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Under communism, there is no such thing as private property. The country was hysterical over communism after World War II when Stalin was gobbling up the small countries in Europe. In fact, the Vietnam and Korean wars were fought to stop the march of communism in the world. But we should not fear communism because Russia has already proved it doesnt work.

Consensus needed for socialism

According to history, socialism is less rigid but makes changes through democratic practices, which means that a significant majority of the people must support the idea or the politicians wont pass it.

People who live in fear of socialism simply do not understand democracy. They believe that somehow they will wake up some morning and socialism will be everywhere. The governmental system in the United States, with all of its vertical and horizontal checks and balances, requires years of consideration before anything gets adopted.

Case in point: the greatest need in our society is a medical program that will stop all of the illness and death suffered by people who cant afford coverage. This was brought up by President Harry Truman almost 100 years ago and we are still talking, talking and talking about it.

Socialism or meeting needs

Most folks in America were around when President Barack Obama threw the Hail Mary that fell way short of providing universal medical care. The plan was full of compromises and in need of repair. So people are still dying.

We already have some significant socialism because it was not considered socialism but responses to pressing needs. The Great Depression of the 1930s told us that we needed Social Security; then we needed medical care for the elderly; then we needed minimal medical aid for the poor. Each as the need became apparent.

The volatility of the agriculture industry brought farmers a safety net, which they deny is socialism, but socialism by any other name is still socialism. In fact, our farming industry was born when the federal government handed out free land to settlers and the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Socialism slow and incremental

If we looked back at our history, the socialism we have adopted has been slow and incremental. Thats the way American democracy works. There will never be a sudden junking of free capitalism, so sleep peacefully.

Socialism is no stranger to North Dakota. Many of those now frightened by socialism are the same ones who proudly tell out-of-staters about the state-owned largest mill in the Northern Hemisphere and the most prosperous bank west of Minneapolis.

In the minds of some, any form of socialism is evil. It takes a degree of selfishness to arrive at that conclusion because most of the socialism we have adopted to date has created a sense of community. It shows that we care about the needs and problems of others.

Increasing care for others

Actually, this country is so rich that we can afford to increase our care for others by building our national community to include more and better health care, social security, education, infrastructure, retraining, health research and whatever else we think is a pressing need.

Many people in America are in need of more socialism. This is no time to yell that the sky is falling.

In the final analysis, we will be judged more on our compassion for others than the purity of our economic system.

Lloyd Omdahl is a former professor at UND and state lieutenant governor.

Link:
Lloyd Omdahl: Community, socialism are the same thing - Grand Forks Herald

Oscar Figuera is the general secretary of theVenezuelan Communist Party[PCV]. As a 17-year-old metal worker in Aragua state, he cut his teeth as a union organizer in the Venezuelan Workers Unitary Central [CUTV, the PCV-led union federation], becoming the unions general secretary in 1986. Today, Figuera is a member of the National Assembly [2016-2020 term]. In this exclusive interview, Figuera talks to VA about both the recent transformations of Venezuelan capitalism and thePopular Revolutionary Alternative, a broad coalition that aims to regroup leftwing Chavista forces in a front that is independent from thePSUV.

In 2018 the PCV, the [Homeland For All party]PPT, and all other parties of theGreat Patriotic Pole[GPP] supported Nicolas Maduros presidential campaign. However, in recent months the PCV, the PPT, and other political organizations joined forces to create the Popular Revolutionary Alternative [APR]. This electoral coalition will present independent candidates for the December 6 parliamentary elections. What has changed in Venezuelan politics since 2018 and what can you tell us about the APR?

First, I should say that the APR is not an electoral initiative, although in its current configuration it is triggered by the upcoming elections. This is a project with a strategic projection that must reach beyond the electoral process. For us, the electoral process is a tactical opportunity to regroup forces, revolutionary currents, and other expressions of grassroots Chavismo. Its about building a space for the joint construction of a popular agenda.

In fact, the APR is an outgrowth of prior coalitions such as the Popular Revolutionary Bloc [Bloque Popular Revolucionario] and the Patriotic Anti-imperialist Alliance [Alianza Patriotica Anti-imperialista]. The objective of the APR and its precursors is bringing together the working-class, campesino, and communard forces in a revolutionary way.

In other words, our strategic objective is not the December 6 elections, but regrouping the popular revolutionary currents that identify themselves with Chavezs most advanced proposals.

We have been careful in our way of proceeding because we see imperialism as the main enemy of the Venezuelan people, and that is why we supported Maduros 2018 presidential bid. But the truth is that, beyond the capitalist crisis, the exhaustion of the Venezuelan dependent rentier model [of economic development], and the impact of the imperialist siege, there is plenty of evidence pointing to a real political shift in the project of the governing forces [in Venezuela].

Chavezs death was a tremendous blow to the Bolivarian Process. In fact, it affected the whole continent and I would say the globe but obviously the biggest and hardest impact was on the Venezuelan project.

The progressive processes that came to power in Latin America over the last couple of decades were reformist and social-democratic in character. The processes had a low ceiling, and when they reached it, they began to slide back. Nonetheless, Chavezs discourse gave the Bolivarian Process some elements that set it apart from the other processes [n the continent].

Why? Because Chavez, despite socialism not being built, was convinced that socialism was the path. Today, Chavista politicians talk about socialism in a rote way, but they are not committed to it. Government officials disassociate discourse and practice: they talk about socialism and national liberation, but in real terms the political and economic policies have a liberal bourgeois character.

So, at the end of the day, the class character of the current government differs from that of Chavezs government.

Our confrontation with the government is not personal. We have no problem with the governments representatives, taken one at a time In fact, those who fall into a personalist approach to politics hurt the popular movement by erasing the class character of the confrontation.

Class contradictions, which express themselves in the political and ideological projects, have become more acute. That is why, on the one hand, the PCV calls for a process of demarcation, regrouping, and confrontation when it comes to Venezuelas internal issues. On the other hand, we call for maintaining unity on the anti-imperialist front.

Yes, and this connects to your previous question. The fracture is not new. Here I will speak on behalf of the PCV. One of the first important differences that we had with the government in its current incarnation is that it considers socialism a matter of speech: its not about doing, its about saying. This is not a new issue.

In our partys XV Congress [2017] we decided that, in order to advance, we had to confront the government, define our separate objectives, and accumulate strength. Why did we formulate this orientation? Because we believe that the Venezuelan political project is moving backward, that the strategic project of national liberation and building up to advance towards socialism is broken. We are retreating, and that is only useful for the recomposition of capital.

After that congress, during the 2018 presidential campaign, we had a very heated debate about whether our party should support Nicolas Maduros candidacy. Concerns ranged from the governments economic, labor, and social policies to the existence of rampant corruption and bureaucratism. Further issues were the curtailing of participative and protagonistic democracy as well as the state (and semi-state) control mechanisms that had been put in place to limit the scope of popular organization, or sometimes even liquidate it.

After two days of intense debate, the Communist Party came to the decision that we would support Maduros presidential candidacy only if abinding agreementwas signed. The binding agreement committed the government to opposing monopolies, reinstating labor rights, and reversing the agrarian policies underway, among other things. In other words, we drafted a document that pointed the way to national liberation, always with socialism as the [ultimate] goal. On February 28, 2018, Nicolas Maduro signed that agreement.

Yet, the government rapidly broke the deal after Maduros election. It did so by continuing to implement liberal economic policies and through anti-democratic practices. In the current electoral context, this left us with two options: continuing to endorse a strategic project that goes against the interests of the masses, our principles, and Chavezs own project; or we could build a popular alternative. We opted for the second possibility.

That is where the APR comes from. It is committed to national liberation and socialism while confronting tame reformism, fascism, and imperialism.

On August 17 the PCV, the PPT, and other organizations officially launched the APR in a press conference, telling the nation that the APR would have one single, independent electoral list for the National Assembly elections. Four days later, Venezuelas Supreme Courtintervenedthe PPT, the second largest force in the APR, imposing an ad hoc leadership that was willing to participate in an electoral coalition with the PSUV. What can we make of all this?

The Supreme Court meddling in the internal affairs of the PPT is an expression of the class struggle underway. Venezuela is a capitalist country and, as a consequence, the state has a bourgeois character. Furthermore, in the last few years, there has been a change: a new bourgeois nucleus has emerged within the government or in a tight relationship with it. We are talking about a new sector of the bourgeoisie, which employs a socialist discourse, but needs the bourgeois state to continue if it is to maintain its newly-acquired wealth and social privileges.

Many people who got to power with Chavez in 98, most of them from middle-class sectors, have joined this bourgeoisie. Their class condition has changed and, in the process, their conscience has shifted. We find the roots of this in the fact that a truly revolutionary organization, capable of directing the Bolivarian Process, did not emerge.

Among the forces in the government, the Supreme Court expresses the interests of those who exercise power now, both political and economic. To retain its [economic] privileges, the enriched sector needs a united electoral ticket, even if that means taking control, through judicial intervention, of a Chavista party like the PPT.

Nonetheless, the APR will go forward, both as a long-term joint project and as an electoral front for the December elections. Of course, the newly-configured PPT will endorse the candidatures imposed by the PSUV, but the APR will present its bid for the National Assembly composed of [the core of the] PPT, the PCV, and all the grassroots, communard, and Chavista organizations that have joined forces.

In the APR, there are no bosses. We are building a common space. As it turns out, only the PCV has a viable ballot [due to the TSJs intervention of the PPT], but the candidates that will appear on our ballot represent an alliance with forces that have a revolutionary perspective and share strategic objectives.

In other words, little has changed in the APR since the Supreme Court intervened in the PPT: there is still the collective appreciation that the Bolivarian Process needs to correct its course. The governments liberal turn is not going to resolve the crisis that affects the destitute masses. Our collective belief is that the APR must express the interests of the dispossessed sectors in these elections and beyond.

You talk about the governments liberal turn. Could you be more precise?

The PSUV not its bases, but its direction is rapidly advancing towards the liberalization of the economy in order to guarantee the recomposition of capitalism. This means that privatizations are in vogue, collective bargaining eliminated, and workers rights to organize curtailed, while the minimum salary remains under US $2 a month. Meanwhilecampesinos whose right to vacant lands was recognized by Chavez are violently displaced and the land given to new and oldterratenientes[large landowners].

We also see a tendency toward the judicialization of struggles. Campesinos, communards, and workers are put behind bars, while corrupt officials are free and fascists are granted presidential pardons. The case of PDVSA workersAryenis Torrealba and Alfredo Chirinosis emblematic: they were arrested more than six months ago under bogus charges. Their real crime? They were denouncing important corruption schemes in PDVSA. To this day they remain jailed with no due process.

What is the goal of the electoral struggle at this time? Is the idea to pressure the government? To build a left opposition?

In the Bolivarian Process, elections became the main form of struggle and for the time being, this remains so. The way in which class struggle develops will determine if other forms of struggle emerge.

For us, the December elections are also a tactical moment in the process of regrouping and accumulation of forces. Additionally, elections are a space for ideological struggle. This is all the more important at a time when large swaths of the population are willing to listen. Of course, there are sectarian groups that shut themselves from debate, but there undoubtedly exists a thirst for a popular alternative within Chavismo.

Elections are a space to promote the ideological debate, present proposals, and contrast the programs of each organization. Elections are useful to bring together and recompose forces, and that is precisely what the APR is looking to do. Finally, the National Assembly is also a tribune to defend the interests of the Venezuelan pueblo in the face of liberal reformism in power while denouncing the imperialist aggression.

It is no secret that there are large cracks or rifts within the Bolivarian Process. Without personalizing the matter, who is responsible for the rifts between the Bolivarian government and a wide swath of the popular movement, which includes the PCV?

Lets go from the general to the particular. The roots of the rupture can be found in the growing class contradictions inside the Bolivarian Process, which widen as the crisis of the dependent, rentier capitalism here pushes more and more of the population into frankly catastrophic conditions.

This is precisely why we dont personalize the situation. Its not about X or Y doing this or that. Its about the class interests within an organization. Each class fraction has a political expression, and those political expressions confront each other. Personalizing these issues hides the essence of the contradiction.

At the end of the day, we dont know what will happen, but it will be decided by the correlation of forces within the class struggle.

Today, it is common to say that in Venezuela we need unity, using a fortress under siege analogy, because of the real danger that US imperialism poses to Venezuelas sovereignty. How do the APR and the PCV understand unity in this difficult situation?

Ill talk about the PCVs conception, since the APR is still under construction and there are ongoing debates.

The PCV understands unity on two levels. On the one hand, there must be an ample anti-imperialist and antifascist alliance, and we understand that that should be the role of the Great Patriotic Pole [GPP]. Instead of attempting to liquidate other patriotic forces, the GPP should be a space for the collective preservation of our sovereignty. Differences at the national level shouldnt be cause for liquidation. In fact, the GPP has great potential to forge a wide anti-imperialist and antifascist alliance.

On the other hand, there is the need to build a revolutionary unity on the basis of the class interests of the working class, ofcampesinos, communards, and other popular sectors. Building this kind of unity is urgent so that revolutionary organizations dont become an appendix of tame reformism.

We have to come together in the context of the anti-imperialist struggle while, at a national level, we must confront the tendencies that want to liberalize the economy.

The APR is precisely the space for building the revolutionary unity of the working class,campesinos, communards, and popular masses, which should also incorporate revolutionary intellectuals and honest sectors of the armed forces.

SOURCE: https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14994

Go here to read the rest:
Pursuing National Liberation and Socialism: A Conversation with Oscar Figuera - CounterPunch

For some strange reason, the Chicken Littles of the world have become terrified by the idea that socialism is just over the hill for the United States. The most frightened even throw in communism as though it was synonymous with socialism.

Under communism, there is no such thing as private property. The country was hysterical over communism after World War II when Stalin was gobbling up the small countries in Europe. In fact, the Vietnam and Korean wars were fought to stop the march of communism in the world. But we should not fear communism because Russia has already proved it doesnt work.

Consensus Needed for Socialism

According to the History, socialism is less rigid but makes changes through democratic practices, which means that a significant majority of the people must support the idea or the politicians wont pass it.

People who live in fear of socialism simply do not understand democracy. They believe that somehow they will wake up some morning and socialism will be everywhere. The governmental system in the United States, with all of its vertical and horizontal checks and balances, requires years of consideration before anything gets adopted.

Case in point: the greatest need in our society is a medical program that will stop all of the illness and death suffered by people who cant afford coverage. This was brought up by President Harry Truman almost 100 years ago and we are still talking, talking and talking about it.

Socialism or Meeting Needs

Most folks in America were around when President Barack Obama threw the Hail Mary that fell way short of providing universal medical care. The plan was full of compromises and in need of repair. So people are still dying.

We already have some significant socialism because it was not considered socialism but responses to pressing needs. The Great Depression of the 1930s told us that we needed Social Security; then we needed medical care for the elderly; then we needed minimal medical aid for the poor. Each as the need became apparent.

The volatility of the agriculture industry brought farmers a safety net which they deny is socialism but socialism by any other name is still socialism. In fact, our farming industry was born when the federal government handed out free land to settlers and the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Socialism Slow & Incremental

If we looked back at our history, the socialism we have adopted has been slow and incremental. Thats the way American democracy works. There will never be a sudden junking of free capitalism so sleep peacefully.

Socialism is no stranger to North Dakota. Many of those now frightened by socialism are the same ones who proudly tell out-of-staters about the state-owned largest mill in the Northern Hemisphere and the most prosperous bank west of Minneapolis.

In the minds of some, any form of socialism is evil. It takes a degree of selfishness to arrive at that conclusion because most of the socialism we have adopted to date has created a sense of community. It shows that we care about the needs and problems of others.

Increasing Care for Others

Actually, this country is so rich that we can afford to increase our care for others by building our national community to include more and better health care, social security, education, infrastructure, retraining, health research and whatever else we think is a pressing need.

Many people in America are in need of more socialism. This is no time to yell that the sky is falling.

In the final analysis, we will be judged more on our compassion for others than the purity of our economic system.

Continue reading here:
Guest Columnist: Community and Socialism are the same - The Bowman Extra

FOX Business Stuart Varney argues socialists are pushing the Biden campaign to the left.

What's the most important and powerful group within the Democratic Party? Unions? Not these days. Blue-dog, conservative Democrats? No, they've almost disappeared.

Moderates, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? Well, I don't think she's that moderate. No, the people who are increasingly calling the shots are the socialists.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezwill push a Harris-Biden sorry, Biden-Harris administration to full socialism.

Same with Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said: "Joe Biden will become the most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And that, in this moment, is what we need."

STATE STRIKES DEAL TO HIKE TAXES ON RICHEST RESIDENTS, SPARKING EXODUS FEARS

What's happening here is the far left seizing an opportunity. The polls are tightening in Mr. Trump's favor, and they blame what they see as Biden's "moderation."

They think the way to win is to pound the "income inequality" theme. With Jeff Bezos worth around $200 billionandMichael Speiser making $11 billion on Snowflake, they think blasting the billionaires is a winner.

After all, socialism made Bernie the standout in the primaries. Socialism got AOC elected. Socialism allowed The Squad to expand

I don't think this will help Joe Biden. I think it would hurt him. But either way, you are looking at a sea change in the Democratic Party. Six months ago, we had a world-beating economy with incomes rising dramatically across the board, and unemployment at record lows for every racial and ethnic group in the country. Who would have thought that the Democrats would counter that with socialism?

That's my opinion.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Adapted from Stuart Varney's "My Take"monologue on "Varney & Co." on Sept. 17, 2020.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

See the rest here:
Varney: Socialists increasingly call the shots in the Democratic Party - Fox Business

A statement by David North, chairman of the International Editorial Board David North 18 September 2020

On Friday, October 2, 2020, the World Socialist Web Sitewill be relaunched with an entirely new design and with vastly enhanced functionality. The launch will take place simultaneously in the over 20 languages in which the WSWS is published.

The changes that are being introduced are the outcome of an intensive review, spanning more than a year, of all aspects of the WSWS. Throughout this lengthy process, our central concern has been the development of the World Socialist Web Site as the focal point, in the international struggle for socialism, of theoretical education, political analysis, cultural enlightenment and the revolutionary organization of the working class.

Driving the WSWS relaunch have been two powerful and interacting objective factors: first, the explosive development of the global crisis of the world capitalist system; second, the escalation of the international class struggle. The interaction of these fundamental processes, accelerated by the global pandemic, confronts the World Socialist Web Site, as the political organ of the International Committee of the Fourth International, with immense challenges and responsibilities.

The most direct impact of the global crisis and the escalation of class struggle has been a substantial growth in the readership of the WSWS. The total number of page views so far this year exceeds 20 million. By the time of the relaunch on October 2, the number of page views during the first nine months of 2020 will have surpassed the total number reached in all of 2019.

This increase in readership has been achieved despite the unrelenting efforts of governments and the social media conglomerates to censor and restrict public access to the WSWS. In fact, every surge in WSWS readershipas, for example, when an article posted on the WSWS in August was viewed more than 100,000 times in a single dayis followed almost immediately by the intensification of corporate censorship.

As its readership has grown, the World Socialist Web Site has come to play an increasingly central role in the struggles of the working class. This development requires not only more extensive news coverage. The WSWS must assist the growing mass movement by providing the Marxist theoretical guidance and political perspective required to transform the spontaneous eruptions of social opposition into a class conscious and internationally coordinated revolutionary struggle for socialism.

In whatever part of the world they live, workers require detailed knowledge of the international economic and political conditions within which their struggles are unfolding. They must be able to follow and establish contact with the movement of the working class beyond the borders of their own country. And, above all, they must be able to draw upon the strategic lessons derived from the historical experience of the class struggle and the fight for socialism. The relaunching of the World Socialist Web Site will be a milestone in meeting these needs in a new period of revolutionary upsurge.

The most significant features of the new World Socialist Web Site are:

Readers entering the site via a cell phone or tablet will have access to the full scope of the WSWSs content in the appropriate viewing format.

It also consists of a vast collection of documents relating to the entire history of the Trotskyist movement since the founding of the Left Opposition in the Soviet Union in 1923. This critical historical material has been assembled in curated page areas that are easily accessed.

The relaunched WSWS has been designed to encourage and facilitate a dynamic interaction between past and present. Readers will be able to navigate the site, as motivated by their interests, from contemporary to historical events. The same thematic approach has been taken to the presentation of major and persistent contemporary topics (i.e., the malignant growth of social inequality, the defense of Julian Assange, the struggle against imperialist war, the threat of authoritarianism and fascism, the impact of climate change, and many other important issues).

The relaunched site integrates the two essential characteristics of the World Socialist Web Site: the breadth of its news coverage and the depth of its theoretical and historical foundations.

This announcement of the relaunch would not be complete without acknowledging the tireless efforts of the cadre of the International Committee of the Fourth International and the unstinting support of so many thousands of devoted readers of the World Socialist Web Site.

The relaunch of the World Socialist Web Site on October 2, 2020 will prove to be a historical advance in the struggle to put an end to capitalism and establish an international socialist society.

Google is blocking the World Socialist Web Site from search results.

To fight this blacklisting:

See original here:
Announcing the Relaunch of the World Socialist Web Site on October 2, 2020 - WSWS