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If the Greatest Generation abdicated its responsibilities of saving the world from the grip of communism, socialism, fascism and related groups whose sole purpose is to subjugate free people, the historical importance of their sacrifice is quickly losing its significance.

Am I filled with animosity and disgust with Americas acceptance of this takeover? Absolutely!

I have been to the grave of Uncle Walt in Arlington who was killed in France a month before the Armistice in 1918.

Cousin Bills remains were never recovered as his aircraft was shot down by the enemy over the Pacific in 1943.

A number of my relatives served honorably during World War II followed by me, my brother and brother-in law.

To serve in the United States military was an experience that most of todays men and women will never realize, and this, in large part, explains Americas demise without a shot being fired.

Im certain that many families have similar stories and Ill use this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you for your service.

What I wont do is to accept the non-involvement of many of my country men and women as they watch their country slide into the abyss of a socialistic government.

Are we up to the challenge or have we already lost? It may be the most important decision of your life.

Gene A. Weinfurther, Beaver

Read more from the original source:
Letter to the Editor: Country is sliding into socialist abyss - The Times

Reading Time: 3 minutes

One of our supporters recently asked us: Capitalist governments around the world are doing a terrible job handling COVID-19, but what would socialists do instead? We answer below.**

Early this year, it became apparent that the world was facing a global crisis with the spread of the novel coronavirus causing Covid-19.

In countries which had faced the earlier SARS epidemic, quarantine measures were introduced early and the spread of the disease was limited relatively quickly. But elsewhere the ruling class delayed action, to avoid hurting profits. In countries like Sweden and the UK, lives were sacrificed in the name of a disastrous policy of herd immunity.

When quarantines have been introduced, capitalism has left people cut off from basic necessities, particularly in the neocolonial world. From Brazil to India, a common refrain has been We are more afraid of hunger than of Covid-19.

Healthcare systems globally have been underfunded by capitalist governments wanting to slash public spending. Shortages of hospital beds and equipment have led to thousands of unnecessary deaths.

Australia has avoided these nightmare scenarios, but not by much. Shutdown measures didnt begin until 47 days after the first Australian case. By the time a national policy came into effect, there were more than 200 cases. Scott Morrison famously waited until after a Hillsong conference attracting thousands of people before banning large public gatherings.

Lockdowns were seen as a trade-off for public safety at the expense of profit, and governments rule in the interests of profit. But the more far-sighted parts of the ruling class saw economic and political dangers in letting the virus spread.

State governments in New South Wales and Victoria placed pressure on the Morrison government, which was desperate to regain some credibility after an appalling bushfire season. This led to the formation of a National Cabinet, to put on a unified face and implement a national shutdown.

Measures were introduced in a careless way. Restrictions on movement forced people in remote communities to choose between risking arrest and going without essential groceries. And when panic-buying broke out, it was left up to individual supermarkets to ration goods. They responded with price-gouging and haphazard rationing that left many unable to find the basics.

The needs of ordinary people were not taken into account, because ordinary people did not have a real say in how to deal with these issues.

While state and federal governments argued over whether or not to shut down schools, by mid-March school attendance dropped by 50% in Victoria and 25% in NSW. Limited strike actions took place at a Laverton warehouse over the lack of personal protective equipment, and at the DPP World terminal in Melbourne over a breach of quarantine.

People were discussing lockdown measures long before they came into effect. They were quoting epidemiologists and pointing to the unfolding disasters in places like Italy and the US. But these discussions were mostly limited to social media and private conversations.

If working people had their own democratic committees through which to make policy, the pandemic would have unfolded very differently. This is how it would work in a socialist society. Workers would make decisions democratically, informed by their own experiences and needs. We would be able to use the best expert advice for halting the pandemic because there would be no profit incentive for us to ignore or sideline scientific advice.

We could allocate resources to human needs, such as healthcare and safety equipment for essential workers. Hospital administrators have long raised alarm bells about the capacity of the healthcare system, and both Liberal and Labor governments have seen healthcare spending fail to keep up with societys needs.

There is enough wealth in society to avoid this, but it is locked up in profits. Socialism would unleash this wealth for the benefit of all.

Living wages could be provided to everyone while all but the most essential workplaces were shut down. There would be no forced choice between poverty or being safe from the virus.

But more than this, a socialist society would already have taken measures against the root cause of this outbreak: capitalisms impact on the natural world.

Epidemics like Covid-19, as well as SARS, MERS, Ebola and the Hendra virus before it, are rooted in the behaviour of capitalist agribusiness. As land is cleared and animals are farmed more intensively, humans are pushed more and more into contact with novel viruses.

A socialist approach is one where working-class people run society together. Without the profit motive, we would develop a different relationship with the natural world. We would be able to respond more quickly to disasters, and have more resources available to support people through it. This is how socialism would address a pandemic.

Read the original here:
Ask The Socialist: How would socialists deal with the pandemic? - The Socialist

On Tuesday, Boston city officials voted to remove its Emancipation Memorial from public land. The statue, which depicts Abraham Lincoln and a kneeling freed slave,has been situated in a popular park near Boston Common since 1879.

Since the tragic death of George Floyd, far-left activists across the country have been demanding cities, states, universities and private property owners strip their land and institutions of all statues and other honors that allegedly depict racism or celebrate people who held views considered to be racist, even the Great Emancipator himself, Lincoln.

Although some of these protesters say their motivation is racial justice and equality under the lawgoals everyone should embracethe reality is that many of the leaders calling for the destruction of statues like the Emancipation Memorial are motivated by Marxist and socialist ideology, not by a well-meaning pursuit of racial harmony.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: IN MONUMENT CONTROVERSY, COLLEGES' HYPOCRISY IS ON FULL DISPLAY

Thisisnta theory.Itsa well-established fact.

For example,in June, a video surfaced showing Black Lives Matter co-founderPatrisse Cullorsadmitting she and other members of the organization aretrained Marxists.Additionally, the Movement for Black Lives, a well-funded Black Lives Matter organization,bluntlystates on itswebsite, We are anti-capitalist.We believe and understand that Black people will never achieve liberation under the current global racialized capitalist system.

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Its Marxists desire to overthrow capitalism and paint Americaalong withall ofits founding principles and beliefsas hateful and racist that is really motivating so many of the most radical rioters across the country. Racial justice is merely the faade behind which Marxists are hiding.

The destruction of the Emancipation Memorialillustrates just how unimportant racial equality really is tothe Marxist leaders of thesegroups.

TheBostonstatueis a copy of the famed Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C., which protesters are also attempting to tear down.It celebrates the end of slavery and Lincolns role in helping that momentous achievement occur.

Incredibly, freed slaves paid for the Washingtonstatue, and Frederick Douglass, one of the most important black civil rights leaders in American history, delivered aspeechat the memorials dedication in 1876, during which he said the memorial was a good work for our race because, in part, building the statue was doing honor to the memory of our friend and liberator. He also said the statue would provide the highest honors to ourselves and those who come after us.

How can a statue celebrating the emancipation of slavery, paid for by former slaves and dedicated by one of the most important black leaders in historyhimself a former slaveever be considered racist against blacks?

Vandalizing and beheading statues of George Washington,burning down police stations, looting department storesand removing memorials built by former slaves serve no purposeforthose whotruly careabout racism and seek racial equality. They are, however, quite useful actions for those who wishto foment a socialist revolution.

The most obvious explanation for the growing socialist movement in the United Statesis that, for decades, socialists and progressives havebeen in charge ofAmericas public schools and colleges.

The real cause for concern hereisntthat there are radical leftists whowant to destroy the American way of life. Theyhave had a presence in the United States for more than a century.The most disturbing aspect of these events is that so many well-meaning people have been duped intojoining them andhave beenconvinced thatour countryhas never been anything other than a bastion of hate, racism and greed, and that the only way to right those wrongs is to eliminate capitalism.

The most obvious explanation for the growing socialist movement in the United Statesis that, for decades, socialists and progressives havebeen in charge ofAmericas public schools and colleges. They have taught historical revisionism, rejected the value of free-market capitalism and done everything in their power to indoctrinate a whole generation of young people into believing our nations founding principles are rotten to the core.

In study after study, researchers have shown there is a strong slant to the left in education, and the further one pursues education, the worse the bias gets. Neil Gross, a self-confessed left-wing academic who has argued extensively (and unconvincingly) that professors are not indoctrinating kids,reportsthat professors are about three times more liberal on average than other U.S. adults.

Gross also says that just 4 percent of higher-ed faculty are economic conservatives, while 50 percent can be classified as being on the left. (Gross says 23 percent could be classified as social or pro-military conservatives.)

Education attheK12 levelisntmuch better. A 2017studyby the Education Week Research Centerfoundjustone-quarter of teachers, principals and superintendents identifyas Republican.

And these figures only scratch the surface. Left-wing teachers unionswhich hold significant political power that they use to impact local, state and national public policy, including curriculum standardsare closely aligned with Democrats and liberal organizations.

In the201920 election cycle,more than 99 percent ofthe American Federation of Teachers political contributions went to Democrats or liberal groups.

With these biases in mind,itsno wonder that America has been slowly transformed into a nation that would tolerate the desecration of its greatest heroes, most of whom would be classified as conservative by todays standards.

Nor should it be surprising that about half of all young peoplenowsay they have a favorable view of socialism, despite its long and tragic history of failure, starvation,oppressionand bloodshed.

What is truly mystifying, though, is that Republicans have known about this problem for a half-century andhavedone virtually nothing to fix it.

Curriculum standards and college faculty are still controlled by leftists, even in the most conservative states.

Right-leaningorganizations have beendeveloping andcalling for school choice programs formany years, yet few substantial programs exist in most of the United States, including in areas long controlled by Republicans.

Republicans failurescantbe blamed on voters, either. The overwhelming majority of parentssay they support school choice programs,whether theyidentify asRepublican, Democratorindependent, and across all racial groups.

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The Republican Party has failed conservatives, libertarians and, most importantly, Americas children. And the worst part is,werejust starting to see the greatest effects of that failure.Unless our education system is completely overhauled, the problem is only going to get worse, a truly terrifying thought, indeed.

How much more chaosdoRepublican politicians need to see before they finally take action?

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY JUSTIN HASKINS

Read more from the original source:
Justin Haskins: Nationwide chaos Radical left took over this and we're all paying the price - Fox News

THE decision, narrowly reached by Labours national executive committee, to take for itself the power to change the rules by which it is constituted, is a demonstration, as if we needed one, that the character of the movements leadership is critically important.

The closely fought elections to Momentums newly empowered central body, which resulted in the victory of one slate over others, reveals to the wider world divisions which Jeremy Corbyns characteristically inclusive style and moral authority allowed to remain hidden.

Elements among the victorious and defeated tendencies in Momentums elections will find reasons for both unbounded optimism and deep pessimism.

They shouldnt. And nor should the NEC minority who thought constitutional changes which determine the leadership of the party should be made by conference.

To borrow a phrase these things are of the moment, and the constantly changing balance of forces in the eternal tug-of-war between class struggle and class collaboration in the working class movement.

The irruption of social forces grounded in anti-austerity campaigning and the long maturing of the anti-war movement that resulted in Corbyns election, and re-election, and Labours transformative policy changes which made elections themselves more fully democratic have transformed the political landscape of Britain.

It is the recurring crises of capitalism, and the peculiar corruptions of Britains parasitic financialised economy combined with an obscene imperial alliance with US imperialism and the lesser imperial powers gathered in the EU, which move these powerful social forces into action.

There may not be a Labour policy-making assembly this year and there are forces inside Labour who would prefer policy to be the sole prerogative of the parliamentary leadership but the collective will of the hundreds of thousands of people who revived Labour is a force that cannot be ignored.

And neither can the expectations raised among millions of working people by the example of a Labour Party committed to policies which put people before profit.

Labour is to remain the biggest political organisation in Europe although perhaps not as big as the French and Italian communist parties in their heyday, or nowadays, as deeply rooted in working-class communities .

There is always a churn in political parties and some people disappointed at the actions of the present leadership over one question or another will decide to leave, hopefully to continue the struggle in other ways. Manywill find campaigns, trade union activity or political projects where they assess thatthey can make more of a difference.

Some will leap aboard the merry-go-round in which the unresolvable question of whether a new mass party of the left can be created while the Labour Party exists is periodically tested to destruction.

The battle for policy, office and position in Labour is important but pointless unless it arises from mass activity in the working class and reflects progressive changes in the minds of millions.

This newspaper is absolutely committed to the political and organisational unity of the working-class movement, to the unity of the trade union and co-operative movements with socialism.

It is loyal to socialism as the practical expression of working-class political power. It is the tribune of the working class and the platform for every legitimate trend in the working and socialist movement.

Its columns are open to debate questions which are important to the working class and which can be resolved in argument and practice. And it is equally open to some important controversies for which no immediate resolution seems possible but where principled debate is necessary.

The immediate priority is for Labour to renew its connection with the lives and struggles of Britain's working people where they live and work.

View post:
The battle for socialist ideas must be fought across the whole working-class movement, and not just the Labour Party - Morning Star Online

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In 2016, the Communist Party of China declared President Xi Jinping to be the core of the Chinese leadership. In 2018, his ideas were enshrined in the Constitution as Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Until that point, Mao Zedong, the founder of the Peoples Republic of China, the man who had created a Party and an army that had fought Chiang Kai-Shek and the Japanese, who had seized power in 1949, and who had subsequently taken on the United States and the Soviet Union, was the only leader whose thinking had been elevated to the level of Thought. Xi had reached where none of his predecessors had gone before. He had achieved parity with Chairman Mao. It was presumed that he had nowhere else to go.

It now appears that such a presumption is misplaced. Xi is now being equated to Karl MarxZeus himself, on the Communist Mount Olympus.

On the 15th of June this year, the Study Times ran an article titled Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is 21st Century Marxism. Its author is He Yiting. If the name does not immediately ring a bell, it is because he is not a Member of the elite Central Committee or its Political Bureau, nor is he a Minister. But, he is the Executive Vice President of the Central Party School, and is considered to be within the inner circle. Agnes Andresy, who studies the Chinese leadership, in her book, Xi Jinping: Red China, The Next Generation, calls him the pen of Xi Jinping.

He Yiting describes Xi Jinping Thought as contemporary 21st Century Marxism. According to him, Xi has given many new theories for the New Era, such as the theory of supply side structural reform, the economic New Normal theory, the theory of the Strong Army in a New Era, the New Type of Great Power Relations theory, and the idea of a Community for the Shared Future of Mankind. All these, according to He Yiting, are important symbols of a new leap in the modernization of Marxism in China and an important symbol of Marxism in the 21st Century. Along the way to declaring Xi Jinping as the true heir of Karl Marx, the author subsumes the ideological thoughts of all of Xis predecessors Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, The Three Represents of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintaos Scientific Concept of Development into Xi Jinping Thought, declaring that President Xi stands on the shoulders of giants and sages.

Xis Thought is credited with bringing new and profound changes in the power balance between capitalism and socialism in the world, reshaping its political and economic map, and taking China towards the centre of the world stage. Praise is heaped upon him; he is the master strategist who will fight chaos in the world; the long term visionary who will provide Chinese solutions to global issues; the seer who saw the worlds peace deficit and development deficit and proposed the establishment of a Community for the Shared Future of Mankind. It seems that Marxism can be understood in the 21st century only through a deep study of Xi Jinping Thought.

For Xi Jinping, this caps a remarkable first half of 2020, which has seen him tightening his grip on power everywhere. He has subordinated the Party by telling leading cadres at a special Democratic Life Meeting in May that leading cadres should, dust their hearts and clear their minds and souls of ideological debris and waste. He has insisted that public security organs should be absolutely loyal to the core, absolutely pure and absolutely reliable, and, just last week, has also taken personal control over Chinas military reserve forces. Ideological controls over film, TV, and publicationsincluding online literature publishinghave been enhanced; and Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook accounts of Chinese university students and faculty will now be monitored more rigorously. He has tightened the grip over Hong Kong through the Law on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong SAR. It has prompted a retired senior Central Party School Professor, Cai Xia, to say that all this is tantamount to turning the Party into a political zombie. She accuses this one person, a central leader who has grasped the knife handle, the gun barrel and faults within the system itself to turn 90 million Party Members into slaves. She predicts that in the next five years, China will go through another period of major chaos.

Despite its opening up, China remains, to quote Churchill out of context, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Whether President Xi is making haste because he sees the domestic and global flux as an opportunity or as a threat cannot be said with any degree of confidence. But it takes chutzpah to equate oneself with Marx, and he appears to be a gambling man. The rest of the world needs to note that.

Read the original here:
The Deification of Xi Jinping - Observer Research Foundation