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A recent poll by the news website Axios found that a larger number of individuals born after 1980 have a more favorable view of socialism than capitalism. This created a good deal of shock, horror, and revulsion among those of us born before 1980.

I contend we should not be surprised. To begin, many of the leaders in this country have the bad habit of calling both universal health care and tuition-free post secondary education socialism. This is not accurate. Socialism is the government ownership of agriculture and the means of production.

Moreover, those born after 1980 have much different life experiences than those of us who are called baby boomers.

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The government paid for 80% of a boomers college education. Over the past few decades, this has been reduced to about 30%. After adjusting for inflation, tuition and fees at my alma mater, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, are currently five times higher than when I was an under graduate student in the mid-1960s. I was able to work my way through college and emerge debt-free. Presently, approximately 60% of college graduates are $29,000 in debt.

From 1947 until 1980 and after adjusting for inflation, the median family income increased by 200%. With the decline of unions, the median family income has increased only 28% since 1980.

Obviously capitalism has not worked so well for the post-boomer generations. Why should we be surprised by their skepticism?

JOHN PIEPHO, Cape Girardeau

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Letter to the Editor: Opinions about socialism (12/16/19) - Southeast Missourian

In politics, it is never about what they say it is about. What are the heated debates on man made climate change, school climate strikes and the recent Fargo City Hall meeting featuring Greta Thunberg knock-offs urging the city to support a city-wide climate emergency declaration, really about?

...the climate crisis is not just about the environment. It is a crisis of human rights, of justice, and political will. Colonial, racist and patriarchal systems of oppression have created it and fueled it. We need to dismantle them all, said Greta Thunberg.

The interesting thing about the Green New Deal, is it wasnt originally a climate thing at all. Do you guys think of it as a climate thing? Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy-thing, said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs then chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti.

Socialism has failed around the world. It has killed tens of millions of its own citizens with its cultural revolutions and genocides. Witness the history of Russia, Germany, N. Korea, Cuba and Venezuela and todays China, which has imprisoned one million Muslims in re-education camps and threatens students in Hong Kong with tear gas, beatings and jail.Nevertheless, the Red River Valley Democratic Socialists of America co-sponsored the Friday, Sept. 20 school climate strike featuring competing bullhorns and images of the Earth melting like ice cream and signs threatening 11Years, The Wrong Amazon is Burning, and Tick-Tock Doomsday Clock.

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Then the RRVDSA libels me for raising questions in my Dec. 3 letter to the editor about the City Hall meeting, branding me a liar, leach, coward and lawyer helping scumbag bankers rip homeowners off, in Zac Echolas Dec. 4th letter to the editor.

Socialists will not surrender the climate change propaganda and the tool it gives them to achieve their real goals and Echolas attempt to silence me proves the point of my 12/3/19 letter, that those who think they are saving the world will have no respect for other viewpoints.

Know what this is really about, know who is behind it, watch for ongoing proof; but most of all, speak up and spare the children. They should be in school.

Read this article:
Letter: Those pushing climate change theories are really pushing socialism - INFORUM

Delegates clad in red T-shirts designed for the occasion, rose up while singing the name of the man they call their commander-in-chief: Julius Malema. They moved to the stage where their leaders were sitting and knelt before them, hands raised, singing in praise. The Economic Freedom Fighters congress, dubbed the National Peoples Assembly, feels like a mixture of politics and cult, where Malemas word is the gospel of ultimate truth.

Perhaps the singing fighters were still infused with the spirit of Christian musician Dr Tumis rendition of You Are Here, which had them rocking with their arms raised to the heavens before Malemas speech. Ironically, moments before, Malema denounced personality cults.

***

On Saturday, 14 December, the six-year-old EFFs second congress officially kicked off in the Nasrec Expo Centre, the exact spot where the ANC had its big elective gathering two years ago. In 2014, the EFFs first conference took place at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, following the ANCs congress of 2012. Its hardly a coincidence. The EFF, an expelled splinter of the ANC, has been selling itself as a more authentic version of the governing party and this project continued at their congress this weekend.

Its happening roughly 18 months before South Africas next local government election, and Malema set his party firmly on a socialist path in front of an audience that included trade unionists Zwelinzima Vavi and Joseph Mathunjwa. Malema seemed undeterred by the wholesale rejection by voters in the United Kingdom this week of this very ideology, but then, South African political dynamics are very different.

The EFF is gunning boldly for the socialist gap that some in the ANC believe former businessman Cyril Ramaphosas presidency is creating. The theme for the congress is emblazoned in yellow on the red banner hanging on the stage: Consolidating the ground towards socialist power.

First, Malema laid the foundations:

We are here as the representatives of the poor and the downtrodden, united by our love for our people, and our determination to unchain them from their inhumane realities. He described how, in South Africa, the scars of colonialism and apartheid live on. The failure to undo the ownership patterns of our economy and the failure to give back the land to our people has resulted in our people having political rights, but no economic freedom.

In the presence of diplomats from nine embassies and representatives of EFF structures from six other countries, including Lesotho, Namibia and Liberia, and in the presence of his old chum, former Robert Mugabe minister and aspiring Zimbabwean president Saviour Kasukuwere, Malema went on to blame capitalism for many of Africas ills, such as the spread of disease and suffering, and landlessness. The wars that are taking place are a result of capitalism and capitalist greed! The subdivision of Africa into small incapable states is a direct result of capitalism and capitalist greed, he said.

Malema presented socialism as a solution to these ills, but said it would not be authoritarian socialism with forced collectivism and disrespect of the individual.

We are not going to dance vosho the same, he added in a rare off-the-cuff joke. The EFFs socialism doesnt ascribe to despotism, a one-party state and a cult of personalities.

Socialism is not some huge bureaucracy that disregards rights and freedoms of individuals. People would not have to render private non-exploitative property, such as houses, cars, and clothes to the state, or share their underwear with anyone another unscripted quip.

It is, however, about ending the private ownership of the means of production, [such as] mines, huge farms, monopoly industries. Its the kind of socialism that does away with private property, owned by individuals and used to make a profit, like banks and factories.

Socialism to us primarily means that we should collectively develop the productive forces and make sure that all people have equal access to economic sustainability and have the basic needs, Malema said.

There should be free education, water and sanitation, housing and electricity, health care, and development that benefits everyone in short, economic freedom. EFF socialism would also include democracy, human rights, peace and stability, said Malema. Even though land redistribution without compensation got a prominent mention, it wasnt a central theme. Ordinary voters, it became clear ahead of the elections in May 2019, are more concerned about jobs than about land or even ideology.

The congress, however, isnt directed so much at voters as it is at the EFF gallery and friends/supporters within the ANC. Malema went on to position the EFF as the kingmakers they want to be seen as. When the previous administration [of Jacob Zuma] tried to undermine our country through the [Gupta] family criminal syndicate, we did everything in our power to remove their puppet, and it is evident now that he was replaced with a more dangerous capitalist establishment, which is working in alliance with all-white political organisations, he said.

We carry the obligation to remove the sitting government from political power because they are dismally failing. We send a strong caution that if the current administration hands over power to unelected people, their president, like their former president, will not finish the term of office.

This threat to remove Ramaphosa closely aligns with the reported aspirations of the lobby aligned to ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule ahead of that partys mid-term national general council in 2020. Malemas sentiment that Ramaphosa was deliberately creating crises in state-owned enterprises to privatise them, is shared, too, by radical economic transformation (RET) forces in the ANC.

Malema framed Ramaphosa as part of a bigger problem. The ruling party has presided over a false macroeconomic policy which was based on a misdiagnosis of South African capitalism, said Malema, without mentioning the governing ANC by name.

They assumed they could implement solutions in South Africa that are cooked in European experiences. Malema spoke in a negative light about the compromises made by the ANC in 1994, and about the false unity that followed. Malema described Ramaphosa who was elected ANC leader at Nasrec almost exactly two years before as a puppet of the white capitalist establishment.

Although Malemas political report included most of the tried and tested formulas about economic freedom that pushed the EFFs one million votes in 2014 up to 1.8 million five years on, it was the first time Malema has ever positioned the party so explicitly and extensively as a socialist one. To put it in perspective: in the partys founding manifesto adopted at its July 2013 gathering under the Leninist theme of What is to be done?, the word socialism isnt mentioned at all, although the EFF is characterised as a radical, leftist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movement. Even in its 2019 general elections manifesto, socialist is mentioned only once, in the intro, when the EFF is described as a revolutionary socialist economic emancipation movement.

Malemas address to the delegates about 4,000, according to the EFF was mostly a serious one, also outlining the partys work in Parliament and in the municipalities where it was, until recently, partners of the minority DA governments.

Colourful jokes like those about Alexandra residents stealing the cheese out of Sandton fridges first told at his last ANC Youth League conference in 2011 did not feature this time. Malema stuck strictly to the all-English written script and instead remarked about the contrast between the concentration camp called Alexandra and the luxury that is called Sandton.

There was clapping and laughing only when he paused after each section in his report to lift his bottled water with a cheers to the audience. Instead of water in bottles which would have been too expensive for the thrift-conscious EFF leadership the ordinary delegates had plastic cups and water fountains.

Some delegates left the venue during Malemas speech to gather outside, News24 reported, as Malemas speech stretched to over an hour. According to point 18 in the gatherings rules of engagement document given to each delegate: No delegate will be allowed to sleep during the proceedings of Assembly Plenary session and commissions.

Why would Malema take such trouble to outline the EFFs socialism? Its two-fold. On the one hand, it would align the party more closely with the ANC, but on the other, he was likely also aiming to create more unity in his party.

We should all desist from undermining our ideological tools of analysis because it will undermine the cohesion and coherence of the EFF, Malema warned. Without ideological tools, the EFF would go nowhere and only be concerned with common and current affairs and issues.

Malema included a quote by Burkina Fasos former president (1983-1987) Thomas Sankara, saying that a soldier without proper ideological and political training is a potential criminal. The outcome of the partys leadership contest this weekend is likely to reveal who Malema was taking aim at with this. DM

Daily Maverick was denied accreditation to the EFFs National Peoples Assembly. See Daily Maverick statement here.

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Malemas opening address: A socialist gospel according to the men in red - Daily Maverick

Councilmember Kshama Sawant asks Seattle Public Schools students to walk out of class in front of Nova High School, Sept. 24, 2018. (Rob Munoz, KIRO 7)

If you believe that it is a better pathway to any kind of personal success to have government take stuff from other people and give it to you, that is socialism and it is the epitome of a losers attitude.

Youre never going to succeed at any great level because government does not want you to. The government does not care about you. It cares about you barely getting by, and you relying on governments largesse its socialism so that you can get just barely what you need. You can get your $15 an hour, but not much else.

Im sorry if youre offended, but I stand by that statement with truth as my defense.

Socialism has taken over more so now than ever before with the latest Seattle City Council around here.The only people who support socialism are losers. And we do have a lot of losers around here.

Dori: Are Sawant voters alright with encampment rapes, deaths?

Seattle never used to be that way. We were a region of fishermen and lumberjacks and self-sufficiency. The attitude was, I dont need anyone else to get by Ill take care of myself and of my family. We still have those people in this city. Weve got a lot of truck drivers who drive 60 hours a week to take care of their families.

People like that used to be the backbone of our region. Now, losers are the backbone of our region. Its sad to me, in a way, but like I always say, that means that if you do have some fire in your belly, and you do believe in outworking your competition, the competition has never been softer. It has never been easier to succeed, because youre not going up against a very motivated bunch of people.I know a lot of people who just got out of college and have that fire in their bellies. They are going to go and do great things.

But that is not the mentality in our public schools. We are teaching kids more than ever, through identity politics, how to sob about being a victim. What it has created is the woke and broke culture, as I was reading about in the National Review. Weve got a bunch of kids coming out of the public schools and out of our universities who are woke and they have no fundamental skills to make a decent living. They can tell you everything that they learned about how oppressed they are, but they cant market their skills to get a good job. Then they must rely on the government to take care of them. Yes, woke and broke is what government schools and universities are cultivating right now.

Its going to be an interesting time around here in the next four years. I just feel bad for all the people who will be carried downward when this economic bubble bursts and Amazon leaves town.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Dori: Why socialism appeals to the woke and broke crowd - MyNorthwest.com

In episode two of HBOs 10-Emmy award-winning series Chernobyl, lead character Ulana Khomyuk (played by Emily Watson) delivers a scathing line to a male Soviet Communist Party leader: I am a nuclear physicist. Before you were deputy secretary, you worked in a shoe factory.

The dialogue hints at a fascinating reversal of traditional gender roles. In fact, writer Craig Mazin invented the fictional character of Khomyuk in recognition of the important scientific contributions of socialist women.

One area where the Soviets were actually more progressive than we were was in the area of science and medicine, Mazin explained on Varietys TV Take podcast. The Soviet Union had quite a large percentage of female doctors.

Most historians agree that the Eastern Bloc countries aggressively pursued policies to promote women into previously male-dominated professions and supported womens full-time employment through the provision of job protected parental leaves and state subsidized crches and kindergartens.

This isnt just a historical phenomenon, however. Socialist programs that encouraged women and girls to study and work in math and science have been a gift that keeps on giving.

This is especially timely for the US as it approaches the 2020 presidential election and candidates advocate for policies that can increase womens political representation, promote fare wages, and support more inclusive healthcare. As capitalist Western countries continue to wrestle with a dismal record of gender parity in the workforce, its worth examining this Soviet-era blueprint.

In 1975 the USSR actually introduced quotas to increase the proportion of men attending medical school.

Even three decades after the end of the Cold War, scholars still find substantial differences in aptitude and professional success between women in capitalist and former state socialist countries. A 2018 study titled Math, Girls, and Socialism examined a robust dataset of self-reported academic grades in mathematics together with standardized test scores. Using the former division of Germany as a natural experiment to isolate the historical effects of capitalist versus state socialist educationand controlling for differences in economic conditions and teaching stylesthe researchers found that teenage girls in the former Eastern part of the country significantly outperformed their western German peers in terms of closing the gender gap with boys.

The researchers found that girls in the East feel less anxious and more confident about their aptitude in math than their counterparts from West Germany, and were less likely to be intimidated in competitive situations with boys.

By further comparing the standardized test scores for children across the continent, the authors also found evidence that the gender gap in math is smaller in European countries that used to be part of the Soviet bloc, as opposed to the rest of Europe. In some former socialist countries, the gender gap in mathematics aptitude disappeared altogether.

A similar story can be told about medicine. In Latvia and Estonia, for example, women accounted for nearly three out of every four medical doctors in 201875% compared to only 34% in the United States. Across the former Eastern Bloc, women dominated the field of medicine throughout the Cold War, so that in 1975, the USSR actually introduced quotas to increase the proportion of men attending medical school.

In the realm of technology and engineering, four of the European Unions top five most gender-balanced tech workforces in 2017 were in former socialist countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania and Latvia. According to Eurostat, Bulgaria boasted the highest percentage of women working in information and communication technologies at 27% compared with the EU average of 17%.

In 2018, eight of the top 10 countries with the highest proportion of women working in high-tech companies were in Eastern Europe.

Bulgaria also had the highest percentage of female students in these fields in 2017; at 33% one in every three tech students in Bulgaria was a woman. Across the EU, the average was 17% with the Netherlands at an abysmal 6% and Belgium at 8%, most likely because girls avoid studying subjects in fields where they are unlikely to find employment.

But what explains these stark differences? Eastern Bloc countries once celebrated the equality of men and women as one of the unique products of building a socialist society, in no small part because socialist countries faced severe labor shortages after WWI in the USSR and after WWII throughout the Soviet Bloc.

As a result, socialist countries began training women in science and engineering well before Western countries.

For instance, 43% of Romanian students enrolled in engineering institutes were women in 1970, as were 39% of all engineering students in the USSR and 27% of students in Bulgaria. Compare these percentages to the United States, where by 1976 women earned only 3% of bachelors degrees in engineering.

In Latvia and Estonia women accounted for 75% of medical doctors compared to 34% in the United States in 2018.

But it wasnt only state investments in education that made the difference. Socialists understood that women would always face a disadvantage on the free market for labor because of childbearing and their domestic responsibilities. If care work occasionally forces women out of the labor force, employers view them as less reliable employees, which means they are paid less and have fewer resources invested in their professional development in the long run. In science and technology careers where research, innovation, and product development proceed at lightning speed, the perception that women are more likely to temporarily leave the labor force renders them less than ideal employees.

In countries such as the former German Democratic Republic or Bulgaria, state-owned technology enterprisessuch as those that made the Robotron computers in East Germany or the Pravetz computers in Bulgariacould hire qualified women with more confidence.

Family responsibilities interfered relatively less with womens work because the state had socialized many of the domestic tasks shouldered by women in capitalist countries. Childcare, public cafeterias, and public laundries, as well as an extensive network of sanatoria to care for the aged and infirm, meant less care work for women in the private sphere. And when an expectant mother took her paid job-protected maternity leave, the state easily organized her temporary replacement with a qualified university graduate completing their mandatory national service.

As more women thrived in careers in science, math, medicine, and engineering, more girls pursued studies in those fields. The higher percentage of women in the dynamic technology sector today is a direct result of state socialist policies that both encouraged women to enter male-dominated fields and alleviated their domestic responsibilities through the public provision of social services.

Chernobyls Ulana Khomyuk may be a fictional character, but she represents a valuable lesson from 20th century Eastern Europe that is well worth remembering:

Girls and women are no less capable than boys and men, but without institutional interventions to encourage their studies and support their informal responsibilities for care work, gender gaps in fields like science and medicine will persist.

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Socialist countries employ more women in math and science - Quartz