C. Bradley Thompson is the BB&T Research Professor at Clemson University and the Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He has also been a visiting fellow at Princeton and Harvard universities and at the University of London.
Professor Thompson is the author of the prize-winning book John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty. He has also edited The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Antislavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader and was an associate editor of the four-volume Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. His current book project is on “The Ideological Origins of American Constitutionalism.”
Dr. Thompson is also an occasional writer for The Times Literary Supplement of London. He has lectured around the country on education reform and the American Revolution, and his op-ed essays have appeared in scores of newspapers around the country and abroad. Dr. Thompson's lectures on the political thought of John Adams have twice appeared on C-SPAN television.
For more information on why Marxism is so evil: (Occupiers should read this to learn why their movement, if successful, would lead to the deaths of millions of Americans)
Peter Schiff waded into the Cesspool of Socialism, aka Occupy Wall Street, to engage some of the participants in conversations where he defends capitalism and tries to point out where these people should be directing their anger.
From the video description:
Last week, Reason.tv followed investment guru, radio show host, and unflappable defender of capitalism Peter Schiff as he spent three hours among the Occupy Wall Street protesters in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park.
An unapologetic member of "the 1 Percent," Schiff argued with all comers for the better part of an afternoon.
Schiff is no ordinary observer. As the prinicipal of the financial firm Euro Pacific Capital, he's a full-fledged and unapologetic member of "the 1 Percent." As an outspoken radio show host and commentator, he not only predicted the housing crash and financial crisis, he railed bank and auto-sector bailouts as they were happening. Schiff believes that capitalism offers is the only hope for young, frustrated people to have a vibrant and prosperous future. So he went to Occupy Wall Street to engage and debate the protesters.
Touring the Occupy Wall Street scene in New York with a sign that read "I Am the 1%, Let's Talk," Schiff spent more than three hours on the scene, explaining the difference between cronyism and capitalism, bailouts and balance sheets, and more.
"The regulation we want is the market," said Schiff. "That's what works."
Schiff describes himself as "sympathetic" to the plight of the OWS protesters, but thinks their anger is misdirected at legitimate business interests and should be better at the White House, Congress, the Federal Reserve, and the crony capitalists they've bailed out.
Check out Schiff's Euro Pacific Capital at www.europac.net
Listen to his radio show online at www.schiffradio.com
Produced by Anthony L. Fisher. Camera by Nathan Chaffetz.
Runs about 19 minutes. Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions of our videos and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel for automatic notification when new material goes live online.
Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson today mounted an extraordinary defence of armed protection officers after the worst Royal security blunder in a generation. Sir Paul hailed the 'enormous restraint' of the team guarding Prince Charles and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall, implying the rioters were lucky not to have been shot. Britain's top policeman condemned the 'hugely regrettable and shocking incident' but insisted the proper procedure had been followed. The Prince and the Duchess were not hurt but the potential risk to their safety raised serious questions about their security and the police operation. However, Sir Paul said: 'I do think that the officers who were protecting their Royal Highnesses showed very real restraint - some of those officers were armed. 'Their priority was to get that car to the point of safety, which was the venue, and that was achieved, but it was a hugely shocking incident and there will be a full criminal investigation into it.'
Forty-three years ago this week, Ernesto “Che” Guevara got a major dose of his own medicine. Without trial, he was declared a murderer, stood up against a wall and shot. Historically speaking, justice has rarely been better served. There was never an occasion better suited to the expression: “What goes around comes around.”
“When you saw the beaming look on Che’s face as the victims were tied to the stake and blasted apart by the firing squad,” said former Cuban political prisoner Roberto Martin-Perez, “you saw there was something seriously, seriously wrong with Che Guevara.” As commander of the La Cabana execution yard, Che often shattered the skull of the condemned man (or boy) by firing the coup de grace himself. When other duties tore him away from his beloved execution yard, he consoled himself by viewing the slaughter from afar. Che’s second-story office in Havana’s La Cabana prison had a section of wall torn out so he could watch his darling firing-squads at work.
Today is a glorious day for those who love freedom and hate tyranny. 40 years ago today, the murderous thug known as Che Guevara was executed on October 9, 2009!!! (I would support the addition of this day as a national holiday). In honor of this wonderful anniversary, I am linking to a couple of articles, the first from American Thinker, and the second to The Freedom Fighter's Journal. I hope you enjoy them and have a hearty laugh at the expense of Lefties every where.
Forty two years ago today, Ernesto "Che" Guevara got a major dose of his own medicine. Without trial he was declared a murderer, stood against a wall and shot. Historically speaking, justice has rarely been better served. If the saying "What goes around comes around" ever fit, it's here.
"When you saw the beaming look on Che's face as the victims were tied to the stake and blasted apart by the firing squad," said a former Cuban political prisoner, to your humble servant, "you saw there was something seriously, seriously wrong with Che Guevara." As commander of the La Cabana execution yard, Che often shattered the skull of the condemned man (or boy) by firing the coup de grace himself. When other duties tore him away from his beloved execution yard, he consoled himself by viewing the slaughter. Che's second-story office in La Cabana had a section of wall torn out so he could watch his darling firing-squads at work.
A Rumanian journalist named Stefan Bacie visited Cuba in early 1959 and was fortunate enough to get an audience with the already quasi-famous Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Upon entering Castro's chief executioner's office, Bacie noticed Che motioning him over to the office's newly constructed window. Bacie got there just in time to hear the command of FUEGO!, hear the blast from the firing squad and see a condemned prisoner crumple and convulse
The stricken journalist immediately left and composed a poem, titled, "I No Longer Sing of Che." ("I no longer sing of Che any more than I would of Stalin," go the first lines.)
Even as a youth, Ernesto Guevara's writings revealed a serious mental illness. "My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any vencido that falls in my hands! With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!" This passage is from Ernesto Guevara's famous Motorcycle Diaries, though Robert Redford somehow overlooked it while directing his heart-warming movie.
This is the fourth article in our "Leftwing Monsters" series, the first of which featured Humberto Fontova's profile of Fidel Castro. "Leftwing Monsters" is a feature of www.discoverthenetworks.org where the entire series will be archived -- The Editors.
In August of 1960, a year and a half after Che Guevara entered Havana ahead of his "column" of "guerrillas," Time magazine featured the revolutionary comandante on its cover and crowned him the "Brains of the Cuban Revolution." (Fidel Castro was "the heart" and Raul Castro "the fist.")
"Wearing a smile of melancholy sweetness that many women find devastating," read the Time article, "Che guides Cuba with icy calculation, vast competence, high intelligence and a perceptive sense of humor."
"This is not a Communist Revolution in any sense of the term," The New York Times had declared a year earlier. "Fidel Castro is not only not a Communist, he is decidedly anti-Communist."
"It would be a great mistake," Walter Lippmann wrote in the Washington Post that same month, "even to intimate that Castro's Cuba has any real prospect of becoming a Soviet satellite."
A few months earlier the London Observer had observed: "Mr. Castro's bearded youthful figure has become a symbol of Latin America's rejection of brutality and lying. Every sign is that he will reject personal rule and violence."
Time magazine was in perfect sync with her major-media peers -- utterly wrong. Guevara was no more the brains of the Cuban Revolution than Cheka-head Felix Drezhinsky had been the brains of the Bolshevik Revolution, or Gestapo chief Himmler the brains of the National Socialist Revolution, or KGB head Beria the brains behind Stalinism. In fact Che performed the same role for Fidel Castro as Drezhinsky performed for Lenin, Himmler for Hitler and Beria for Stalin. Che Guevara was the Castro regime's chief executioner.
Source: Freedom Fighter's Journal The Life And Death Of Che Guevara Commentary When you see someone wearing a piece of clothing celebrating Che Guevara, you can know that that person (most likely a college student or a Lefty professor) is honoring a murderer who gloried in killing people. An odd thing I have noticed is that many Ron Paul Supporters also seem to love Che Guevara, or at least they have promoted Ron Paul as a Che Guevara type of hero. These types of people are as clueless about the world as their Lefty Cousins who celebrate Che's murders.
As a student in Chicago, Sanders was active in the Young Peoples Socialist League and has a decades old relationship with America’s largest marxist organization, Democratic Socialists of America.
It was in conjunction with D.S.A. that Sanders formed, in 1991, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, now a more than eighty strong alliance of far left Senators and Congressmen.
Mike Bayer’s closeness to Senator Sanders, however I takes things to a new level. While Bayer is no longer the open communist he once was, there is evidence that he is acting as a spy on Sanders’ Party and may be be some kind of liaison man or agent-of-influence for the Communist Party.
Bayer has lived in Vermont since 1996, working as Chief Financial Officer of Vermont Legal Aid. He has been a leader in the leftist Vermont Progressive Party, since its earliest days.
Currently Bayer is running for the position of State Auditor of Accounts for Vermont, on the Progressive Party ticket. The position is currently held by Republican, Thomas M. Salmon.
Before moving to Vermont, Bayer was for many years, Indiana District organizer of the Communist Party USA and a regular contributor to the Party paper Peoples Daily World/ Peoples Weekly World.
Source: Key Wiki Blog (be sure to read the rest there and add that blog to your daily reading list or RSS Reader)
Commentary
The communists and socialists have never really gone away. They just changed their name to progressives. Their goal remains the same...total government control over every aspect of your life.
Lenin's commitment to totalitarianism, in both theory and practice, is essentially beyond dispute. The view of his precursor Karl Marx is more ambiguous, both because Marx wrote less clearly than Lenin, and because Marx never held power. In spite of this, the totalitarian strain in Marx is pronounced. He directs much of his critique against the classical liberal concern for personal freedom and private property - the Rights of Man, or what Marx called "bourgeois freedom." The doctrine of the rights of man was faulty, according to Marx, because:
None of the supposed rights of man, therefore, go beyond the egoistic man, man as he is, as a member of civil society; that is, an individual separated from the community, withdrawn into himself, wholly preoccupied with his private interest and acting in accordance with his private caprice... Thus man was not liberated from religion; he received religious liberty. He was not liberated from property; he received the liberty to own property. He was not liberated from the egoism of business; he received the liberty to engage in business. On the Jewish Question
For Marx, freedom of religion or the freedom to own property are hollow freedoms, or at least grossly inadequate stepping stones to something better: "political emancipation itself is not humanemancipation." "[B]ourgeois 'freedom of conscience' is nothing but the toleration of all possible kinds of religious freedom of conscience, and that for its part [socialism] endeavors rather to liberate the conscience from the witchery of religion." (Critique of the Gotha Program). Rather than advocating freedom for all people, liberals really value only the freedom of the ruling class of capitalist society, viz., the bourgeoisie.
Marx accuses the liberal tradition of slighting the social nature of man. "Liberty is, therefore, the right to do everything which does not harm others... It is a question of the liberty of man regarded as an isolated monad, withdrawn into himself." Marx elaborates: "The right of property, is, therefore, the right to enjoy one's fortunes and dispose of it as he will; without regard for other men and independently of society... It leads every man to see in other men, not the realization, but rather the limitation of his own liberty." (On the Jewish Question)
Marx's solution, the route to human emancipation, was Communism, which would give people the freedom that bourgeois society denies them. Communism is, he explains, "the positive transcendence ofprivate property, or human self-estrangement, and therefore the real appropriation of the human essence by and for man... the complete return of man to himself as a social being..." (Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844)
Innumerable social thinkers disagree with much of Marx's thought, but praise his reflections upon human freedom, the depth of his insight in contrast to the shallowness of laissez-faire liberalism. Yet it is difficult to understand how Marx's concept of freedom is anything more than a defense of tyranny and oppression. No dissident or non-conformist can see society as the "realization of his own liberty." And what can the attack on "the right to do everything which does not harm others" amount to in practice, except a justification for coercing people who are not harming others? The problem with "broad" notions of freedom is that they necessarily wind up condoning the violation of "narrow" notions of freedom. Under "bourgeois" notions of religious liberty, people may practice any religion they wish ("a private whim or caprice" as Marx calls it); how could this liberty be broadened, without sanctioning the persecution of some religious views?
While Marx occasionally says something in favor of democracy, Lenin did not originate the doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat. That was Marx's creation. In his Critique of the Gotha Program, Marx explains, "Between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. There corresponds to this also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat." It is not clear how long Marx thought this transitional dictatorship would last. As democratic socialist historian Carl Landauer notes:
Gradually, it became evident that the transition from capitalism to socialism would take not merely months or years but decades, and therefore the extreme left wing of the social revolutionists was compelled to take one further step. If it was permissible and even necessary to throw one's country for so long a period into the horrors of civil war and dictatorship, was it then not illogical to balk at the use of deceit, torture, provocation - in fact of any means that would speed up the revolution? Was it not clear that the actions of revolutionaries in the transition period should be governed only by the law of expediency, and that sincerity, mercy, justice toward the individual had as little place in the struggle of classes as in the jungle? (European Socialism: A History of Ideas and Movements)
Marx's thought did not provide the blueprint for Communist totalitarianism, but it did provide a rough outline for more practical men like Lenin to elaborate upon.
Socialism and totalitarianismMarx was a leading figure in a broad socialist tradition. Much of this tradition shared his critique of "bourgeois freedom" and longed for a world in which the government eliminated both the economic and personal freedom of capitalist civilization. Such ideas may be found in the works of Rousseau, Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte, Ferdinand Lassalle, and many other prominent thinkers. Even socialists critical of authoritarianism such as Bernstein mainly tried to convince their fellow socialists of the value of democracy, showing little appreciation of the danger that universal state ownership as such could pose to human freedom, or the conflict between freedom and enforced equality.
Communists often deviated from Marxism on small points, but almost invariably remained true to the broader authoritarian socialist tradition if they could get away with it. Thus, the Khmer Rouge reversed Marx's emphasis on the urban industrial proletariat, idealizing peasant life so strongly that they forcibly deported Cambodia's city dwellers into the country. Their inspiration came from other authoritarian socialists, such as Rousseau. What varies is what the Communist state forces its subjects to do; what is constant is that the Communist state recognizes no constraints upon its rule. The variable portion of the program usually but not always comes from Marx. The constant comes from the critique of "bourgeois freedom" found in the broader socialist tradition.
Placing Nazism, Italian Fascism, and related movements in proper historical perspective sheds further light on the socialist-totalitarian connection. Nazism's connection with Communism is somewhat complex, and is discussed in the next section. The connection with Italian Fascism, however, is quite direct: until 1914, Benito Mussolini was the leader of the Socialist Party of Italy. He was a staunch proponent of revolutionary rather than reformist socialism, and actually received Lenin's endorsement and support for expelling reformists from the Socialist Party. Mussolini split with the Socialist Party over participation in World War I, not over abstract theory, or economic doctrine. As A. James Gregor explains Mussolini's fall from leadership of the Socialist Party: "On the day after Mussolini's call for a change in Party policy [on the war], the directive committee of the Party called a meeting to discuss the issues involved. The meeting was a heated exchange between Mussolini and the orthodox majority, almost all of whom favored adherence to the traditional commitment to absolute neutrality. In the face of almost unanimous opposition, Mussolini submitted his resignation as editor of Avanti!" (Young Mussolini and the Intellectual Origins of Fascism) During World War I, Mussolini publicized his new synthesis of nationalism and socialism, contrasting his view with orthodox Marxist internationalism. As violent verbal and physical clashes between Mussolini's followers and the Socialist Party escalated, Mussolini finally opted to cast aside the "socialist" label. But he freely admitted that his position was a hybrid of nationalism and socialism:
Although Mussolini finally decided that the term "socialist" had become so debased and devoid of specific meaning that he recommended its abandonment, he was quick to remind his readers that he was prepared to assimilate everything that remained vital in the tradition. He argued that his objections to socialism were addressed to the form of socialism that had rigidified into dogma and was no longer capable of confronting concrete reality with any intellectual independence... Those socialists who chose to abandon the nation in pursuit of socialist interests not only failed in their obligations to the many who had died in a revolutionary and progressive war, but also violated the letter and the spirit of the best traditions of socialism. (A. James Gregor, Young Mussolini and the Intellectual Origins of Fascism)
At the root of Mussolini's heresy was the realization that a socialism based on concrete tribal affections would appeal far more to the "man in the street" than a socialism based on the abstract solidarity of the international proletariat. Eliminating domestic class conflict would allow Italy to industrialize and become a great power. The galvanizing Enemy naturally became the foreigner rather than the capitalist. Again quoting Gregor, "Mussolini insisted that the only socialism that would be viable in the twentieth century would be a socialism committed to national development, both economic and political. The commitment to national tasks involved fundamental common interests uniting all the special economic and parochial interests of the population."
Mussolini's heresy thrived not because he repudiated socialism, but rather because he and threw out Marxism's internationalist bathwater but kept the socialist baby. He was therefore able to appeal to socialist sentiment and Italian jingoism at the same time. "To insist, as did the orthodox socialists and communists, that so many Italians had died in the benighted service of capitalism left many Italian families, bereft of their sons and fathers, without dignity or consolation." (A. James Gregor, Young Mussolini and the Intellectual Origins of Fascism) Instead Mussolini reached out to veterans and their families as well as other segments of Italian society sympathetic to his message. One of these segments, unsurprisingly, were other disaffected socialists; quoting Gregor, "the rank and file membership of the socialist organizations began to defect in large numbers, and soon over half a million workers were organized in Fascist syndicates. Socialism gave every evidence of disintegration." Or rather, orthodox socialism gave every evidence of disintegration. In would not be long before the former leader of the Socialist Party was the dictator of Italy, Italy's official ideology was his heretical socialist doctrine.
Stalinist invective against Trotsky, proclaiming him an arch-enemy of socialism, has long met with historians' ridicule. The official Comintern line on fascism, however, met with far less skepticism then and since, but it is hard to see why. Mussolini's struggle with the Italian socialists was, like the conflict between Stalinists and Trotskyists, an intra-socialist struggle. Both were a mixture of personality clashes and relatively minor ideological differences within the totalitarian camp.
One of the pillars of my effort in communicating the danger that Progressives pose to America has been by showing you the degree to which their agenda matches the agenda by avowed Socialist and Communists, which are one and the same when it comes to their desire to destroy American Capitalism and replace it with a command and control economy.
There is a Socialist Conference going on in San Fransisco (no surprise there) next Saturday that can shed some light for us regarding the Socialist Agenda for America. Here is the schedule of speakers:
9:30 to 11:00am - Plenary: Capitalism as Organized Crime
Tamara Khoury, PSL activist, Students Fight Back!
Eugene Puryear, PSL 2008 Vice Presidential Candidate
Brian Becker, National Coordinator ANSWER Coalition, member - PSL National Committee
Discussion period
11:10am to 12:40pm - Workshop Session I
Workshop 1: Revolution in Latin America
Presenters:
Gloria La Riva, PSL 2008 Presidential Candidate, Coordinator-National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
Carlos Alvarez, PSL 2010 Candidate for Governor of California
Discussion of the anti-imperialist struggles in Latin America, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, the role of socialist Cuba and the role of revolutionaries in the U.S.
Workshop 2: Socialism: What it really is, Why we need it
Nathalie Hrizi, PSL 2008 Candidate for Congress
Peta Lindsay, Students Fight Back, Los Angeles
Discussion of the differences between capitalism and socialism, is socialism possible in the U.S., and why only socialism can solve the growing crisis in society.
12:40 to 1:30pm - Lunch
1:30 to 3:00pm - Workshop Session II
Workshop 1: Organizing against racism and bigotry
Cristina Gutierrez, Coordinator - Barrio Unido for Full and Unconditional Amnesty
Stewart Stout, Organizer - Equal Rights Initiative
Peta Lindsay, Students Fight Back
Discussion of the struggle against racist oppression, for LGBT equality and immigrant rights.
Workshop 2: The struggle against U.S. imperialism
Eugene Puryear, PSL National Committee
Sarah Carlson, ANSWER Coalition activist - San Francisco
Carlito Rovira, Puerto Rican community activist and PSL National Committee
Discussion of U.S. imperialist aims and the people’s struggle for liberation.
3:10 to 4:00pm - Closing Plenary: Capitalist Crisis and the Need for Revolutionary Change
Frank Lara, PSL San Francisco organizer
Brian Becker
Peta Lindsay
Discussion period
What kind of people are those speaking at this event? What have they said in public before? Here is your chance to hear it and read it for yourself. And while you do so, remind yourself at how very close the talking points these people use are to what you hear out of your typical Progressive Democrat. Most of the time, all that separates these Socialists/Communists from Progressives is what they chose to call themselves. Also, consider how closely their talking points about our battle against radical Islam is to what you hear out of the typical Ron Paul Supporter...food for thought, eh?
First, the speakers who are listed as speaking in a plenary entitled: Capitalism as Organized Crime.
Speaker: Tamara Khoury
An article of hers defending Palestinian Terrorist Groups:
Who are the al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades?
All modern states maintain armed bodies for the purpose of both domestic policing and national security, but the Palestinians have long been denied the right to formal statehood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent acceptance of a Palestinian “state” came with the important condition that it be demilitarized (and thus not a “state” at all).
The Palestinian political-military organizations play a dual role: fighting the Israeli occupation as a basic tenet of self-determination and self-defense and functioning as the state apparatus long denied to the Palestinian people. Even now that Fatah’s current leader and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has steered the party into an alliance with Israel and the United States, the al-Aqsa brigades still exist as a resistance force.
Eugene Puryear was the 2008 vice-presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, despite being 22 years old and ineligible for the office. He was born February 28, 1986.
Puryear is an active anti-war and social justice organizer in Washington, D.C. He is a volunteer organizer in the anti-war coalition ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).
Puryear is an organizer in the movement to Free the Jena 6. Puryear spoke at the 1,500-strong rally for the Jena 6 at Howard University, the first major national protest to bring attention to the case.
Born in Charlottesville, Va., Puryear has been an organizer in the anti-war movement since high school, when he led a walkout of over 800 students. He has chaired and participated in numerous rallies and marches—including the Sept. 24, 2005, anti-war march of 350,000 people, the 2005 counter-inaugural protest, and the Sept. 15, 2007, mass die-in and anti-war protest at the White House.
Puryear has been profiled by the Washington Post, and interviewed by outlets such as WPFW, WOL-AM, WBAI, the Final Call newspaper, Blackamericaweb.com, WTOP and the Associated Press. He is a regular contributor to Socialism and Liberation magazine and Liberation, the newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. He is a member of the National Committee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Here is an article written by Puryear after the election of Barack Obama as our 44th President:
While the capitalists, the mass media and many in the progressive movement hope for a lengthy honeymoon period for President-elect Obama, the deteriorating economic situation on the ground floor of society is likely to lead to an increase in independent political organizing in communities across America, especially in the most oppressed communities, where the pain is being felt the most.
What does Obama have in store
for the workers who turned to him
hoping for change?
Since the Nov. 4 election of Barack Obama, the question has been raised repeatedly: "How will he govern?" With right-wing elements raising the bogeyman of an "ultra-liberal" agenda, Obama has responded with appointments and rumored appointments that point more towards continuity than change.
The president-elect’s first appointment was Rahm Emmanuel, a former Clinton White House staffer. Emmanuel has been a central strategist of the pro-war and pro-capitalist policies pursued by Democrats in the post-2006 election Congress.
In the face of the spiraling economic crisis, the president-elect faces a unique contradiction. On the one hand, he has been entrusted by the most powerful people in the country with the duty of managing the capitalist state. On the other hand, Obama rose in the political establishment in part by promising the people that he would bring about change. In the past few months, "change" has come to mean—in the minds of workers and many others in the country—relief from the economic crisis.
At the same time the corporations intensify their attacks on working people to hold onto and maximize their profits during the recession, working people will be suffering from unemployment, lower wages, attacks on benefits, lack of health care, education cuts and a broad assault meant to force workers to bear the brunt of the crisis. The ruling class will expect Obama, as president, to lead this assault and at the same time defuse mass resistance to it.
The video below is from a show called Conversations" with Harold Hudson Channer that is almost an hour long, and is very informative about his history and positions...
Brian Becker is a Marxist to the core, and here are just a few tidbits of his evil ideology of anti-Capitalism and anti-Americanism...
Becker is a member of the Secretariat of the WWP of the United States, which is a staunch supporter of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. As Chairman of the "U.S. Troops out of Korea Committee," Becker has accused the United States of conducting a campaign of genocide against North Korea.
This article below is in opposition to the liberation of Communist East Europe...
Much more is at stake than the fate of one leader, or even of the Serbian Socialist Party and the Party of the United Left.
The consequences of capitalist counter-revolution are unambiguous. In Russia between 1989 and 1996, the report says, wages fell 48 percent. Income derived from rent, meaning landlords' profits, jumped to 23 percent.
During the days of the Soviet Union, rent was restricted to no more than 5 percent of a worker's wage. The money went into social funds administered by the state. There was no such thing as landlords.
The report goes on: “There are [other] serious human deprivations. Between 1989 and 1996 male life expectancy [in Russia] declined by more than four years, to 60.”
Throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union “the transition from centrally planned to market economies was accompanied by large changes in the distribution of national wealth and income. Data on income inequality indicate that these changes were the fastest ever recorded.”
Next, the speakers who are listed as speaking in a workshop entitled: Revolution in Latin America. Speaker: Gloria La Riva Here is a video of her speaking at an anti-American war protest sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition...
Gloria La Riva's political positions are delineated in detail on the On The Issues webpage.
She supports:
Rational social & economic planning, rather than "market"
Pay reparations, with interest, for slavery.
Capitalist system creates war, poverty and racism
Free trade enriches capitalists and displaces humans
Create a universal healthcare system
Full rights and equality for all undocumented immigrants
Another Communist who ran for Mayor of Los Angeles and for Governor of California, and is on record as supporting a minimum wage of $15 an hour, full rights for all illegal immigrants, free abortion on demand and other issues near and dear to the heart of every progressive.
Listen to him speak at a panel during the recent election below...
I'll leave you with this socialist/progressive laundry list from his recent campaign for Governor of California:
FIGHTING CALIFORNIA'S CORPORATE BOSSES
Full employment—no layoffs. Create good, high paying jobs for all. Job training for youth & unemployed.
No cutbacks for social services. No layoffs for city workers.
Housing is a right for all—Immediate moratorium on all foreclosures & evictions. Stop gentrification & build affordable housing now.
Free, high quality education from pre-school through college for everyone.
Free, quality healthcare for all California residents.
Raise California's minimum wage to $15/hour.
Stop union-busting, expand the right to organize & card-check recognition.
Stop environmental destruction—Make the polluters pay.
Steep taxes on all big banks, corporations and developers.
EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL: NO TO RACISM & BIGOTRY
Stop racist police brutality and mass incarceration.
Community control over the police.
Full rights for all immigrants.
Repeal all anti-gang injunctions that criminalize young people of color.
Defend women’s reproductive rights. Free abortion on demand for all.
Invalidate Prop. 8. Legalize same-sex marriage & LGBT equality now.
Full equality for disabled people.
Lower the voting age to 16-year-olds.
SOCIALISM—NOT EXPLOITATION
End the rule of billionaires & militarists—fight for workers democracy.
We need an economy based on people’s needs, not making the rich richer.
Here is the second workshop, entitled, "What Socialism Really is, and Why we need it"
Speaker: Christina Gutierrez
As you can see from the video above, those who support amnesty for illegal aliens are often in support of the terrorist groups fighting against Israel. She ends her speech above by calling for the end of Israel, and the establishment of one state, Palestine.
I have found no writings by her posted on the Internet, nor even a website that has been established by her website. The activities I have found listed for the group almost always coincide with events where the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation are invloved, so I surmise that her group is just another front for the PSL.
Speaker Stewart Stout
I can find no videos of him speaking, but his facebook page lists him as a fan of Fidel Castro and Frances Villar, both socialists. He is active in the homosexual rights community.
Speaker: Peta Lindsay
Below is a video of the Howard University student at an anti-Israel rally in 2006...
I can find no writings by her on the Internet, beyond her facebook page, which lists the usual socialists as heroes and a support for Palestine.
The next workshop is entitled: "The struggle against U.S. imperialism" and I can imagine this is one workshop that her cousins in the struggle against the USA, the supporters of Ron paul, would feel comfortable attending.
Speaker: Sarah Carlson
I could find no videos of her speaking, just few anti-America and anti-Israel articles written in various newspapers. Here is a typical snippet of one...
In June, the Obama Administration expressed its lukewarm sentiment for the Palestinian struggle when Obama himself addressed America’s relationship with Muslim communities around the world in a carefully crafted speech in Cairo, Egypt. After addressing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama raised the “second major source of tension”—Israel/Palestine.
Boiling the conflict down to two bickering sides, he appealed to the Palestinians to “abandon violence” and described the December/January U.S.-funded massacre of nearly 1,500 people in Gaza as simply “the humanitarian crisis.” He added, “It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus.”
Israeli attacks on UN schools, hospitals and homes, as well as Israel's use of illegal weapons including white phosphorus on civilians went unmentioned. Instead, Obama delivered a slim ray of hope through his objections to some settlements in the West Bank: “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.”
For the many people who have engaged in the struggle for Puerto Rico’s independence, July 25 has a special significance. On that date in 1898, U.S. troops invaded Puerto Rico, beginning a period of U.S. colonial domination on the island that continues to this day.
The United States invaded Puerto Rico, along with the Philippines, Guam and Cuba, in the setting of the Spanish-American War. That war was the opening of what would be the menacing role and predatory nature of the U.S. capitalist class in the Caribbean, Latin America and the entire world.
The seizure of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guam and the Philippines by the United States signaled the quest of the U.S. capitalist class to become a world power. European powers had pursued a policy of colonial acquisitions since the end of the 15th century.
But only in the late 19th century had the mature and developed capitalist powers virtually colonized the entire planet. The projection of U.S. power outside of the North American mainland signified a rush not to be left behind in this global division of markets.
Imperialism was transforming from a policy into a global system. No capitalist power could stand on the sidelines. Eventually this scramble and competition for colonies led to the first “world war” in human history, from 1914 to 1918, involving all the major capitalist powers.
V.I. Lenin noted this trend in the very first sentence of his classic 1916 work “Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism.” “During the last 15 to 20 years, especially since the Spanish-American War (1898) and the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), the economic and also the political literature of the two hemispheres has more and more adopted the term ‘imperialism’ to describe the present era.”
Carlito seems to specialize in race-based agitation for socialism and anti-Americanism.
Speaker: Frank Lara
This guy is another one who hasn't an extant video on You Tube and very little published on the Internet.
Here is an article by him regarding the drought in Mexico and his opposition to a free market solution...
The government has cut water services by 30 percent and imposed large fines for hosing down sidewalks and watering lawns during daytime hours.
The most needy and impoverished citizens are the most heavily impacted by the water emergency. Upper-class areas have much more access to water than those in poorer "barrios." For example, the wealthy who live in the western hills of Chapultepec and Lomas in Mexico City receive 1,000 liters per day while working-class neighborhoods, such as Iztapalapa to the east, receive only 200.
Ruling-class politicians have proposed false "solutions" to the water crisis that generally focus on privatization and reducing subsidies. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, representing these voices, is pushing for privatization of water services in Mexico City. Such action has already been taken in other Mexico cities like Cancun, Saltillo and Aguascalientes, where the switch has led to a steep rise in the cost of water services. Other politicians have proposed the elimination of water subsidies, raising water prices for all but disproportionately affecting the poor and working-class neighborhoods. They falsely claim that raising prices would encourage water conservation and punish those who waste it.
Privatization and increased fees will only increase the plight of impoverished workers and farmers in Mexico while benefiting the capitalist owners.
I hope that it has become evident to you that Socialists, Progressives and Communists are all working for the same thing, a fundamental reorganization of American Society and an end to Capitalism. Progressives want the same thing as the Socialists and the Communists, but have couched their desires in language and an approach that they hope will get them more votes as they promise us "Hope and Change".
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