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Friday, June 29, 2007

Hide's Bill Clears First Hurdle

Rodney Hide's Regulatory Responsibility Bill has defied the odds and been sent to select committee by a massive majority of 114 to 6.

All party's in Parliament voted to send the bill forward except the Greens.

What's so great about Rodney's bill?

I quote ACT MP Heather Roy;

ACT's Regulatory Responsibility Bill is the legislative equivalent of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants says it's the most significant Bill to come before Parliament since 1994 (when the Fiscal Responsibility Act was passed).

ACT's RRB would apply a 'red-tape' test to all new and existing legislation. Basic questions about legislation would have to be asked ... and answered. Questions like: 'what is it for?' 'What's the problem?' 'What's the cost?'

Impacts on property rights, freedom of choice and the right to contract would have to be spelled out. The Bill would make political decision-making more transparent and politicians more accountable.

It's no mean achievement to produce a Bill of this magnitude - when National was in Government it tried for years but couldn't get a Bill written. It's unheard of for an 'Opposition' Party to gain such support for such a significant Bill. That's what ACT can achieve with just two MPs. Imagine what we could do with a few more!


Congratulations Rodney-best of luck with the next stage.

Nyquist on War in the Middle East

US commentator Jeff Nyquist doesn't mince words.

Here is an abridged version of his take on the looming war in the Middle East.


The Syrian army has been mobilized and is digging defensive positions. Syrian military leaders have been meeting with Iranian military leaders to coordinate war preparations. The Russians and Chinese have been sending significant arms shipments to Syria, including advanced MiG-31 fighters, Chinese-made C-802 anti-ship missiles, Metis-M and Kornet anti-tank missiles (used to stop the Israeli offensive in Lebanon last year), and sophisticated anti-air missiles. A new generation of Russian weapons, fielded after the “collapse” of the Soviet Union, have strengthened Syria’s overall military position. It is not that Syria can defeat Israel in a ground war. It is a question of improved attrition capabilities. The Israeli military has a low tolerance for attrition.

The Syrians seem to expect an attack on their country. The Syrian government is allegedly moving sensitive state archives out of Damascus. Rockets are being sent to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. What is going on? Is a major terrorist strike being contemplated against Israel? Will this strike involve chemical, biological or nuclear weapons? Will this strike implicate Syria? Without a simultaneous Egyptian attack on Israel from the south, Syria cannot successfully make war on Israel from the north. And yet, Syria feels that war is coming. It’s as if the Syrians know something is going to happen.

Iran and Syria may be militarily weak compared to Israel and the United States, but political cracks have appeared on the U.S. side. Washington may prove helpless. The Middle East is a powder keg, ready to explode. The Israelis and the Americans want peace. But every olive branch has proved a snare. The Syrians and their Iranian allies want blood. And blood they shall have. The Bush administration says the Syrians are “fueling the war in Iraq.” The Iranians are doing the same.

These regional powers seek to benefit from America’s Iraq invasion, and they expect to expand their power when America inevitably retreats. . Two high-ranking Iranian military delegations visited Damascus recently to coordinate plans for a future Middle East war. The Syrians and Iranians intend to “intensify their terrorist operations against U.S. and British troops.”

Iran and Syria have a mutual defense pact. Both are being supplied with Russian and Chinese weapons, and both are expecting a war by the end of summer. How will the war start? Perhaps it will begin with an American preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Perhaps the troop surge has convinced them of Bush’s aggressive intentions. But the troop surge has proved disappointing. More likely, the Syrians and Iranians think that Bush is politically crippled and incapable of a major offensive. If the Bush administration were consistent and logical, and completely contemptuous of public opinion, then an attack on Syria and Iraq could occur. Some have argued that President Bush is actively preparing for a wider war in the Middle East. But this is doubtful.

The strategy of Iran and Syria, like the strategy of Muslim terrorists, is manipulated by Moscow and Beijing. It is Moscow’s timetable that carries the most weight. Moscow supplies the needed weapons, and the intelligence assessments.

According to the late Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer assassinated by Russian operatives last November, Moscow wants America to be bogged down in a Middle East war. Top leaders in al Qaeda are Russian agents. The Russians trained many terrorist leaders in Gaza and the West Bank. And Russia is well served by growing violence in Lebanon. Middle East conflict keeps oil prices high, and that makes money for oil-rich Russia. The American economy is thereby weakened.

War is a good thing for powers that seek to exploit trouble.

Green MP Praises Visiting Marxist Icon

Angela Davis was a former associate of the US Black Panther Party.


At one point she was the subject of a huge FBI manhunt for the murder of US judge Harold Haley during an attempted Black Panther prison break, but was tried and aquitted.

Davis and earned one of her university degrees in East Germany.

She was a leading member of the then Stalinist, Communist Party USA and was their vice Presidential candidate in 1980 and 1984.

In 1992, she left the CPUSA to help lead the Committees of Correspondence, a slightly more "democratic" Marxist organisation.

Davis is still active in Coc (now known as CC for Democracy and Socialism) and is now a leading campaigner for prison abolition.

Green Party MP. Tandor Tanczos, went along to Angela Davis' talk in Wellington this week.


From Frogblog

Went to see Angela Davis speak this evening. I’ve been looking forward to it since I found out that she was coming to Aotearoa to speak. So was half of Wellington it seemed because the lecture theatre in Rutherford House was full and they has to turn some 200 people away. They had an overflow room where her speech was broadcast live and she took the time before she spoke to go and have a word with those who missed out.

Which I guess was the first indication of a great generosity of spirit that clearly came through her talk. A woman who faced capital charges in the USA three times for her work for justice, a woman that (then Governor) Ronald Reagan vowed would never teach in a university in California again, now a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz. But it wasn’t just her piercing intellect and profound analysis, but also her warm humanity that really shone through.

She focussed first and, in summing up, last, on the strength of ordinary people, when committed and organised, to change the world for the better. She spoke of the enormous international solidarity of progressive people that has been demonstrated at times, including in campaigning against her unfair detention and trial in the 60’s, and asked why anyone would think it is not possible to display that again, and in a consistent way. She spoke of how by building community, we can take back our world. And she highlighted her point by talking about a subject that has been the core of her work for the past four decades – the abolition of prisons.


I wonder if Nandor would be so gushing about a "wrongly imprisoned" former Nazi or "white supremacist"?

More Communist "Obamania"

In recent years, the US Democratic Party aligned "progressive" left has held an annual Take Back America conference.

Organised by the Campaign for America's Future, the conference gathers up to 3,000 unionists and activists, including supporters of Progressive Democrats of America, Democratic Socialists of America, the Communist Party and Young Communist League.

It's a chance for the Democrats presidential contenders to woo leftist support and get the hard core activists on their side.

According to the Communist Party's People's Weekly World, Hillary Clinton didn't do so well, John Edwards did very well, but the CPUSA's idol, Barack Obama came out on top.

As the CPUSA's Terry Albano notes "Obama certainly got rock star status."



WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards topped a straw poll of liberal and progressive activists at the Take Back America conference here June 20.

At the 3,000-person conference Obama certainly got rock star status. The atmosphere was indeed electrifying and the crowd seemed to appreciate his “vision” speech designed to inspire even the most cynical into believing that hope is still alive.

Overall, Obama polled at 29 percent, Edwards at 26 percent, Hillary Clinton at 17 percent, Bill Richardson at 9 percent, and Al Gore — a write-in — at 8 percent, topping left favorite Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich who got 5 percent. Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware all got 1 percent. Gravel was the only one of the last three who addressed the conference, introduced by Ralph Nader, who got a lukewarm reception.

Clinton polled higher among women than among men, drawing numbers very close to Obama and Edwards: Clinton, 22 percent; Edwards, 25 percent; and Obama, 27 percent.

But Obama’s vision appeared to resonate profoundly among voters aged 18-29, who gave him a whopping 40 percent.

With the first primaries still six-plus months away, there is still a lot of campaigning ahead. This poll is really an indication of the struggle over the direction of the Democratic Party and who among its base will be in the driver’s seat.

Progressives, energized by the 2006 congressional victory and hungry for a 2008 sweep, have some momentum, fueled by broad public opinion wanting real change on Iraq and health care. But there is still a ways to go to turn that into a committed grassroots operation that can win the hearts and minds of voters from Augusta, Ga., to Zanesville, Ohio.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

How Will This Feed The Poor of Venezuela, Hugo?

From Novosti

MOSCOW, June 27 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will arrive in the Russian capital Wednesday.


Russian experts said contracts on supplies of new armaments to Venezuela could be signed during the visit, and that Venezuela could buy up to nine Project 636 Kilo-class diesel submarines.

"Five Project 636 submarines with missile munitions are likely to be bought," Konstantin Makiyenko, an expert with Russia's Technology Strategy Analysis Center, said. "But in the end Venezuela could buy nine submarines."

Russian business daily Kommersant said earlier in June that during his visit to Russia, Chavez could finalize a deal to purchase Russian diesel submarines for the Venezuelan Navy. The contract reportedly is for the supply of five Project 636 Kilo-class diesel submarines and four state-of-the-art Project 677 Amur submarines.

The value of the contracts, depending on the final size of the order, is estimated at $1-2 billion, the paper said, citing its own sources in the defense industry.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said earlier that Russia-Venezuela trade last year reached $90 million, and that both countries are interested in further mutually beneficial cooperation in the trade and economic sphere.

He said the fuel and energy sectors play a key role in the two countries' economies, adding that Russian energy companies Gazprom, LUKoil, Zarubezhneftegaz and others are increasing their presence on the Venezuelan market.

Venezuela is the world's second-largest importer of Russian military hardware after Algeria. In 2005-2006, it ordered $3.4 billion worth of hardware and weaponry from Russia, including 24 Su-30MK2V Flanker fighters, Tor-M1 air defense missile systems, Mi-26 Halo heavy transport helicopters, and 100,000 AK-103 Kalashnikov assault rifles.


The Project 636 design is a generally improved development of the Project 877EKM Kilo class that represents an interim design between the standard Kilo-class and the new Lada project.

The submarine has improved range, firepower, acoustic characteristics and reliability, and is actively promoted on world markets by the Russian state-run arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.

Russia has repeatedly stated that it would actively participate in the modernization of the Venezuelan armed forces until 2013.

Chavez said earlier speaking on the Hello President television show that he plans to meet with Russian business circles, and visit the lower house of parliament.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Russian Communists on Comeback Trail?

From Reuters



MOSCOW, June 20 Uplifted by last month's shock win by a communist in a mayoral election in southern Russia, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov on Wednesday pledged to break the dominance of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.

But as the oil-fuelled economy grows fast -- and incomes rise even faster -- the communists face an uphill task before a December parliamentary election and March presidential polls to choose a successor to President Vladimir Putin.

"There's no 'United Russia'. My main rivals are thieves, fraudsters and anti-democratic media," a frowned Zyuganov told a news conference in trademark bellicose language, when asked about his party's chances against United Russia.

"United Russia is not a party, this is Putin's devoted special force. If Putin quits, it'll leave the scene very fast."

Zyuganov's party, successor to the all-powerful Soviet communists, has just over 10 percent of seats in the lower Duma house. United Russia, personally patronised by Putin, enjoys a two-thirds majority.

Zyuganov did not run for president in 2004 when Putin was re-elected by more than 70 percent of votes. The outspoken communist now says he may run for president in March 2008.

The Communist Party, with 162,000 members, plans to target the votes of the nation's 37 million farmers in a sector hit by a post-Soviet crisis.

Undecided youths are another target, Zyuganov said. Sociologists and rivals say elderly people form much of Zyuganov's current electorate.

"In general, Russia is a leftist nation and whatever one might say, leftist ideas will only get stronger," he said.

CPA Calls for Defeat of Howard Government

The Communist Party of Australia doesn't like John Howard's government.

From the CPA's Guardian

The CPA is committed to doing its utmost to contribute to the defeat of the Coalition government and does not support the recent actions of the Coalition in laying out which union officials are not fit to be members of the ALP, and their subsequent forced resignations.

The CPA calls for the greatest unity of progressive forces in Australia to work for the defeat of the Howard government at the upcoming Federal Elections.

S.A.P. 15 Pala Molisa-Bolshevik Beancounter

No longer confined to sociology, history, political science, law and the like, Marxism (or "Critical Theory") has invaded university accounting departments.

My latest Socialist Academic Profile looks at "critical accountant", Pala Moisa, a lecturer in Victoria University's Accounting Department.


The son of the late leftist Vanuatuan politician/activist, Grace Molisa, young Pala Molisa has been hanging around Victoria university for the last few years.

He's been active in the radical dominated Post Graduate Student's Association alongside the likes of Alistair Shaw and Graeme Whimp.

According to his official bio;

Molisa's teaching interests are in the areas of critical accounting, sustainability accounting, management accounting and financial accounting. Pala is a FRST (Foundation for Research Science and Technology) funded researcher in the area of sustainability assessment using social accounting technologies. Pala's research interests include examining the relationships between accounting and society drawing on literatures from critical theory, sustainability, and accountability.

He regularly attends gatherings and conferences where he delivers fascinating papers like "Accounting Harmony, Neo-Gramscian Discord: A New Zealand Perspective"

Check out this gem from Molisa's 2005 paper "Towards a Critical Accountability for Social and Environmental Accounting".

To aid in my exposition I draw on two theorists who have written extensively on consciousness and the role of education in social transformation: Karl Marx and Paulo Freire.

I use Marx for his revolutionary theory of consciousness, which provides us with historical and materialistexplanations for how consciousness arises. His theory of consciousness provides us with valuable heuristics for informing and critiquing accounting engagements and interventions.

Freire is used because he extends Marx's theory of consciousness by directly addressing the role of learning and communication in making consciousness more critical. Although known primarily as an educator, Freire also makes original contributions to socialist revolutionary strategy and thus offers a rich set of insights on how transformation can be pursued whilst we are caught within capitalist social relations.

After formulating Marx's theory of consciousness and Freire's dialogic approach to education, I explore some of the implications their ideas have for the emancipatory accountings (and here, I am thinking primarily about the critical and social accounting projects)

I also deploy them to evaluate some of the accountability frameworks that are being developed in the social accounting literature by assessing how they approach consciousness and the educational characteristics that they have.

This conversation should be taking place in light of recent accountability research that suggests that much of social accounting theory and practice, rooted as it is in the liberal democratic tradition and the logic of reformism remains incapable of transcending capital’s social universe or the concomitant instrumentalism and violence that this social system engenders..

This paper then draws on Marx, who offers perhaps the most comprehensive explanation of capitalism's essential structure and dynamic tendencies offers resources for theorising the abolition of capital itself.

I use Freire because he offers a strategic approach to social change that recognises the pervasiveness of relations of oppression and exploitation.

His educational approach to social transformation utilises learning opportunities as pre-figurative struggles to prepare people for revolution, thus working through, in and against antagonistic social forms.

His educational approach is useful in informing our critical and social accounting engagements, for example, with organisational representatives (i.e. managers) or stakeholders.

This paper then hopes to open up some space where we can begin to imagine a world outside of capitalist social relations and also to strategise how accounting could be used to get us there.


And you thought accountants were boring!

Activist Accountants! Bolshevik beancounters! Marxist money manipulators!

Imagine if these idiots got into Treasury?

Magazine For Labour's Male Caucus Members

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Al Qaeda Calls for Alliance With Hamas

Al Qaeda's Russian trained deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri is calling for an alliance with Hamas against Israel.


From Ynet News

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader called on Muslims around the world to back Hamas with weapons, money and attacks on US and Israeli interests in a web audiotape Monday, urging the Palestinian group to unite with al-Qaeda's "holy warriors" after its takeover of Gaza.

The message from Ayman al-Zawahri, who is Osama bin Laden's top deputy, marked a major shift by al-Qaeda, which in the past criticized Hamas for joining a government with the US-supported Fatah faction.

The audiotape was clearly made after Hamas' takeover of Gaza earlier this month, marking a rapid response from al-Qaeda's top leadership to the events. Its authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but it was posted on a web forum where al-Zawahri has issued messages in the past.

Al-Zawahri urged Hamas to implement Islamic law in Gaza, telling it, "Taking over power is not a goal but a means to implement God's word on earth.

"Unite with mujahedeen (holy warriors) in Palestine ... and with all mujahedeen in the world in the face of the upcoming attack where Egyptians and Saudis are expected to play part of it
," he added, suggesting that the two countries intended to attack Hamas to uproot its control of Gaza.

"Provide them (Hamas) with money, do your best to get it there, break the siege imposed on them by Crusaders and Arab leader traitors," al-Zawahri, who is Osama bin Laden's top deputy, said, addressing Muslims around the world. "Facilitate weapons smuggling from neighboring countries."

"We can support them by targeting the Crusader and Zionist interest wherever we can," al-Zawahri said.

Hat Tip Zionist Anti Communist

Great Book For All Kiwis

Monday, June 25, 2007

Great Book for Mother-In-Laws Day


Radical Victoria University lecturer, Maria Bargh has a new book out-"Resistance: An Indigenous Response to Neoliberalism"


You can't judge a book by its cover, but you can by its "blurb".

Aotearoa is one of the world leaders of neoliberalism. Successive New Zealand governments since 1984 have pursued neoliberal policies with a faith, vehemence and confidence in their success that few other governments appear to possess.

Resistance: An Indigenous Response to Neoliberalism is a collection of papers from Māori academics, activists and leaders on the connection between global practices of neoliberalism and the diverse forms of Māori resistance which aim to destabilise it.

At a time when ‘capital flows across borders as it has never done before, and multinational companies have bigger budgets than many states have ever had,’ this book encourages people to look more closely at Māori views as integral and inspiring in a globalising world.

Resistance: An Indigenous Response to Neoliberalism is edited by Maria Bargh. The other contributors are Claire Charters, Moana Jackson, Bridget Robson, Cherryl Smith, Maui Solomon, Alice Te Punga Somerville, Annette Sykes and Teanau Tuiono
.

Think of someone you don't like and buy them a copy today.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Young Communist League Infiltrates US Democrats

The Communist Party USA and its youth wing, the Young Communist League is busily infiltrating the US Democratic Party.

The main party tends to work secretly at a high level. The YCL tends to work at the grassroots and is far more blatant.

Their stated aim is to elect socialist Democrats to the US Congress and deliver a leftist Democratic government and presidency.

The Democrats seem to welcome the young Communists into their ranks. Certainly there is no resistance.

Here are some examples from the 2004 elections which illustrate how the process works.

Shane Brinton, at 20 years old is the youngest voting member of the Humboldt County (Northern California)Democratic Party Central Committee. He is also the local contact for Progressive Democrats of America and serves on the National Council of the Young Communist League.


According to this post on the Marxism mailing list, Brindon;

spent last summer in Missouri with the CP and YCL working on electoral politics. We knocked on hundreds of doors and got a black socialist progressive (John L. Bowman) elected as a state rep. He ran as a progressive Democrat against a white right-wing anti-choice Democrat that was backed by the Republicans.

That was a battle that the party and YCL won, because we did the work. The party doesn't just talk, it works. That's why more and more young people like myself are attracted to it.


In a report to the National Committee meeting of the Communist Party on November 20, 2004, (originally delivered at a YCL conference) Jessica Marshall, YCL National Co-coordinator outlined examples of YCL electoral activity.


It's important to note here that this is a generation of young people that have no particular allegiance to the Democratic Party and show hope for the possibility of further developing independent and progressive voter coalitions and voting blocks. But this generation of voters also was mature enough to recognize the importance of uniting in this year's election to elect John Kerry and defend themselves against a President and Congress that has been wreaking havoc on our lives for quite some time. This represents a tremendous opportunity for the YCL as we continue to grow and work to build broader, progressive coalitions of youth and students.

Of particular importance to the YCL in our efforts to deepen and broaden our relations with other progressive youth and student organizations, were our YCL Midwest Summer and GOTV election projects. In July, we went to St. Louis where 13 YCLers (5 of whom stayed for the whole month) volunteered alongside the party, Planned Parenthood, CBTU, SEIU and AFSCME, and others on several campaigns including the victorious campaign of John Bowman who is here today. During that same period we sent 12 volunteers to Cleveland where volunteers worked with the Vote Mob and participated in labor walks.


Interesting that Democratic congressman Bowman, an activist with the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, should be attending a Young Communist League conference!

We worked on everything from phone banking to lit drops and led precincts in Akron for the VoteMob operation....Both the Milwaukee and Chicago YCLers worked in Wisconsin, helping to chaperone a group of 400 high school students on election day who participated in a massive knock and drag effort to get people to the polls, in addition to their work with Vozes, an immigrants rights group, the League of Conservation Voters and ACT on door-knocking and GOTV efforts.

In New York YCLers were delegates and founders of the local organizing committees of the National Hip Hop Political Convention. In Providence, Miami and Chicago YCLers helped head up the League of Pissed Off Voters efforts. YCLers staffed Democratic Party operations and headed up precincts in Ohio and Florida. A YCLer from Virginia was a canvas director for a progressive young candidate in a tight race in Ohio. In Miami, the newly formed club helped ACT organizing efforts at Miami Dade Community College.


Headed up precincts in Ohio and Florida? The US Democratic Party is notoriously weak on the ground. In some areas, the CPUSA and their allies ARE the Democratic Party.

Guess who is supporting Barack Obama?

In Chicago YCL members were very active in the Youth for Obama efforts and one member worked with the United States Student Association and his student government to register over 1,000 new voters. New York YCLers worked on the election bid of Frank Barbaro in Brooklyn and to defeat Republican Olga Mendez in Upper Manhattan. In Buffalo, YCLers worked with Citizen Action and went to work in Ohio.

The list goes on and on. Thousands of young people were registered, thousands of doors were knocked and collectively our membership learned what it takes to seriously get involved with electoral campaigns.

This was just the youth wing of the CPUSA. The far larger main party mobilised several thousand activists to help the Democrats in 2004 and 2006.

No doubt they will be out in force, campaigning for the Democrats, Edwards, Clinton or Obama in 2008.

In a tight race, a few thousand dedicated activist may make all the difference.

Why the Communist Party USA May Decide Your Future

US libertarian Tim Gordon takes issue with my post on the Communist Party USA's seeming infatuation with Barack Obama.

I quoted from an article in the CPUSA's theoretical journal, Political Affairs, by Joel Wendland, praising Obama's foreign policy positions.

I argued that Wendland was sending a message to the CPUSA faithful that Obama was worthy of their support.

Tim is apparently a friend of Joel Wendland's and had this to say;

HA! Joel may wish he had this kind of clout, or that he's in charge of the Signal Corps of the CPUSA...but hardly. I'm a libertarian, and Joel is a friend of mine. He's a father of two, US Army veteran, and loves his country.

He's also a pragmatist, and of course he's going to support whatever candidate comes closest to his belief system; wouldn't you? He caught a great deal of flack from the party-liners for supporting John Kerry, as it was either going to be Bush or Kerry that won, no CPUSA had a shot. So why not support someone who at least is on your own side of the fence?

I grew up in the cold war and still it baffles me why some are still so scared of the dreaded commies. Maybe they're a threat to you Kiwis, but if you knew how vestigial they are as a party and/or mindset in America, you'd be laughing as hard as I am.


I can understand Tim's attitude. Why would a NZ blogger care about the activities of a little known US Marxist-Leninist organisation?


Here is why.

The CPUSA is probably under 5,000 strong. However it does control or influence several large unions and has huge influence in the peace movement and in African American and Latino communities.

Most importantly it has thoroughly infiltrated the Democratic Party. The CPUSA and Young Communist League work with and inside the Democratic Party from the highest to the lowest levels.

In Congress the CPUSA is works closely with many members, including Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich. The party works closely with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which consists of nearly 70 leftist Democrats. It also works with the overlapping Progressive Democrats of America (a significant lobby group within the party) and several other Democrat linked pressure groups.

CPC and PDA and Democratic policy, regularly reflects CPUSA policy.

The CPUSA openly and covertly targets marginal congressional and Senate seats, in order to elect leftist Democrats and unseat Republicans.

It deservedly takes significant credit for the Democratic victory in the 2006 US mid term elections and is focused on increasing the Democrat's majority and electing a Democrat president in 2008.

Several past, some major and several minor Democrat presidential candidates, including Dennis Kucinich and former US ambassador to NZ, Carol Moseley-Braun have had CPUSA links. The 2008 election may however prove embarrassment of riches for the CPUSA.

All three leading Democratic presidential contenders, Edwards, Clinton and Obama have radical backgrounds, particularly the latter two.

The CPUSA will try to secure the Democratic nomination "its" candidate. It will then throw all its resources behind the Democrats to ensure the republicans are put to the sword.

Many recent US elections have been won by a tiny percentage of votes. It is entirely credible that a well organised CPUSA could deliver the US to the Democrats.

Picture an US Congress and Senate dominated by leftist Democrats and led by a socialist president.

That will have huge implications for us all.

The US has been the major bulwark against Nazism, Communism and radical Islam in the last 60 years. The US has kept large chunks of the world free.

Imagine a US government and presidency controlled by socialists.

The CPUSA wants to see that happen. It also has power and leverage enough to make it happen.

That's why I think the CPUSA merits our attention.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

How The West Was Subverted

This essay was posted anonymously on the comments section of this post.

It is too good not to post in its own right. It is a very good precis of the subversion that has changed western culture so dramatically in the last 60 years.

Slightly abridged.

The extreme left has for decades agitated among various minority groups in order to bring about the breakdown of our existing society and its replacement with a model of their own choosing.

The three main roadblocks to its goal of a secular and socialist world order are private property (which provides material independence from state power), the family (which affords loyalties prior to the state), and religion (which claims authority above that of the state).

Homosexual activism was long ago identified by Marxist-Leninists as a social force to be harnessed and directed to undermine the traditional family and the Judeo-Christian foundation of Western culture, thus expanding the role of the state into personal relationships once thought to lie beyond its purview.

The collectivist, totalitarian notions underlying this power-grab stem directly from revolutionary Marxism.


Marx held that individuals are the products of social and class environments, making them pawns of forces they are incapable of transcending without the intervention of an activist government. His followers (whether of the revolutionary or ballot-box variety), regard mankind as essentially stupid and wicked. Luckily, there is a cadre of self-anointed intellectuals who are better, wiser and kinder than their fellow man. They alone possess the knowledge and methods needed to construct a planned social order. It is their right, and indeed their duty, to ascend to political power and re-order society according to this blueprint.

Socialists regard equality of condition as the only natural and morally desirable state of affairs. Inequalities, once identified, are to be minimised or eradicated through state action redistributing wealth and power. The therapeutic state is the natural instrument for the betterment of the human condition, and only the coercive power of Big Government can purge people of their greed, selfishness, prejudice and bigotry.

In meeting these objectives, rights are something to be forcibly taken from one group and doled out to other preferred groups as determined by social activists. As Lenin once said, “Freedom is so precious it must be rationed.” Collective or group rights therefore flow not from any ethical principle, but from the political agendas of those who wanting to impose their normative world view on everyone else by force.

The Origin of Group Rights

Since the 1960s, the West has increasingly abandoned its grounding in individual rights and shifted to a variety of “collective entitlements.” Identity politics means that anyone identifying as “oppressed” is entitled to special political representation and subsidisation at the expense of the rest of society, purely on the basis of group membership.

The notion that particular groups of people meet together secretly or in private to plan various courses of action, and that some of these plans actually exert a significant influence on particular historical developments is typically rejected out of hand and dismissed as the figment of a paranoid imagination.

In this case, the evidence is clear, and overwhelming. “Group rights” were dreamed up and promoted by Marxist-Leninists looking to overthrow our existing society in the furtherance of their control freak nightmares.

Marx claimed that society is evolving inexorably toward socialism through a process called dialectical materialism. An existing condition (thesis) comes into conflict with a new condition (antithesis) that is attempting to emerge. Out of the dialectical conflict between these two opposing forces a new, higher condition (synthesis) emerges. This is then put through the process again as the new thesis, until socialism is achieved.


Lenin expanded Marx’s dialectical analysis from its early focus on economic relationships to take in social and political relationships, thus widening the role of the revolutionary as a change agent. The task of the revolutionary was now to identify and exploit pressure points for dialectical conflict, thus undermining the legitimacy of the existing social and political order, and hastening the eventual triumph of socialism.

In the 1930s, Stalin devised a strategy for weakening and subverting democratic societies that changed the nature of revolutionary politics forever, while profoundly increasing the threat that revolutionaries posed. Until then, Communist parties in non-Communist countries had openly declared their anti-capitalist, anti-Western and anti-democratic agendas. They called for the “dictatorship of the proletariat” and advocated “civil war” in the western democracies to bring this about. Because most people in free societies remained unconvinced of the need for a violent socialist revolution, Communists remained a fringe minority with little political clout.

In 1935, the Communist parties adopted a new tactic, which they dubbed the Popular Front. The agendas of the Popular Front were framed in terms of the fundamental values of the societies the Communists meant to destroy. In place of the “dictatorship of the proletariat” and “international civil war,” the Communists organised coalitions for “democracy, justice and peace.”

Nothing changed in the philosophy and goals of the Communists, but by seemingly advocating “democracy, justice and peace” they were able to forge broad alliances with individuals and groups who had no inkling of their true agendas, or believed them to be less sinister and dangerous than they were.

Communists initially selected as prime targets various racial, religious and national minorities, and intellectual groups that exerted a direct effect on public opinion. Working through the Popular Fronts they formed with “liberal” factions, the Communists were able to hide their conspiratorial activities, form “peace,” and “human rights” movements, and greatly increase their numbers by mobilising non-Communists to do their work for them. These are the people that Lenin referred to as “useful idiots.”

Groups who can be helped by Communists to see that they are “marginalised” from capitalist society due to their race, gender, class and sexual preference have long proved particularly fertile ground for those looking to promote dialectical conflict.

Gramsci and Gay Activism


The notion that homosexuals are an oppressed group or class first gained broader currency through the efforts of university professors influenced by Antonio Gramsci, one of the many disreputable Communists enshrined as intellectual icons by the academic left.

As an innovative Stalinist in the 1930s, Gramsci pondered the historic inability of Communist parties to mobilise workers to seize the means of production and overthrow the capitalist ruling classes. He saw that Western society, steeped in traditions of freedom and liberty, would never succumb to a frontal assault and its workers were too busy accumulating capital to be cannon fodder for a socialist revolution.

Gramsci responded by expanding Marx’s ranks of the oppressed from workers alone to include other “marginalised groups” such as women, racial minorities and homosexuals. Due to the ideological supremacy of the existing powerful groups in society, said Gramsci, these groups lacked consciousness of their own oppression. By internalising the value systems and world views of the privileged groups, they had consented to their own marginalisation.

For a revolutionary social transformation to occur, the revolution must therefore first take place at the level of consciousness. Gramsci saw intellectuals as having a key role in delegitimising and unmasking the dominant belief systems of the predominant groups to empower “marginalised groups.” He urged radicals to acquire “cultural hegemony” by which he meant capturing the institutions that produce society’s governing ideas. Helping “marginalised groups” to an awareness of their own class oppression would be the key to controlling and transforming the society itself. Universities were to be first-line political weapons in this “war of position.”

The Dictatorship of the Professoriate

Marxist intellectuals first slithered into the academy in the 1930s. They covertly increased their numbers over succeeding decades, and by the 1960s were a significant presence at universities throughout the Western world. After achieving critical mass in the liberal arts faculties, particularly those dealing with the study of society itself, they systematically excluded anyone holding viewpoints outside the leftist spectrum.

Many academics now see themselves not primarily as educators, but as agents of an “adversary culture” at war with the world outside the university. Their agenda is to produce students who will go forth from the academy as “agents of social change,” committed to achieving “social justice” for the “marginalised groups” Gramsci had identified.

For three decades students have been taught that rather than living in free societies, they are trapped in a wicked caste system of race, gender class and sexual orientation crying out for revolutionary change. There are few, if any dissenting voices. Under the saturating drumbeat of this “cultural pessimism,” many intellectuals from “dominant groups” were induced to “switch sides” as Gramsci had envisaged.

Useful Idiots

After their consciousness-raising by Marxist academics, intellectuals from “subordinate groups” and those from “dominant groups” induced to throw in their lot with the “oppressed” moved from the academy directly into government, the media, entertainment, the trade unions, the churches, the education system and other opinion-shaping activities or careers. Once there, they worked tirelessly to promote the Marxist-Leninist agenda. As a result, the values of a free society have been subjected to three decades of unrelenting attack from within.

Two kinds of intellectuals are pushing the notion of homosexuals as a “marginalised” or “oppressed” group. The first is a numerically small hard-core left wing activist class that derives a sense of intellectual superiority from knowing it is manipulating the situation. The second consists of large numbers of passive enablers who have unwittingly embraced socialist doctrines, largely because their leftist professors ensured that they were never exposed to intellectual alternatives.

Friedrich Hayek describes this second group as “the docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions of their own, but are prepared to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into them sufficiently loudly and often enough.” Having internalised the system of values on which their membership of “club virtue” depends, they have a strong emotional resistance to having it questioned. With people like these, you either agree with them, or you are racist, sexist, homophobic, uneducated, uninformed, or just plain stupid.

US political columnist Joe Sobran uses the metaphor of a hive of bees, united by a kind of “group mind,” to describe the informal body of leftist opinion making up this “useful idiot” class. There’s no central direction as such, but the bees can sense an enemy, and know when to attack.

Sobran says, “To become a bee in this hive is to surrender, voluntarily and eagerly, your own personality: to submerge the self in a collectivity; to prefer the buzzing cliché of the group to individual thought and expression; to take satisfaction in belonging and conforming to a powerful mass while punishing others for failure to conform … The similarity to an insect colony - where the individual exists only functionally, being both indistinguishable from and interchangeable with its fellows - is not superficial, it is of the essence. To be an insect is to be relieved of the burden of having a soul of your own.”

Political scientist Eric Hoffer is another who provides a penetrating insight into the collectivist mentality. Hoffer saw that mass-movements are an outlet for people whose individual significance is miniscule in the eyes of the world and - more important - in their own eyes. He pointed out that the leaders of the Nazi movement were men whose artistic and intellectual aspirations were wholly frustrated, as were the Bolshevik leaders.

Those drawn to collectivist ideologies are invariably people with a pressing need for self-inflation and ego-boosting (generally in the absence of any real claims in that direction). As Hoffer makes clear: “The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim excellence for his nation, his religion, his race, or his holy cause.”

People who are fulfilled in their own lives and careers are unlikely to be attracted to mass movements: “A man is likely to mind his own business when it worth minding,” Hoffer said. “When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.”

The “Godfather” of the Gay Rights Movement


The person most responsible for bringing "gay rights" issues to the forefront of Western social discourse is an obscure American “civil rights” campaigner named Harry Hay. In the 1930s, Hay renounced his family's privileged social status to become a Marxist-Leninist agitator. He married a political colleague; the couple adopted two children and for years worked together to advance the Communist cause in various parts of America. Throughout his youth and marriage, Harry Hay fought a homosexual orientation. By 1950, he had abandoned his wife and children to fully embrace a homosexual lifestyle.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the Communist Party of the U.S.A. (of which Hay and several gay friends were members) frowned on homosexuality in Marxist-Leninist ranks. But Hay and his friends remained unconvinced that their sexual preference necessarily represented a liability to the advancement of socialism.

Hay had read Gramsci. He had also read Alfred Kinsey's groundbreaking Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male (1948) and been struck by Kinsey's finding that about 10% of men Kinsey surveyed had been "exclusively homosexual" for at least some significant part of their lives. If Kinsey's 10% figure was even close to accurate, Hay reasoned, homosexuals must represent a large and significant group that could be mobilised to advance the socialist cause. Hay soon concluded that the general public's sympathy could be aroused for gay people if homosexuals were painted as yet another "oppressed minority" in need of liberation and government advocacy.

In 1950, Hay and a number of fellow Marxist-Leninist intellectuals founded the Mattachine Society, America's first "homosexual activist" organization. Its ostensible goals were to educate the public about homosexuality and work for the repeal of the (at that time) 48 States' so-called "sodomy laws" (which viewed homosexual behaviour as a criminal offence).

Capitalising on still-unsevered social connections, Hay and his fellow Mattachines traversed America addressing various audiences and spread their views still further through an ever-widening circle of influential publications. Inspired by the Mattachines, several lesbian intellectuals founded a "sister" organization, the Daughters of Bilitis, in 1955.

In line with Marxist-Leninist “Popular Front” doctrine, Harry Hay’s claim that homosexuals were both a sexual and a political "minority" welded together sexuality and politics. With constant repetition, Hay's propaganda claim -- "homosexuals are an oppressed minority" -- has come to resonate strongly with many “useful idiots” concerned with minority “civil rights.”

But “civil rights” is just a fish hook to attract the support of respectable people, who are then persuaded that the social suffering of homosexuals can be alleviated only by the radical social change gay activists are demanding.

Gay activists regard legal recognition of same-sex partners as the first step in securing gay marriage and adoption rights, thus relegating heterosexual marriage to just another lifestyle option among many. Publications meant for a homosexual readership today openly state that the gay activist agenda is to subvert and destroy heterosexual marriage.

Behind this push is the Marxist-Leninist propaganda claim that the formative family normalises heterosexual relations, thus marginalising alternative sexualities. Gay activists (whether they know it or not) are being used as a cat’s-paw to advance the Marxist-Leninist agenda of eradicating the formative family as the basic building block of civil society.

Gay activism is therefore highly dangerous to the established social order. If gay activist demands are met, the Marxist anti-family agenda moves a step closer to completion.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Russia/Iran "Strategic Ties"

From Islamic Republic News Agency

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the current relations between Iran and Russia is of strategic nature and there is no rivalry between the two nations.

According to the press bureau of the Presidential Office, Ahmadinejad made the remarks in his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The two sides' relations are not superficial but very strategic, he underlined.

"Our alliance roots in history and the two sides should try to stay away from any kind if rivalry which bears no fruits," he underlined.

Iran's nuclear standoff will finally be solved after many ups and downs, he said, adding that "We carry out our work under supervision of IAEA and call for a good and unlimited ties with Russia, believing that a powerful Iran would benefit Russia."

The Russian foreign minister, for his part, said the relations between Tehran and Moscow are strategic although some foreign powers seek to mar their relations. But as President Putin has time and again declared Iran poses no threat to Russia and the region.

Socialist Worker Members and Supporters List-Information Required

Below is a list of known members, supporters or "hangarounds" of NZ's leading Trotskyist organisation, Socialist Worker.

Many of those listed may no longer be supporters. Where relevant I include the time period where the named indivuidual was connected to SW.

I am trying to complete a comprehensive list of the organisation's membership.

If you know of members or supporters I have not named, or have further information on those I have, or think names have been wrongly included, please email me on trevor.loudon@paradise.net.nz

SW was formed partly from the old Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ), so membership in that organisation is listed.

Affiliations to SW front groups such as the Solidarity Union, Climaction, Residents Action Movement and Venezuela/Aotearoa Solidarity Team are also indicated.

Allison, Percy Retired barber, Auckland. Close to SW, Poverty Action Coalition official. Probable ex CPNZ.

Archer, Don SW Central Committee, Christchurch, meatworker, UNITE volunteer. Ex CPNZ.

Archer, Emma SW supporter, Christchurch, late 90s. Don Archer's daughter.

Brookes, Grant SW Central Committee, Wellington. Nurses Union activist.

Buchanan, Sandra SW member, Wellington, early '00s.

Buckley, Tom SW member, Auckland. UNITE union official.

Carolan, Joe SW Central Committee. Involved in Solidarity Union, Climaction, Venezuela/Aotearoa Solidarity Team.

Colyer, David, SW member Christchurch and Auckland.

Crook, Ross SW National Executive, Hamilton, late '90s. Ex CPNZ.

Dobson, Jan SW supporter, Christchuch, late '90s. Wife of Don Archer. Probable Ex CPNZ.

Edmond, Fran SW Canterbury University, mid '90s.

Espinoza, Julia SW member, Auckland. Involved in Solidarity Union, Climaction, Venezuela/Aotearoa Solidarity Team.

Farris, Gordon SW Central Committee, Wellington. Ex CPNZ.

Foley, Roy SW member, Christchurch, early '00s. Ex CPNZ.

Forbes, Kane SW member Palmerston North and Auckland. Musician, about to depart for Australia.

Fala, Tony SW member, Auckland.

Fowler, Roger Close to SW, director of Mangere East Community Learning Centre (Auckland). Ex CPNZ.

Francois, Natasha SW member, Auckland, early '00s.

Gardiner, Stewart SW supporter, Auckland, late '90s.

Glockling, Mitch SW member, Wellington, early '00s.

Gunson, Vaughn SW Central Committee, polytech lecturer, Whangarei.

Haines, Tony Close to SW, Auckland

Hornfeck, Bernie SW Central Committee, retired Rotorua. UNITE union volunteer. Ex CPNZ.

Hughes, Peter SW Central Committee, Auckland. Ex CPNZ.

Hughes, Robyn Close to SW. Residents Action Movement Aucland Regional Councillor. Partner of Grant Morgan.

Jones, George SW member, retired teacher, Tauranga. Ex CPNZ.

Kelly, Joseph SW, Victoria University, Wellington, early '00s.

Kemp, Darren SW member, Christchurch and Wellington.

Lawless, Daphne SW Central Committee, Auckland. Musician and editor of SW's "Unity".

Lyall, Heather SW member in Auckland and Hamilton. Social worker, partner of Joe Carolan.

Anna Lee close to SW. Teacher and unionist. Wife of Barry Lee. Ex CPNZ.

Lee, Barry SW National Executive, Auckland, late '90s. Ex CPNZ.

Lee, Sara SW, Auckland university late '90s. Daughter of Barry and Anna Lee.

Ma'u, Sione SW supporter, Auckland. Was active in Residents Action Movement. Currently, lecturer in USA.

Massey, Nik Close to SW, Auckland, early '00s. Official Residents Action Movement

Minto, John Close to SW, teacher and columnist, Auckland

Morgan, Grant SW Central Committee, until recently SW General Secretary. Residents Action Movement leader, was a leader of Solidarity Union. Ex CPNZ.

Morris, Geoff SW supporter, Christchurch, late '90s.

Newton, Maxine SW member, Rotorua, late '90s.

O'Dea, Jimmy SW member, retired, Auckland. Ex CPNZ.

O'Dea, Kevin SW member, Auckland. driver, son of Jimmy. Ex CPNZ.

O'Dea, Pat SW member, Auckland. electrician and unionist, son of Jimmy. Ex CPNZ.

Parker, Dean Close to SW, writer, Auckland

Parker, Len SW Central Committee, Auckland. retired, Residents Action Movement official. Ex CPNZ.

Potts, Anna SW member, Wellington.

Ramsey, Jemma SW Auckland University, early '00s. Was model for Residents Action Movement hoardings in 2005

Snelling-Berg, Tony SW Central Committee, Tauranga.

Stanley, Georgina SW Canterbury University, late '90s.

Stevens, Julie SW member, Christchurch, early '00s.

Sullivan, Robyn SW Canterbury University, mid '90s.

Tait, Tahae Close to SW, Rotorua. Works for Blind foundation. Ex CPNZ.

Ward, Maurice SW supporter, Christchuch, mid '90s. Currently working in Japan. Ex CPNZ.

Webster, Kyle SW member in Dunedin, Christchurch and West Coast. Nurse.

Young, Graeme SW supporter, Christchurch, mid '90s. Unionist, ex CPNZ.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

I Hope This Doesn't Offend Any Lezzyfems, Human Rights Commission Softc%*$s, Mummy's Boy SNAGS, Fundies, Wowsers or Humourless PC Tossers


How Real Men use Post-its.

UN Backs Down on Investigating Cuban Human Rights Abuses

This is disgusting, but par for the course from that moral cesspool, the UN.

The UN was to send a special "rapporteur" to investigate Cuban human rights abuses, but Castro and co. have succeeded in getting the project canned.

So the gutless UN can't even send someone to investigate one of the worst regimes on the planet. They're not even up to doing a "whitewash".

From Cuba's La Prensa Latina


Havana, Jun 20 Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said on Wednesday that the United Nations Human Rights Council"s decision to cancel the mandate of the so-called special rapporteur on Cuba is an indispensable act of justice with the Caribbean island.

At a press conference at the headquarters of Cuba"s Foreign Ministry, Perez Roque said that the UNHRC"s decision, approved by all 47 member countries, is also "a resounding, undisputable and historic victory of Cuban diplomacy." The decision is an indispensable act of justice that the international community owed to the people of Cuba, said Perez Roque, adding that it is an end to 20 years of US manipulation of the human rights issue in the former UN Commission.

At the conclusion of the fifth session of the new Geneva-based committee, the members put an end to the mandate of the personal representative of the UN High Human Rights Commissioner, France"s Christine Chanet.

Perez Roque dedicated what he called a splendid victory to President Fidel Castro, who, he said, "with his teachings and leadership taught us to resist on the basis of truth, on the basis of principles, without getting down on our knees or yielding."

He also lauded the Cuban people"s sacrifice for more than 15 years of economic hardships, called Special Period, and added that the result has the additional value of having occurred "amid brutal pressure by the US government." According to the Cuban foreign minister, a cycle is over and Washington lacks pretexts to maintain the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed on Havana for nearly half a century.

The Cuban foreign minister pointed out that the countries of the European Union did not dare break the consensus and voted for Cuba, which was initially backed by more than 20 delegations, to which he expressed gratitude for their solidarity.

Garry Gets it Right on Election Spending!

David Farrar at Kiwiblog posts on last Friday's Victoria University symposium on electoral funding hosted by Transparency International and the VUW Institute of Policy Studies.

Speaker and former Speaker Margaret WIlson and Doug Kidd "spoke", as did the CEO of the Electoral Commission, Helena Catt and former National Party general manager Steven Joyce.

Worker's Party blogger Bryce Edwards was there as well as his old Otago Uni comrade, pro "state funding for political parties" activist and legal academic Andrew Geddis.

The presidents of most, if not all parliamentary political parties were present including ACT's Garry Mallett.

According to David Farrar;

ACT's Gary Mallett was pretty controversial for saying he regarded it as a bad thing to even be discussing limits. He did have useful points (also made by ) that the amount of money a party spends has remarkably little (but some) effect on their vote.

I've got to say I agree with Garry. The bloody cheek of these people even thinking they have a right telling private individuals, where, how and in what amounts they may spend their money in promoting their political ideals.

Currently National and Labour have things so sewn up to their mutual benefit, that it is difficult for smaller parties to get their message heard.

Small parties cannot even buy their own unlimited time on TV and radio. Regardless of the size of their chequebook, they can only buy time proportional to the votes achieved last election. What a shameful scam.

The only electoral spending reform we need is the abolition of such heinous controls on the exercise of free speech.

Keith Locke to Speak at ACT Conference


Green Party MP Keith Locke has confirmed that he will speak at the ACT New Zealand Auckland South Regional Conference this coming weekend.

Mr Locke will speak to ACT members about how parties with different world views are able to work together in a friendly and constructive way to achieve meaningful change. In this context he will look at similarities and differences between ACT and the Greens.

The MMP Parties have recently been working together on issues on which they share a common view - such as the Parliamentary Code of Conduct and collaboration on promoting the repeal of sedition laws.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Communists Target Black America

This article from the Communist Party USA's newspaper, gives an insight into how Marxist-Leninist parties actually work and why they are a threat.

Note the influence the CPUSA claims to have on US elections and the deliberate manipulation of black Americans to achieve socialist change.

Note the CPUSA's influence with "trade unionists, elected officials, religious leaders.."

Also note that this conference did not occur in the 1930's or '60s, but less than a month ago.

Communism is dead? Yeah right.

From the Peoples Weekly World 16.6.07


ST. LOUIS — Eighty activists, including trade unionists, elected officials, religious leaders and workers of all races, ages and genders gathered here June 9-10 for an extraordinary Communist Party conference on African American equality. The participants were united in believing the party had a big role to play in helping to build multiracial unity against the Iraq war and racism, along with bringing advanced ideas of the class struggle and socialism to all the movements for peace and social justice.

Jarvis Tyner, CPUSA executive vice chair, asked the gathering to remember the 2000 elections “when the theft of the presidency was being carried out by the racist conspirators in the White House.” He recalled that reporters interrupted the vote count to announce that a request for an injunction was being filed in St. Louis to extend the voting hours because election officials were trying to close the polls while thousands of mainly Black voters were waiting in line to vote.

The main impetus behind that fight to extend voting hours was the union movement, Tyner noted. “I was so proud as I watched that news,” he said, “because I knew that many of our comrades were playing a role in this militant action.” Tyner was referring to the Communist Party’s active participation in the labor-led voter registration and turnout drive aimed at defeating the ultra-right that year.

That drive, he said, was ultimately successful when, in 2006, the right-wing hold on Congress was shattered by the voters, including in Missouri.

This victory “has put the right wing on the defensive on the war and on all democratic questions including the fight against racism,” Tyner said. “There is a more favorable terrain and the objective conditions for a broad people’s upsurge are there.”

Many who spoke at the gathering stressed the role of the Communist Party in working to strengthen groups that help build the important labor/African American alliance, crucial to moving the whole working class forward.

Among the Black trade unionists in attendance was a United Auto Workers leader, who called for Senate passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. “Only by guaranteeing the right to organize,” he said, “can we create a situation in which Black workers in particular and all workers in general will survive and advance.”

Advancing the struggle requires “many more organized Communist Party clubs in the Black community,” Tyner said. The party “needs to recruit many more Black workers especially organized workers. We need more Black intellectuals and activists, as well.”

The fight against racism is in the political DNA of the Communist Party,” Tyner said. He reminded the group that one of Karl Marx’s early statements on U.S. slavery was “Labor in the white skin can never be free as long as labor in the black skin is branded.”

Tyner told an anecdote to illustrate the special appeal he believes the Communist Party has for African Americans.

Ossie Davis, the lifelong political activist and star of stage and screen, was once asked why so many Black intellectuals had been drawn to communism. “Ossie’s reply,” Tyner said, “was, ‘Capitalism was beating the living crap out of us, segregating us and killing us. Along comes a system that challenges capitalism, a system that says there’s another way to organize the world. Naturally we listened.’”

Three conference panels tackled aspects of the struggle for African American equality: the state of Black America, the fight back and building the party in the African American community.

Discussion urged continuing to build the movement to bring the troops home from Iraq — a war which a large majority of African Americans oppose — and continuing to build unity with the immigrant rights movement. Discussion also cited the devastating effects of Bush administration policy in African American communities, layoffs resulting from job cuts in manufacturing, attacks on public education, the crisis in health care and housing and the homicides taking the lives of Black youths.

The conference proposed a national tour of members of the newly reorganized African American equality commission to key areas of the country to help strengthen the fight against racism and to build the party in the Black community

Clint Warns John Key

Clint Heine warns John Key of David Cameron's well deserved failure.

Note to John Key.....

The David Cameron project has failed.

A You Gov poll of voters has shown that his campaign to make the Conservative Party more centrist has made no difference whatsoever. While his own personal level has moved to the left, his own party still remains on the centre right to right wing in the eyes of the voters.

Meanwhile Gordon Brown has had his personal image move to the left but his party is seen as more centre than the Tories.

A further poll comparing Cameron to Brown is even more revealing. Brown is seen as a heavyweight at 60% while Cameron is rated 15% as a heavyweight. This is a direct result of Camerons personal push to make the Conservatives more "Green" and "caring"... which doesn't seem to fool the public whatsoever.... well apart from making the public thinking he is a soft touch!

John Key beware! Being everything to everybody while betraying your own partys core beliefs will eventually bite you in the ass.


Here bloody here!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

American (Communist) Idol-Barack Obama

The Communist Party USA just loves Barack Obama.


The party actively campaigned for him in his 2004 Senate race.

The party claimed him as an "heir" to their ideas in a recent article by "Political Affairs" contributing editor Gerald Horne.

Now comes a gushing "I've got a crush on you" piece from "Political Affairs" managing editor Joel Wendland.

Here are some excerpts.

Reading Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's outline of his intended foreign policy posture in the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs was for me much like that moment when the drowning swimmer finally reaches the surface and takes a first gasp of fresh air.

After nearly 7 years of hardline neo-conservative driven foreign policy fueled by militarism, unilateralism, preemptive strike madness, nuclear build-up fundamentalism, sprinkles of theology, oil greed, torture, and infused with bold, unrestrained imperialism, Obama's message, while containing points on which I have sharp disagreements, is pure oxygen.


Foreign Affairs, incidentally is the mouthpiece of those nice globalists from the Council on Foreign Relations.

The US, in Obama's view, has a vital role to play on earth. That, despite the best efforts of the Bush administration, this country is still capable of accomplishing a "mission" of "global leadership," and that America retains "great promise and historic purpose in the world." But, Obama says, "America cannot meet the threats of this century alone, and the world cannot meet them without America."

Because "the world shares a common security and a common humanity," Obama insists, we have to learn and turn into practice the basic principle that "the security and well-being of each and every American depend on the security and well-being of those who live beyond our borders." The implication of this statement, of course, will have right-wing pundits and the Republican presidential candidates, who have committed themselves to continuing and expanding Bush's war on Iraq, wringing their hands and stamping their feet over bleeding hearts and pussy footing around.


Here comes the international socialism bit.

But diplomacy and force are not the only tools available to the international community to help accomplish these lofty but achievable goals. Economic aid. "[C]ombating the terrorists' prophets of fear will require more than lectures on democracy," writes Obama. "America must make every effort to export opportunity – access to education and health care, trade and investment."

"America," he continues, "must commit to strengthening the pillars of a just society. We can help build accountable institutions that deliver services and opportunity... . In countries wracked by poverty and conflict, citizens long to enjoy freedom from want. And since extremely poor societies and weak states provide optimal breeding grounds for disease, terrorism, and conflict, the United States has a direct national security interest in dramatically reducing global poverty and joining with our allies in sharing more of our riches to help those most in need."


Obama calls for a serious investment in education and fighting disease globally led by the US, and commits to expanding aid to AIDS programs and establishing a Global Education Fund. Aid dollars will help build infrastructures for health and education programs that could lay a basis for turning the hearts and minds of the marginalized towards hope rather than fear and violence.

Here's the "soft on China" bit.

Missing from Obama's broad outline are knee-jerk threats against the "Axis of Evil" or jingoistic posturing against China. In fact, Obama believes that China can play a positive role in promoting serious diplomatic efforts in Asia to reduce threats and encourage economic cooperation.

The "we can trust Russia not to nuke us" bit.

Obama's comments about nuclear weapons proliferation appears to be a qualitative departure from long standing US policy on nukes. Obama asserts a comprehensive plan for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. One, by reaching out to Russia to dismantle existing stockpiles, and two, by making peaceful nuclear energy technology available with accountability and oversight vested in the International Atomic Energy Agency. But, in addition to this not so new proposal (it is a basic feature of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty authored by Kennedy and signed by Nixon), Obama will press for ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and bans on producing new nuclear weapons materials.

Obama calls for "de-emphasiz[ing] the role of nuclear weapons" and rejects producing "a new generation of nuclear warheads." Global security and human survival depend on it. Removing the basis of the desire some states have for getting nuclear weapons is a more reasonable security strategy than fueling nuclear arms races with threats and preemptive nuclear strike postures.


Next comes the "let's abandon the industrial revolution to appease the Reds and Greens" bit.

But states and global actors are not the only potential threats. Humanity is also threatened by global climate change. The issue is certainly worthy of the focus given by Obama in his paper. International efforts to create binding emissions caps combined with trade and aid projects tied to sustainable development are some of the things Obama predicts can help us avoid environmental catastrophe.

Now comes the significant bit.

We as democratic-minded people, as a broad people's coalition who favor the spirit and letter of the most positive "founding values" will have to give Obama's words life and meaning, by our action, activism, our common unity to end the reign of those who favor the negative. We can start now by continuing to demand an end to the war and by voicing our call for a new direction on election day 2008. But, of course, it should not end there.

To conclude, I am buoyed in my hopes for interpreting Sen. Obama's words in the most positive way, not by his oratory or his voting record or his statement on this or that issue, but by a seemingly minor thing as the title of his most recent book: The Audacity of Hope. It nagged at me for the longest time. I haven't read the book yet. Nor have I read reviews of it. But when it came out last year, I noted it and put it on my to-read list for some time down the line when I got around to it.

Recently, I started reading his first book, Dreams From My Father, originally published in 1995, which I highly recommend. It was while reading this book that I got it. What does "the audacity of hope" mean, and why does it give reason to believe in Sen. Obama's words? All people have hopes. But who are the people who must be audacious in their hope?

Whose side does that sentiment put the junior Senator from Illinois on? Think about it.


Joel Wendland is one the US (and world's) top Marxist-Leninists. As managing editor of the CPUSA's theoretical journal, "Political Affairs" he is charged with sending "signals" to the hundreds of thousands of unionists, peace activists and Democrats who dance directly or indirectly to the CPUSA's tune.

The CPUSA backs Democrats who it knows or has good reason to suspect are sympathetic or helpful to its goals.

Whose side does the CPUSA think Barack Obama is on?

Is this a signal to the CPUSA's thousands of members and hundreds of thousands of allies and minions that Barack Obama is the party's favoured candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination?

It's looking that way.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Will Blair Betray Britain?

Fabian Socialist, Tony Blair is in hot water over plans to cede further British sovereignty to the EU.

From the Daily Express

SECRET NEW PLAN FOR EU SUPERSTATE


TONY Blair wants to hand the European Union radical new powers in his last act as Prime Minister, it emerged today.

The Prime Minister has welcomed controversial plans to bring back the troubled EU constitution by the back door - totally bypassing the need for public referendums on sweeping new powers for Brussels.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested ditching the name "constitution" from the title and instead calling it an "amending treaty" - to avoid having to seek the approval of voters.

French and Dutch voters rejected the original plan - which would hand Brussels the power to represent individual countries at the UN and change national laws - two years ago.

Britain's voting rights would be reduced by a third under the scheme and our hard-won veto on European directives would be torn up. Britain could also lose the right to impose quotas on immigration.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "If Tony Blair thinks he can hoodwink the British people by smuggling in the rejected EU consitution under another name, he had better think again.

"He underestimates the British people. They will see right through any shabby stitch-up.

"If the Labour Government sign up to a new treaty that takes powers from Britain and hands them over to the EU, the British people must have the final say in a referendum
."

The Germans believe "as much of the substance of the constitution as possible" should be kept, renamed and put into law.

Scrapping the name will help Mr Blair reach agreement at what will be his last EU Summit and virtually his last public duty before handing over to Gordon Brown.

But the document makes no reference to one of Mr Blair's previous key demands - an "opt-out" from a shift to more joint European decisions affecting criminal law and justice.

A Government spokeswoman welcomed the latest approach to what is being billed as one of the most important EU Summit gatherings for years.

"We fully support the German Presidency's desire to reach agreement on institutional reform", she said.

We welcome their proposal to return to the classical method of treaty change whereby the existing treaties would be amended.

We believe an amending treaty should help to make the EU more efficient. The more effectively the EU works together, the more that it is in our national interest as well as our international interests
."

The German plan talks about calling the result of any Summit agreement a ÒTreaty on the function of the UnionÓ - removing the federalist implications which have been plaguing efforts to get EU reform plans back on track.

But the report makes clear the EU would still develop a "single legal personality" - a bid to give the EU collectively more weight on the world stage, and fuelling Eurosceptic fears of a further whittling away of national status in Europe.

On the Summit agenda will be the removal from any new reform document of other contentious plans, such as promoting the EU flag and EU anthem.

But the German Presidency expects to see a "charter of fundamental rights" given legal force as part of any reform package.

EU foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg on Sunday for a first discussion of the options.

EU leaders gather in Brussels next Thursday, prepared to launch "an intergovernmental conference" on the details of a new treaty if they can agree the outline.

Hat Tip Zionist Anti-Communist