Monday, 26 September 2011
Freedom Theater
04.46 (gmt+2), July 27, 2011
Special Forces of the Israeli Army attacked The Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee
Camp at approximately 03:30 this morning. Ahmed Nasser Matahen, a night
guard and technician student at the theatre, woke up by heavy blocks of stone
being hurled at the entrance of the theatre. As he opened the door he found
masked and heavily armed Israeli Special Forces around the theatre.
Ahmed says that the army threw heavy blocks of stone at the theatre, "they told
me to open the door to the theatre. They told me to raise my hands and forced me
to take my pants down. I thought my time had come, that they would kill me. My
brother that was with me was handcuffed."
The location manager of The Freedom Theatre, Adnan Naghnaghiye, was arrested
and taken away to an uknown location together with Bilal Saadi, a member of
the board of the Freedom Theatre. When the general manager of the theatre,
Jacob Gough from the UK, and the co-founder of the threatre, Jonatan Stanczak from
Sweden, arrived to the scene, they were forced to squat next to a family with four
small children surrounded by about 50 heavily armed Israeli soldiers.
Jonatan says: "Whenever we tried to tell them that they are attacking a cultural
venue and arresting members of the theatre, we were told to supt and they
threatened to kick us. I tried to contact the civil administration of the army to
clarify the matter but the person in charge hung up on me."
Egyptian Dialogues
The first two speakers were both body workers...one was from London and an x literary agent and the other was from Egypt and a homeopath. They were both wealthy by any standards and westernized. The revolution was galvanzing and both felt they had to fight for the future because they had young children.
The other speaker was from an institution in chicago called CAIR which has to do with Islamic tolerance in the USA. He is convinced the revolution was fuelled by the youth and didn't mention the unions in his talk...he was right down in Tahir Square, is well spoken and has lots of good stories.
Other people have said the revolution was backed by the CIA because Mubarack wouldn't join in a coalition against Iran.
People are angry the US supports Israel and assume it is a plot against the Muslims...what we are suppose to say is it's a humanitarian crisis.
Made a contact with a woman from Norway on the plane who has been their many times...and has adopted a family of Palestinians whio live in Cairo.
Many people here argue Egypt is poor becaue the people don't have a good work ethic and it has nothing to do with colonialism. If only we worked harder...
Though it is a well known fact the US backed Murbarak and continued to support him right to the bitter end.
The people here are friendly and warm and toursim is way down...which ain't good for a country that employs 10,000,000 in the tourist trade.
Walking by the Nile in the morning is nice...watching the Germans row their Olympic style boats at sunrise is surreal...the golf course in the middle of the embassy district is well taken care of...
The hotel is on an island in the middle of the Nile.
Rarely do you see poor people...
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Egypt
Leaving the computer at home and taking a smaller device on my trip to Egypt.
It is all a trap with only one way out or as Wilhelm Reich says
(as quoted in the book End Game by derrick jensen “volume 1:the problem of civilization” in the chapter Bringing Down Civilization
gotta say in my own pampered way i don’t want that to happen…
I’m a rich white and male we got it good…
destroy the thing we created…but at all levels things are getting worse…socially…pornography body punishing, austerity, greater pay inequality, nonrenewable resources depleting, the oil sands, less common space, less public discourse, cruel punishing third world work routines.
It is possible to get out of the trap. However, in order to break out of prison, one first must confess to being in a prison. The trap is man’s emotional structure, his character structure. There is little use is devising systems of thought about the nature of the trap if the only thing to do in order to get out of the trap is to know the trap and to find the exit. Everything else is utterly useless.
Singing hymns about the the suffering in the trap or writing poems about the freedom outside the trap written from within the trap, or building a philosophy of despair around living in the trap as Schopenhauer did, or dreaming up a superman who would be different than everyone else in the trap as Nietzsche did, until trapped in a lunatic asylum he finally wrote the truth about himself
Get out of the trap.
Reich goes on to say we all know how to get out of the trap but because of some internal conflict we don’t want to exit…like he thinks we want to…he says only a few get out of the trap at night while everyone else is sleeping.
In Canada Harper encourages the largest ecological disaster on the planet with the oil sands, is building super max prisons and will push a omnibus crime bill through…to fill the jails…
the poor will be spending less time on the streets.
elitist thinking…this notion we are in a trap with an escape hatch is an interesting idea…do we all really want freedom from this earthy exiztence?
…our ideas imprison us…or is that lack…
the oppressor yearns to control the mind of the oppressed…
the conspicuous consumption is getting more conspicuous…
looks like the labor convention is shaping up like half holiday half pretending to be important…of significance is the grassroots organizers or the workers in the factories and industries like the Suez canal and textiles…
what is at stake is it that passage…
does not appear that we will be meeting with any workers as far as i can tell…
tomorrow at this time…i’ll b hi above the pacific.
over and out from the NA NW.
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Hi Hio
neoliberal capitalistic philosophy
is so prevalent
that the big environmentalist groups
are seen as merely negotiating
the rate of dezttruction
unions are seen
as bargaining tools
with no teeth
the disparity between
the north and south
is so prevalent
that solidarity is
virtually impossible
the well paid workers with
a home, car, food and internet
and benefits and pensions cannot relate
to an Egyptian seamstress…
my guess
In egypt we will not be talking
with many of the workers
instead to academics
and others
jockeying for position
I’m going to hit the street
and see what’s really going
Egypt would elect
a working party
into power
if there was
a real democracy
but the neo liberals
wouldn’t stand for that
and have already infiltrated
the region with NGO’s
media personnel
academia and the rest
of the liberal class
which include the military
exploitation
of nature and others
unfortunately most working Egyptains
are financially illiterate when it comes
to world economics…they are only supported
by a system they do not understand or control.
as i flush the toilet and run the water
at an old joke…
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett
two billionaires spend their
money on foundations that are
digging the trenches of capitalism
deeper and deeper which only
hurries things along…
capitalism must grow to survive
or are we going into space?
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Organizer
Though i cannot stand unions,
i did organize in the
Canadian province,
of Alberta
and am now heading to Egypt
with some of America's
outlaw union dudes
who as far as i can tell
are still putting up a fight
if the poor people
or the working people
of the world believe
that somebody cares
in the west…
dining well in a
foreign country
What is generally not discussed
on the left of today is going from A to B
as Marx famously pronounced
Anarchy rocks
Marx said capitalism
was necessary
to free oneself from nature
then communism for heart
and eventually the state would wither
the critique of capital
is beautiful and standing
though i have
never read it.
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
g-school
Jun’s
brother kyle
was treated
badly by his father
as well
Linda’s brother
Ronnnie was treated
badly by his father
4)
in shanghai
he is 84 years old
living in a building
six flight of stairs up,
bathing on Sunday
news at six
ate heartily and well,
slept early and well
and was up
a couple of times
in the night to piss.
4a)
his forty year old
daughter in the morning says
she has seen a ghost
he says he is old
but he assures her
he is not
4aa)
yells at the woman cleaning
our cloths at a yellow bucket
in a flirty way…
he’s picky
just looking
for problems
no
gives her twenty…
when she asks
for 15
wash the floor
4b)
jun bought a
three bedroom condo
for him and his neighbours
think he is rich
from a super rich family
tutored at home
and the communists
took their land
and killed her
grandfather
he was ten years old
4c)
forced to flee
worked with glass
making thermos
4d)
he poured poison
in his sons ear
when mixed with water
it would implode
he would yell
you are not my son
5
the son has very
smart daughter
and a greedy wife
who waited five years
for him to come back
from Australia…
5a)
when he got back
they got married
lived with his father
and it took her
one year
to get pregnant
5b)
they stayed
two or three years…
5c)
his father said
he would take
his wife's eyes out
and paid six farmers
so they would leave
5d)
he called his
two uncles
and his wife
brought her brother
5e)
three family
against six farmers
5f)
even if he loses money
she’ll pay
5g)
a Chinese baker
earns money slowly
in Australia
5h)
you’re careful
with your money
5i)
unlike me
who has inherited
large sums
I play freely
in the stock market
and am up
a 100k
5j)
kyle gives his sister
5000 dollars and
I have lost $20,000
on an unreasearched
stock play…
truly Chinese solar
6.
the embarrassment
of the rich
is mildly entertaining
and perhaps that
is as illuminating
as it is pathetic
6a)
I myself
am deeply flawed.
and will bet on the Canucks
at seven too one
6b)
Account 3e75
Canadian #8ghfg25457
USD #4864fds124
Alex on the five star
ext 3131
opened one week
and one day
before the gyp
sept 13 2011
as I sit high
on good old bc bud
2.
I’m off to the world
that never ends…sleep
then in a couple
of days battle
with father
whom I could not
run away from
at thirteen
or punch
at twenty
chronic fear
compulsively
abusive parents
dismantle esteem
Monday, 12 September 2011
Not Just Ecology
In the context of dollar hegemony, many poorer nations must hold large quantities of American dollars or liquid, dollar denominated assets because they know they will eventually need those dollars to import oil and other essential ‘commodities’.
The world’s two overwhelmingly dominant oil markets, the NYMEX and the IPE, insist that all oil transactions be made in U.S. dollars.
That means that nations such as China, India and Japan, together with those developing nations which lack large oil reserves, must sell goods to earn the dollars necessary to purchase oil.
The central banks of the poorer nations must hold foreign currency reserves in dollars or U.S. Treasury for protection…in case their currency goes down against the dollar.
This is exacerbated if a poor nation is carrying a heavy debt load, owed to the IMF, and denominated in dollars.
This is how i would say it:
The US dollars is in fact the only currency
that can be used…to buy oil
as defended by the US army
if iraq is any indicator
countries will be slow
to switch
the US people behind the US…world…the social scientist call it imperialism…what capitalism is about…new markets and market share…a class struggle…exploiting the planet and the people…was Rand right?
(it doesn’t matter about the ideology)
bringing us closer to anarchism…
(aside)
i don’t identify coinservative,
liberal or New Democratic Party
intentionally…
i don’t believe people believe
they are exporting violence,
yet by the system
they benefit from the system
and are guilty by participation.
Though unadvertised there is choice.
…the rich don’t ask how those behind them are getting on
by living on the surplus user value of the poor…
workers in the world will never be able to buy
the product they produce because of profit .
ie if i make 10 cars for 5 dollars
and the owner sells then for 8
and pays me 4.50 per
I can’t afford to pay eight…
I'm sure Marx explains it better.
***********
i
am flying to Egypt more better
than work 12 hours a day
seven days a week
in a factory
making something
you don’t believe in
which i guarantee
somewhere someone is
capitalism has captured its people,
they have been brainwashed
into thinking they are free…
they have been atomized
and turned on by their own.
Their wages have been cut,
their time has been controlled
*********
a quaker lighting himself on fire
is treated as legend in Vietnam
while causing McMarana grave doubts
almost forgotten for ending the war
the opening…and instigator of bravery
***************
the writers
are propagandists
even for the truth…
which cannot exist
in this fuzzy, fuzzy
night of computer screens
the only communities
the rich and the poor
the middle class got duped
the good guys, the guys
who wanted to believe
who went to war
for the right reasons
who wished for the dream
and tried
but their never
was a dream
the most privilege
even the smart ones die.
me
the poor lonely suburbs
wasting away with out purpose
or glory
or even a benign existence
in small rooms
with electrical devices
the laughter
of a family dinner
a thing of the past.
peace out
Friday, 9 September 2011
Investing
Now when i invest in the stock market I can not have big picture thinking for the short term. Capitalism has been incredibly robust and i suppose in many ways we are better of than we were a hundred years ago. Now i can type on a computer and be part of this new nerve centre as Hilary Clinton calls it
She would have been a better President than Obama, at the very least she knows the halls of power while Obama has had his hat handed to him many times…as i have had mine handed…
i have lost 20% of my net worth since March and am at least two thirds out.
I have little knowledge of the means of production
or really what i am buying…
this is how far removed from reality i am…
yet i have profited and am now able to redirect these funds to more useful ventures?
oh yeah like what?
Forget that i make time by making money
or the freedom to listen to myself
other people have to pay with time…
so much per hour to support themselves
when the markets move and in a sense i am winding down.
I am playing in a virtual world…
if anything the stock market is a construct which enables the wealthy to accumulate more wealthy while fooling others into believing they are shareholders and joint owners have a take
it is different holding a hammer
than holding stock…
one is abstract and fueled by greed…
greed is good…and focus on self
selfishness becomes narcissism
building something fueled by a need to contribute
is not the popular trend…
greed and hubris
based on entitlement
which is the benefits
with out effort syndrome
raised by children of baby boomers
who were guilty of being born into times of incredible wealth and innovation…and unfortunately the advent of the human growth and development movement which was an extension of Hegel’s enlightenment project which was chronically underfunded in terms of long term thinking…or at least checked by hesitation and doubt,
as a species we are too sure of ourselves
whatever momentum Obama had he has lost,
he has not placed the blame of the economic crisis
where it belongs,
as Lenin predicted the market
gets more extreme as the end nears
this system
of fueling growth
by borrowing
runs into
the contradiction
debt is eternal
and necessary
while growth
is at best sporadic…
if one is to profit
from the decline
of civilization
then it is best
if one is a “shorter”…
i.e.bets on the failure
of capitalism or a stock
going down…
they say equilibrium
i say Communist.
or look at the companies that know the game…even if the copper mine idea never gets out of of the ground the chances of the owners losing money is not possible…they don’t take chances…and they just bide their time…
i am investing in solar stocks which operate at about 17% efficiency..they need government subsidies to be successful yet are part of a loose plan too wean us from fossil fuels…I have lost 20,000 USA dollars since i first got involved less than a month ago…the fossil fuel has stored energy while the sun is current…
I would imagine the current system has a ways to go and I’ll probably run higher losses…if i stick with green energy. So far listening to the Pundits have served me poorly…i bough GE which the president said was still going to pay a dividend then he cut it and i lost 50k…and now solar which is going bankrupt is my new great idea and other ethical investors
…i would rather have a bookstore that generated a little income and was a good place for people to meet and talk and drink good coffee than play this fools game called the stock market…
the government funding comes from a fossil fuel driven economy
ex) homes and work places are far apart. i.e. a car economy.
Fossil fuels will be around for a while and are centered in the middle east…where i am heading in less than two weeks…which should be more engaging than investing in joint stock ownership companies.
Over and out from Lu Lu Island.
Thursday, 8 September 2011
September 8/2011
Well what’s a lazy
neo liberal activist to do?
The planets heating up,
the rich are getting richer,
the poor are getting poorer,
the monies is coming
from ‘somewheres’
globalization will create
a super wealthy class
of which i will be a member
rich countries are getting poorer
the average well being
is going down
in terms of health and education,
the prisons in the us are full
crimes against other humans
crimes against property
and surprisingly
crimes against self…
just carrying is trouble…
drugs that is
guns are fine
and poor countries
like the Philippines
poverty is not improving
the material world is shaping us
as Marx clearly understood
the nightmare of sitting
in front of screens
cut off from life, each other
and our selves…this is urban.
Subsistence farmers want to improve their lives so the narrative goes or so the religious redemption story goes which seems to run deep…the next life will be better or worse so if i am born seven foot two and co-ordinated i believe i deserve my fame and wealth due to attributes i did not work for my height and my co ordination i can not be proud of something i had no choice in unless i
believe in some divine spirit or meta narrative which is evolving which seems to be the case as the world becomes more and more complex,
most people look to simplify…
the rich neo liberals who go to the farms and write books about their experience…which is more bliss like, than fighting with the communists on an island in the Philippines…
here no one wants to shoot
you for working the land unless you own it…
remember the diggers…
this land is my land
this land is your land…
forget about the owners…
if you(most of you) imagine
they don’t exist
they don’t…
owners that is…
this cannot be understood
through the lens of capitalism
which is my cup of sorrow.
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Smart People
soory for the spelling errors no tiome to proofread
The smart people, lawyers from Connecticut, PhD's from the World Bank, statisticians, professional organizers, etc. etc. cannot determine whether or not remittances are helping with the development of the working persons country.
Some argue it goes only to conspicuous consumption while others say it helps alleviate poverty by improving shelter, food, clothing and education
or the consumption of said services. As the neoliberals argue the invisible hand of the market will provide as people vote with their money and with their feet…the problem is supply…too many workers helps drive down the wages as real wages have been declining since the Reagan Thatcher takeover…which was exasperated with the fall of communism and the tumbling of the wall…
even at Labour Events the Marxist Leninist are ignored…which leaves no intellectual underpinning for a collective beyond the betterment of the organized workers, there is no framework in which to place a larger narrative..the NNDP party may have a chance now with younger voters…people may want a change and Ignatieuff is an idiot if he thinks the Canadian people are stupid enough to fall for his shennanigans…what a joke and Etioboke too…i know thsoe people and they are not stupid..
a problem that is not mentioned is the fact the workers are dependent on other countries governments…
so as is happening now as a retarded shady prince put it
“Why should we be employing foreign workers(Filipinos) when are own workers were unemployed…”
now that we’ve beaten them(our workers) down with scab workers(migrant workers) labor will be less(wages will be down)…
the workforce is dispensable.
Migrant workers will be consumers and
speed up the extinction of more animal species
that is a given.
Capitalism makes strangers of us all.
Working for the collective is a different endeavor and more likely to end one up in jail…in anti communist parties…the agency will not come from the exploiting classes…or countries…ones in the middle who can see both ways…little pockets of humanity in late capitalism is misleading and divergent…
one must look the horror in the face.
an education in a hyper-consumerist society will create a consumer…
the consumption pattern hi-jacks the effort reward equation and thus promises instant gratification which the internet reinforces…
i think the computer is slow if it takes more than a few minutes for it to warm up…
and i feel pressure on my time…as if i don’t have enough…and being a long term slacker i feel little inclination to join the rush to nowhere but off i must go to add my two cents to the labor movement in Egypt, not so much in an historical perspective but in an unwritten unspoken knowing for sure barring a strange accident which almost seems prophetic I will be in Egypt before the end of the month.
My return ticket is in a month, but goodness gracious if it isn’t more interesting than Richmond maybe I’ll stay after all i am almost done. The cabin i rent in the iwnter on the beautiful gulf islands may not be up as the owner has had an infection of the eye area and this i believe is called graves disease.
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Remittance World Bank Western Union
I am having a difficult time keeping pace…i am working on a Remittance Paper, focusing on the Philippines when the very notion of remittance,
the concept of one countries labor force,
being exploited, in the wage system,
as a communist, is not something i support
and do not want to waste my time reforming
which my NGO wishes
(capitalism) does notequalize the north__south divide
and in fact institutionalizes it.
Opposing the fees for transporting the money
is like fighting slavery with a union
fair wage and workers co-ops, take back them means
A worker From the Philippines is paid ten dollars/units per hour.
The question is one of units as they can be interfaced
but time is still no match for technology
which promises surprising immortality…
brought forward as a trend a thousand years from now…
technology is linear and in fact has a certain delineation…
the narrative
that which made us great
manipulating symbols
has simply made us
mediocre.
the Philippines
as the best option
feels like a death watch…
hiring poor people…
is noormmal
neo capitalism advanced as
The End of History 1989
was well read
nothing grows forever i whine
Hegel's notion of a thesis was accurate
Popper and Schopenhauer were right.
the strange existence i find myself in now…
immersed in words and writing…symbols again …
the arts as a whole are nothing better than shit wipe…
*******
it will get hotter before it gets worse
and the dark night of the soul can attest
to this value but economically the working man
since 1980 has steadily seen his ranks depleted…
his jobs exported
Marx shouldn’t have tipped them off
agency for a revolution my ass…
the capitalist cut’em off at the knees
and the working man is
in the service industry and crime
mostly, mostly unorganized
witch hunt…
unions are seen
as a relic of the past
and no longer needed…
there is no class structure
no racism, no sexism, no bigotry
everything is fine
along comes the tea party
surely now or in the near future
change will transpire quickly
when the young people
get more educated
***********
rehabilitate the planet by leaving
her alone for a generation or two
she’ll be fine…
contrary to science
who for the most part
have been bought off
the planet fine and
environmentalism
is a diversion.
and a symptom
in that strange
beautiful
logic
A Vow of Poverty
us rich
no very little
of the constant
grind
which really
ain’t so bad
and the choice
of many holy men.
met one the other night
stooped from Tibet
with jaundiced eyes
999999999
religion
“Money is the Root of all Evil.”
The new agers
say this is not spiritual
as do the Evangelists
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Poor people from other countries
are being used to undermine
local people, who’s standard of living
requires a higher wage,
the farm workers in BC get
$9.28 an hour which drives down the
market price of labor…
jobs are available but Canadian people
do not feel an hour of boring hard work
is worth ten bucks, not from zero
but from welfare…
colonized countries citizen work cheap
the aid industry
cries otherwise,
no statistical advantage
in reducing poverty
“the Filipina” in global terms
are lower middle class,
they are not
the poorest of the poor…
America has
exploited them continuously
since 1898
now the aid industry
led by the Americans
is saying lets lower the fees
for the remittances
you have bad milk in the fridge
lets get rid of the smell
so we can have a drink
workers organize
at a government level…
ties will be broken with the USA
US will shout terrorist
sanction and
cut off trade routes
…
plum jobs in developing countries
now you have to work the farm…
which almost no one wants to do now…
as that is a constant reminder of death
and life and a tired body
and a sedate mind ,
#######
technology is a strange beast
growing…this does not appear to be a revolution
the numbers for the internet are staggering…
close to 40 billion e-mails a day…
easier to stay up to date
with what is happening back home…
faith of the Philippines…their language/
religion hijacked
…a curious kind people
\patronizing/ ?/
the dominant culture quickly projected wishes of glory and power
to overcome some inner deficit,
outer world i became a god amongst men…
what is the motivation for aggression…?
a survival of the fittest?
include the intellect.
2324545%%%%%%%%
private property
our own subjective experience
which is as boring as the blogs?
another beginning
The remittance industry is the result of many individuals migrating for economic reasons and with as many stories
as the working person has ever had
not for national reasons as reported by Steinbeck and the Grapes of Wrath.
It is not country to country but is in fact a person to person
financial institutions of one sort or another profit from.
As the government deregulates the banks,
more and more companies get into the business
and the fees go down…
the world bank in all it’s benevolence has said lets only charge these workers five percent, let us appear liberal and fair while the very structure of capitalism is unsustainable and as the working class gets annihilated in first world countries being replaced by a middles class
which is far cheaper than the well developed middle class
the rich get richer not by a little but by a lot
aspire to this orgy of privilege and freedom….
this slow march to pure spirit
appears misdirected by excess
and soulless transactions…
future have we really forgotten the past…
rarely do i hear it spoken.
Monday, 5 September 2011
Western Union
We handled nearly $67 billion in cross-border consumer-to-consumer remittances in 2008. The Company generated $5.3 billion in revenue and $1.25 billion in cash provided by operating activities*
The President makes slightly less than a star US sports athlete, clocking in at less than
nine million a year… or $4500 an hour[i]
I know he is smarter, better educated, lighter skinned better born
In Kuwait a OFW** is paid $200 a month or $1.25/hour.
a year and a half equals his hour
In a decade she does not earn what he makes in a day
and the really funny part is
he has lots of customers
just like her…isn’t capitalism grand?
*from the Annual Report
[i] assuming a 40 hour week
**Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW)
###################
I bet he doesn’t feel exploited
but I bet she does……….
Is the precious resource,
“heart beats ” really more
valuable in a capitalist
than it is in the proletariat?
one calls himself an
honorable business man
yet his sense of fairness
is dictated by the market.
liberal democracy infers elitism
and subtly encourages oppression
the smooth faces of the well fed
well rested and well paid
***************
The capitalist cannot show his face
to the commoner anymore
and in fact spends most of his time
in private restaurants, clubs, houses (gated),
and resorts for the rich
^^^^^^^^^^^
if I act in my own self interest
this will be in the best interest
of the greater good
this is the notion of the invisible hand
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
A Canadian Book
willfully denying that
extreme wealth
is an admirable trait,
Billionaires are Bad
***********************
Now we have the notion of freedom
but when one looks closely at the choices,
one is modified not radicalized.
Have a home or be homeless…
one is the vast majority…
the other is stigmatized
Even Marx called the most disenfranchised of society….scum
and believed the working class would be the agents of change.
We all need to wake up, grow up and show up…
state the new age monks in their enlightened timbre
))))))))))))))))))
if i had a a rocket launcher…i’d bomb them first…
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Hey Marx
Marx’s essay, On the Jewish Question, originally published in 1844 contains the following:
What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money.…. Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist. Money degrades all the gods of man – and turns them into commodities…. The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jew. His god is only an illusory bill of exchange…. The chimerical nationality of the Jew is the nationality of the merchant, of the man of money in general.
More Marx and Engels in the Communist Party Manifesto
Capitalism has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom -- Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.
It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage-labourers.
The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i. e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.
Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for his maintenance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labour,[35] is equal to its cost of production. In proportion, therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labour increases, in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working hours, by increase of the work exacted in a given time or by increased speed of the machinery, etc.
Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organised like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the over-looker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is.
No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.
The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois family relations, modern industrial labour, modern subjection to capital, the same in England as in France, in America as in Germany, has stripped him of every trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests.
The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few.[45]
In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence:
Abolition of private property.
We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a man's own labour, which property is alleged to be the ground work of all personal freedom, activity and independence.
In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates the present; in Communist society, the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality.
And the abolition of this state of things is called by the bourgeois, abolition of individuality and freedom! And rightly so. The abolition of bourgeois individuality, bourgeois independence, and bourgeois freedom is undoubtedly aimed at.
Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists.
On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution.
But you Communists would introduce community of women, screams the whole bourgeoisie in chorus.
The bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production. He hears that the instruments of production are to be exploited in common, and, naturally, can come to no other conclusion than that the lot of being common to all will likewise fall to the women.
He has not even a suspicion that the real point aimed at is to do away with the status of women as mere instruments of production.
For the rest, nothing is more ridiculous than the virtuous indignation of our bourgeois at the community of women which, they pretend, is to be openly and officially established by the Communists. The Communists have no need to introduce community of women; it has existed almost from time immemorial.
Our bourgeois, not content with having the wives and daughters of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each others' wives.
Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common and thus, at the most, what the Communists might possibly be reproached with, is that they desire to introduce, in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an openly legalised community of women. For the rest, it is self-evident that the abolition of the present system of production must bring with it the abolition of the community of women springing from that system, i.e., of prostitution both public and private.
The Communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish countries and nationality.
The working men have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got. Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of the nation,[47] must constitute itself the nation, it is, so far, itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word.
Nevertheless in the most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common p!an.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. 9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction[50] between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.[51] 10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc., etc. This school of Socialism dissected with great acuteness the contradictions in the conditions of modern production. It laid bare the hypocritical apologies of economists. It proved, incontrovertibly, the disastrous effects of machinery and division of labour; the concentration of capital and land in a few hands; overproduction and crises; it pointed out the inevitable ruin of the petty bourgeois and peasant, the misery of the proletariat, the anarchy in production, the crying inequalities in the distribution of wealth, the industrial war of extermination between nations, the dissolution of old moral bonds, of the old family relations, of the old nationalities. In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things. In all these movements they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time. Finally, they labour everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries. The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING PEOPLE OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!
No more lattes or hot yoga…
Say not of me that weakly I declined
The labours of my sires, and fled the sea,
The towers we founded and the lamps we lit,
But rather say: In the afternoon of time
A strenuous family dusted from its hands
The sand of granite, and beholding far
Along the sounding coast its pyramids
And tall memorials catch the dying sun,
Smiled well content, and to this childish task
Around the fire addressed its evening hours.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Friday, 2 September 2011
September 2nd 2011
Commodification shapes the physical process of work itself and our understanding of it. Work becomes dominated by rationalisation, a high division of labour, repetition and obsession with quantity rather than quality.
The finished article no longer appears as the object of a process at all. The fragmented process of production of the object ends up producing a fragmented subject:
‘The personality can do no more than look on helplessly while its own existence is reduced to an isolated particle fed into an alien system.’
Reification* then has three reinforcing effects on consciousness.
---It hides the real, human relations of capitalism;
---it makes the system appear as if it is driven by an inhuman, preordained logic;
----and it makes workers feel powerless to do anything about it…
that is wicked.
The abused is psychically trapped
and unable to physically move
oppressor/oppressed is best
according to Rand
and her disciples
including Alan Greenspan
and the Chicago boys…
the social has been reduced to media…
more words are being produced
about the same old problems…
even i the great canadian author
will be writing a report
on why the
remittance campaign
is a failure of the human spirit,
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@2
one group of
mothers and fathers
leave their children
to come work
raising the children
of other
…………..>>
mother and father
Filipino nannies,
poor people
from oppressed
worlds
are in demand
english is better
((((((((((((((((
capitalism does not
include a human element…
the relationship is transactional…
how many units for me?
how many units for you?
surplus is good.
((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))
we say the global economy
is collapsing and if it does
there goes the business of aid…
*************
if the transaction is a
hierarchal communication
based on might,
whether physical,
monetary, psychically
is not seen as cool
and is in fact
heating up the air…
with pollution and bad poetry
%%%%
and the usa
has a hold
on the Philippines
and the bases in
the middle east
00000000
this at first glance
would appear irrelevant
Thursday, 1 September 2011
September 1, 2011
Hung-over…
not in that terrible
15 beer way
a nice 6 beer evening
with Chinese food
before sex
and sex
before sleep.
I have been fantasizing about a large breasted waitress lately and volunteering four hours a day for ACORN international where I am selling the founders books and am suppose to be writing a report on the Pilipino remittance industry.
This is supposed to be the country we are modeling regarding remittance fees. The money that poor people send back home is being taxed by the rich people, taxed by the banks, but if we ACORN and World Bank get out way these fees will be capped at 5%.
The World Bank says competition will bring these fees lower and ACORN says we need to have government regulation.
Living in a corporate state is not the same as democracy. If corporations can touch and charge upon everything you do they are happy.
you are merely a beneficiary and not an active participant in the sway of life…
you are constantly receiving and being told you should be receiving more…this is entitlement which is benefit without effort and an expectation of such…everything is amazing and epic and awesome.
Went to an open mike to see a band and they were ok.
As we entered the parkade, June and I, I heard this deep laughter shake the night. I could see no one. I walked to the front of my car and looked over the edge. Two men were standing there and one was sticking a needle in to his wrist. I was not surprised and got in the passenger side. I was too drunk to drive.
a guy said it is about game theory and this is how the marketing people are shaping your life.
this is not a story about a slacker well yes it kind of is.