21 year old boricua grrrl looking for the Marceline to my Princess Bubblegum. My name is Melanie.The new revisionism, by demoting the importance of ownership, downgraded that of nationalisation. State property no longer constituted the main road to socialism. The only remaining rationale for nationalisation had to be couched entirely in practical terms; for example, that it abolished a private monopoly, protected employment, permitted greater investment, guaranteed essential services or supplies - all reasons which had been used by non-socialists. The consequence of this was that socialist revisionism quite deliberately obliterated the painstakingly established border between socialist and non-socialist thought.
It was believed that the loss in doctrinal purity would be more than amply compensated by greater strategic flexibility, increased electoral appeal and, for parties operating in circumstances which made coalitions necessary, a better chance of finding allies. The new revisionism prided itself on its pragmatism and realism while being, at the same time, deeply ethical: it constantly referred to the values of socialism and particularly to the struggle against inequality and poverty. This ‘ethical pragmatism’ (ethical ends and pragmatic means) deliberately rejected Marxism, its theoretical intransigence and its apparent disregard for the ethical dimension.
”– Donald Sassoon, “One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century”, p.242 (via redrabbleroz)
(via malheureuxmarxist)
#socialism #donald sassoon #means of production #social democracy #employment #elections #political parties #monopoly #public services #equality #inequality #poverty #pragmatism #revisionism #realism #policy
I just saw someone suggest that the world would be an infinitely better place if everyone was vegan - even ‘Peruvian indigenous villages’ because we live in ‘a developed world’. In short the person is being purposely vague but ultimately suggesting making contact with uncontacted tribes in order to force them to become vegans; talk about turning the quest for global veganism into a genocide project.
Establishing contact with isolated tribes is a sure way to exterminate at least 50-90% of their population and if you do it in order to force a vegan lifestyle upon people who live in areas where an entirely vegan lifestyle just isn’t viable, you’d be sure to have said indigenous group entirely gone from the face of the planet in less than a year.
But at least those pesky natives wouldn’t be eating meat, am I right?
Not to mention that veganism, despite all it’s positive sides, isn’t as eco-friendly and wonderful as people would like to think; one of the reasons why the Brazilian Enawene Nawe tribe is currently being driven away from their lands is so that people can use their ancestral lands to grow soy for vegans and the meat industry alike, while simultaneously pumping out loads of pesticides into the rivers in the area, thereby making a pescaterian tribe (the Enawene Nawe don’t eat meat) lose their main source of food as the rivers are more or less killed by the poison dumped in them.
The thing that bugs me, that always bugged me, was this complete denial of the circumstances, conditions and even the moral framework of non-western people.
Nobody thinks about the destruction of healthy ecosystems for farming, rising commodity prices in production zones (like how quinoa is too expensive for Bolivians to buy it, despite growing and relying on it for centuries), or how the adoption of westernized diets has created a public health crisis.
Then there’s the moralizing. This universalist ideology that declares that in order to live at the apex of ethical humanity, we must all convert to veganism, which will in turn solve all manner of environmental issues and end the brutal factory farm system, praise God.
And sure, industrial-level agriculture is problematic, and the meat industry in particular is brutal. There is something seriously wrong with how we get our food, and there is nothing wrong with frank, serious discussions about how we feed ourselves. The way that life, labour and the environment is exploited demands serious critical examination.
But veganism is a lot more than that. It’s a code, a way of life which derives all of it’s legitimacy and authority by uncritically appealing to Western concepts of humanity and morality. In seeking to impose a universal, moral veganism, it’s adherents utterly fail to account for views and philosophies which exist outside of the dominant/normative power structure and, in point of fact, denies their legitimacy and worth completely. That’s pretty fucked up and it accounts for the very real racist undertones in arguments levelled against indigenous people who hunt to support themselves. Witness the hue and cry of the animal rights community over Newfoundland’s seal hunt, and see how many times you can pick out words like savage.
I can guarantee that I do not hunt for the reasons that these people think I hunt, and I do not approach the taking of a life in the way that these people believe I do.
And frankly, I’d rather wear real wool than something that was made with plastics. The oil industry isn’t really known for it’s environmental stewardship, and that shit is in my backyard.
(via lavenderlabia)
#vegan #militant vegan #veganism #dietary choices #food #privilege #oppression #whiteness #power #stigma #moral #ethics #animal rights #vegetarian #vegetarianism #poverty #choice
#bpp #kids #youth #education #community #african american #cointelpro #hoover #repression #black liberation #racism #poverty
The last report of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) entitled Progress for Children: A Report Card on Nutrition, established that there are 146 millions children under the age of five with serious problems of under nutrition. According to this report, 28 percent of these children live in Africa, 17 percent in the Middle East, 15 percent in Asia, 7 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, 5 percent in Europe and 27 percent in developing countries.
Cuba, however, does not have those problems, being the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean that has eliminated children under nutrition. Cuba’s achievement is owed to the government efforts to reinforce the alimentation of the most vulnerable groups. Another UN organization, the Agriculture and Food Organization, has also acknowledged Cuba as the country that has made the most progress in the struggle against malnourishment in Latin America.
The Cuban State guarantees a food basic basket and promotes the benefits of breastfeeding among new mothers. Newborns are exclusively breastfed is until the fourth month and that is complemented with other foods until the sixth month. In addition, every child between the age of zero and seven years old are given a litre of milk every day. Other foods equally distributed among children are fruit compote, juices and vegetables.
All these efforts have placed Cuba among the top countries in the fulfilment of human development according to the United Nations.
And Cuba has attained all this despite the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States during the last 50 years.
#cuba #socialism #revolution #kids #poverty #hunger #food #un #blockade #imperialism
At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears.
She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem.
“It’s like there is no way out,” says Kris Fallon.
She is trapped like so many others, destitute in the midst of America’s abundance. Last week, the Census Bureau released new figures showing that nearly one in six Americans lives in poverty — a record 46.2 million people. The poverty rate, pegged at 15.1 percent, is the highest of any major industrialized nation, and many experts believe it could get worse before it abates.
The numbers are daunting — but they also can seem abstract and numbing without names and faces.
Associated Press reporters around the country went looking for the people behind the numbers. They were not hard to find.
#poverty #unemployment #crisis #capitalism #imperialism #austerity #labor #proletariat #women #kids #big business #banks #foreclosures
