Every day is a good day to call bullshit. The problem of having the “US left” focus on strictly US imperialism is that it rarely goes beyond, “hands off [insert country]”. It also assumes an a priori sin. It doesn’t care too much about contextualization, history, or nuance.

We can discuss the Libya report if you would like, but your comment jumps right into what aboutery.

I would also point out that and this gets back to my other comment that “hands off” doesn’t always mean less loss of life.

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RosencrantzisDead - September 18, 2016

Because for the most part the US has taken a hands off approach to Syria and other actors have stepped into the vacuum.

Only saw this now, but this is not correct. The US has been involved in training Syrian opposition and has been allocating about a $1bn in funds to arm and supply said groups since 2012. Since 2014, they have been engaged in airstrikes against positions in Syria (largely Da’esh, I believe).

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17. Michael Carley - September 6, 2016

John Harris on whether or not the left has a future. Some of it is very good, though I’m sure we’d all find plenty to disagree with:

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/06/does-the-left-have-a-future

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18. Torheit - September 6, 2016

DiEM25 voting on what’s effectively a constitution.

Diem25 claim 23 thousand members and members are voting on an interesting constitution which includes elements of local autonomy, elected executive council, direct electronic democracy, and a body elected by electronic lottery from all those interested (50% male, 50% female, with neithers assigned randomly to the female / male lists).

I believe the last time election by lottery was tried was in ancient Greece. I’m sure historians of democracy will correct me on that!

Unfortunately you seem to have to become a member to vote (seems logical) or read the final draft (perhaps not so), as far as I can make out. You can join electronically here. Free as in beer and speech.

Yours untruly is a member and I’m somewhat fascinated to find out how all this will work in practice. They seem to have learned a thing or two from the Pirate parties.

But hurry – get them while they’re hot – the voting closes on the 12th of September!

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Torheit - September 6, 2016

I forgot to mention that there are face-to-face local groups with a lot of autonomy.

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dublinstreams - September 6, 2016

where is the information on this? direct link?

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ar scáth a chéile - September 7, 2016

Click the sentence ” You can join electronically here. Free as in beer and speech.” for the link Dublinstreams – the thingymajig link

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dublinstreams - September 7, 2016

that just gives link to the main site where are the details on what they are voting on, direct link pls?

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Gewerkschaftler - September 7, 2016

I did a quick gargle search and found this.

I don’t know whether it is up to date and the one on which DiEM25 members would be voting.

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Torheit - September 7, 2016

No that version is different from the current one being voted on by members.

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19. sonofstan - September 18, 2016

In a piece which begins with a faux- apology for the shortcomings of the mainstream media, Carol Cadwalladr comes out with this:

“It’s less than a week until the result of the most contentious leadership election in the [Labour] party’s history”

Really?

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