Universal truth is not measured in mass appeal

socialismartnature: Or, as Karl Marx put it: “Within the...

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:01:20 +0100

Or, as Karl Marx put it:

“Within the capitalist system all methods for raising the social productiveness of labour are brought about at the cost of the individual labourer; all means for the development of production transform themselves into means of domination over, and exploitation of, the producers; they mutilate the labourer into a fragment of a man, degrade him to the level of an appendage of a machine, destroy every remnant of charm in his work and turn it into a hated toil; they estrange from him the intellectual potentialities of the labour process in the same proportion as science is incorporated in it as an independent power; they distort the conditions under which he works, subject him during the labour process to a despotism the more hateful for its meanness; they transform his life-time into working-time, and drag his wife and child beneath the wheels of the Juggernaut of capital.”

weedporndaily: Prop D Wins, LA Medical Marijuana Dispensaries...

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:25:49 +0100

weedporndaily:

Prop D Wins, LA Medical Marijuana Dispensaries To Return To 2007 Number Of Locations

(HuffPost) Los Angeles voters opted to cap the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries at 135 locations after voting overwhelmingly in favor of Proposition D.

The proposition, which was put on the ballot by members of the Los Angeles City Council and supported by mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti, holds dispensary locations in LA to the number open before 2007. It also raises taxes to $60 per $1,000 of gross receipts. With 100 percent of precincts reporting by 3:16 a.m. Wednesday, the proposition won 62.6 percent of the vote, according to the LA City Clerk’s unofficial results.

Currently, there are an estimated 472 dispensaries in LA, according to a 2012 UCLA study.

The measure was just one of three medical marijuana propositions that the LA electorate had to vote on in 2013. Proposition E also proposed capping the number of dispensaries to 2007 levels but didn’t raise taxes. It essentially had no supporters as its initial sponsors, the United Food and Commercial Workers union, dropped Prop E to support Prop D. Proposition F didn’t limit the amount of dispensaries but did raise taxes.

If neither proposition had won a majority, the issue could have bounced back to the Los Angeles City Council, reports the Associated Press.

Read more

weedporndaily: Michigan Supreme Court rules medical marijuana...

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:07:23 +0100

weedporndaily:

Michigan Supreme Court rules medical marijuana users can drive after using the drug

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that medical marijuana users aren’t automatically breaking the law if they’re caught driving after using the drug.

The court unanimously overturned an appeals court decision in the case of a Grand Traverse County man, Rodney Koon. He was stopped in 2010 for speeding — going nearly 30 mph over the limit.

Koon admitted having smoked medical marijuana earlier, and a blood test revealed the drug in his system.

It’s illegal for Michigan drivers to consume marijuana. But the state high court said medical marijuana users have some protection. The court says police must show that a driver actually was “under the influence” of marijuana for a charge to stick.

jayaprada: James Erickson: Political Economy Illustrated,...

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:01:03 +0100

jayaprada:

James Erickson: Political Economy Illustrated, 1958

theatlantic: Astronauts Snag Dramatic Photographs of Alaska’s...

Wed, 22 May 2013 19:23:23 +0100

theatlantic:

Astronauts Snag Dramatic Photographs of Alaska’s Erupting Volcano

Images of volcanoes from space are often kind of dull. These, we assure you, are not.

See more. [Images: NASA]

The Wealth of Commons: A World Beyond Market and State

Wed, 22 May 2013 19:00:51 +0100

The Wealth of Commons: A World Beyond Market and State:

In 2009 Elinor Ostrom became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics. This was for her work on the concept of commons, collectively owned property from Swiss Alpine pastures to indigenous rainforests to free software.

Her work on the commons was inspired by her reaction to a lecture by Garrett Hardin, who coined the phrase “tragedy of the commons.” He argued that shared property would always be overused and abused, but his real target was overpopulation. Although he had carried out no actual research, he insisted that in the absence of authoritarian control, a “commons in breeding” would destroy the environment. “Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.”

For her doctorate, Ostrom had studied how communities organized to sustain water in Los Angeles West Basin, by rationing water use, to stop salt water from being sucked in the sea. listening to Hardin she realized that she had studied something he claimed was impossible, a successful commons.

In a 2010 interview, she recalled:

“That gave me insights into people, some of whom had spent 20, 30 years trying to solve this tough problem. There had not been one thing they did. They did a number of different things, including building a barrier against the ocean coming by putting water down through wells—very ingenious. I didn’t know I was studying the commons.

“[Hardin argued that such cooperation was impossible but] he really was worried about population. He indicated that every man and every woman should be sterilized after they have one child. He was very serious about it….

“I was somewhat taken aback. ‘My theory proves that we should do this,’ and people said, ‘Well, don’t you think that that’s a little severe?’ ‘No! That’s what we should do, or we’re sunk.’

“Well, he, in my mind, became a totalitarian. I, thus, had seen a real instance where his theory didn’t work.”

Ostrom tracked case studies of both successful and failed commons to learn how self-governing ecologically sustainable systems could be built. While she came from a liberal background, she showed that economics extends beyond the market. To put it simply, she examined the nuts and bolts of non-monetary economics.

babustation: it’s right to hate liberals but if you think that means you should instead side with...

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:13:25 +0100

babustation:

it’s right to hate liberals but if you think that means you should instead side with fascists and conservatives then you need to give up this leftist politics thing and do something a little less mentally taxing, like cellotaping your face to a beehive.

Apple chief demands US corporate tax be cut to single digits

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:33:24 +0100

Apple chief demands US corporate tax be cut to single digits:

socialismartnature:

Tim Cook warns Congress that he would refuse to repatriate $100bn stashed offshore unless US severely reduced its 35% tax rate

===

And i demand that his wealth be seized and Apple expropriated by its workers.

One in five retiring in 2013 'will be below poverty line'

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:10:23 +0100

One in five retiring in 2013 'will be below poverty line':

Study by Prudential finds many people are facing a bleak financial outlook, with 14% relying solely on state pension

"What are you supposed to do when someone asks you to “prove” that feminism isn’t a massive..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:05:39 +0100

“What are you supposed to do when someone asks you to “prove” that feminism isn’t a massive conspiracy theory in a country where we’ve only had 39 female senators in the nation’s entire history, and 20 of them are serving right now? What kind of a stupid fucking question is that?”

- Sexism Fatigue (via rachelfershleiser)

ikenbot: writingtomoscow: It is ALWAYS white men who say to women and poc “You’re not helping your...

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:58:19 +0100

ikenbot:

writingtomoscow:

It is ALWAYS white men who say to women and poc

“You’re not helping your cause”

in response to anger or the way they present their views

it’s so condescending

*pat on the head* “Stop shouting about your rights.. it won’t get you very far”

omg please stop speaking forever

girl lemme love you

Researchers Discover Hemp Waste Could Produce Graphene-like Nanomaterial

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:41:32 +0100

Researchers Discover Hemp Waste Could Produce Graphene-like Nanomaterial:

weedporndaily:

(420Times) Researchers at the University of Alberta are attempting to reduce the price of manufacturing a graphene-like nanomaterial using an agricultural byproduct that’s usually sent to the landfill: hemp fiber.

It’s been reported that graphene has the capability to modernize approximately every energy-generating technology on the planet, from batteries to solar panels. There is only one drawback to using this extremely beneficial product, and that is the substantial expense that comes with manufacturing the material.

Read more

class-struggle-anarchism: Primitivism shares a core belief with fascism - the idea that there is a...

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:27:34 +0100

class-struggle-anarchism:

Primitivism shares a core belief with fascism - the idea that there is a ‘natural’ way to live.

"In capitalist society, free time is produced for one class by the conversion of the whole lifetime..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:27:25 +0100

“In capitalist society, free time is produced for one class by the conversion of the whole lifetime of the masses into labour time””

- Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Chapter 17 (via anarcheluxemburg)

I wouldn’t even call it an effort she has to make....

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:24:00 +0100

I wouldn’t even call it an effort she has to make. She’s just exploiting because she feels like it, not because she gains in any particular way; there’s no real ‘effort’ involved in quitting meat (for most people, in fairness).

weedporndaily: I Break the Law To Treat My Epileptic Child With...

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:22:41 +0100

weedporndaily:

I Break the Law To Treat My Epileptic Child With Cannabis

(LadyBud) Maggie doesn’t tell many people the whole story. She is a vocal supporter of medical marijuana, but telling the truth, the whole truth, about the most important person in her life is just too risky. “Don’t mention me in that article,” she says. “Promise you’ll leave my name out.” I tell her she can proofread my article before anyone else sees it, and I tell her that her family’s story needs to get out there. Reluctantly, she agrees.

People involved with cannabis culture have long been familiar with young medical cannabis patients like Mykayla Comstock, Jayden David, Joey Perez, and the late Cash Hyde. Slowly, the general public has also become aware of medical cannabis for children, as media outlets from CNN news to the Rikki Lake show have featured their stories. The concept of “cannabis for children” doesn’t cause the same knee-jerk reaction that it did even a few short years ago. But all of the children featured prominently on television and across the internet have been treated in states with medical marijuana programs, under the close supervision of doctors. What about seriously ill children who don’t happen to live in medical marijuana states?

Maggie is the mother of Jeremy, a severely ill child using cannabis in a non-medical state, where it seems reasonable to be secretive and afraid: in the United States today, children are routinely removed from their parents’ custody due to cannabis use. However, it’s usually the parents’ cannabis use that is under scrutiny. For parents of a severely ill child using cannabis as a last resort medical option, the situation is a bit more complicated: the parents’ fear of losing their child to state custody is compounded by the fact that if the authorities intervene, the child will no longer be able to receive the only medical treatment that has worked.

Read more

class-struggle-anarchism: thepeoplesrecord: Let’s explain what...

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:14:52 +0100

class-struggle-anarchism:

thepeoplesrecord:

Let’s explain what our various ‘isms’ mean before we call ourselves ‘whatever-ists’

…
My definition of working class is much closer to the Occupy concept of the 99%

So, everyone who’s not a billionaire?

but that’s also a loaded term so instead let’s use the phrase “working people”.

No.

It’s the same as the Marxist definition of “working class”

No it isn’t.

but with less connotations attached to it.

Hmmm, less connotations? Everything to do with radical politics has negative connotations - there are people who make it their business to make sure of that. “Working people” is meaningless - a person who works is not necessarily working class. Donald Trump is a working person. We are not a collection of working people we are a CLASS. So what if there are negative connotations, it doesn’t change the fact that the struggle against capitalism is a struggle between classes.

We need to make it clear that you can eat as much humous as you like, as long as you don’t own a large a chain of businesses then you’re the right class for Left Unity.

So if you own a small chain of businesses you’re alright?

Reformist/ Revolutionary
What is a revolution if it’s not a series of radical reforms?

The complete reorganisation of society from the bottom up, abolition of private property and wage labour

For me, this whole distinction is a way for “revolutionaries” to smear “reformists” by which they mean anyone who doesn’t already identify themselves with an explicitly revolutionary ideology like that of “Trotskyism”, “Leninism” or “Anarchism”.

…or anyone who believes that capitalism can be reformed without the violent expropriation of the bourgeoisie

This definition of revolutionary excludes the vast majority of actual revolutionaries. The Egyptians, Venezuelans and Cubans are all out as is Alexis Tsipiras and his Greek Syriza party.

Hahaha, do you like what he’s done here? Doesn’t want an exclusionary definition of “revolutionary”, goes on to list “actual revolutionaries”, thereby excluding everyone else. Stop pretending that your personal politics are “actually” correct as if there’s no debate you sneaky liberal

All these groups were inspired, not by the ideas of dead Russians, but by the desire to radically change (reform) their material conditions.

Because those are the only two possible sources of inspiration. Give me a break.

Trotskyist/Leninist/Bolshevik
This isn’t an attack on those ideologies themselves

yes it is

but what do people think of when they hear them? I know my friends think back to dimly-recalled GCSE Russian history lessons. Older people probably think of the Soviet Union they grew up hearing horror stories about. OK, so maybe people have got the wrong impression. Maybe we need to re-educate them and recover the good name of these glorious leaders

patronising crap, I don’t even subscribe to those ideologies but they describe actually existing revolutionary movements of the working class, how else should we refer to them? ‘lets-all-be-jolly-friends-ism’?

but it’s not going to happen.

says you

Are we a Russian history discussion club or a political party?

yet another false dichotomy

Do we want to debate the legacy of Lenin or transform modern Britain?

and another

Socialist
Socialism means different things to different people…

Which one depends on your personal definition of Socialism. At a Left Unity meeting we had a debate about the word socialist. It was said that we have to be honest with people but if I tell a stranger I’m a socialist, and they think that socialism is the same as supporting the Soviet Union, am I really being honest with them? One time I was chatting pleasantly away with a Czech woman in a café in Sheffield, I mentioned that I was a socialist and she stormed away saying the socialists had killed her grandparents. A friend of mine, knowing that I’m a socialist, said I should write a blog, sincerely adding “they’ll love it in China and Russia”. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Let’s explain what socialism is before we call ourselves socialist.

This is exactly what he did earlier. Socialism means many different things to different people, so what we need to do is first explain what socialism IS. He’s saying ‘Socialism has many different definitions, but I know the only correct one’ Therefore let’s not say the word until everyone accepts my definition of it.

Capitalist/Anti-Capitalist
I’ve heard people at meetings endlessly saying things like “I don’t want to be part of a party that tries to reform Capitalism”, “Capitalism’s rotten to the core, we need to get rid of Capitalism”.

Yes go on

What I’ve never heard is someone explain what Capitalism is and what getting rid of it would look like.

You’re going to the wrong meetings

For me, Capitalism is where businesses aren’t owned by their workers which is a ridiculous and undemocratic arrangement.

That’s not what capitalism is.

Does this make me an anti-capitalist?

No.

I would say it does, many would say it doesn’t.

They’d be right.

If we can’t define what Capitalism is then how can we decide what’s the point of even talking about whether we’re an anti-capitalist party, still less falling out over it.

You honestly can’t define what capitalism is? Karl Marx managed it in 1867.

Furthermore, the vast majority of British people don’t define themselves as anti-capitalist and so any leaflet from an “anti-capitalist” party will go straight in the bin.

where it belongs.

A party that says they want workers to control their workplaces on the other hand, re-build the welfare state and re-nationalize the railways and utilities on the other hand sounds good to everyone.

Not to the millions who vote tory it doesn’t. Or the millions who don’t give a fuck. Or me, even.

I’ve got a couple of points
I’ve found that when people say this at meetings it means they’ve got a speech prepared in which they’ll attempt to spell out what’s wrong with society and how to fix it. This’ll go on forever and will bore people away from Left Unity for good.

Yes, only ‘actual’ revolutionaries who know what socialism “is” should be allowed to bore everyone.

Keep it as short as possible, people have short attention spans and are impatient for change.

You hate the working class, don’t you? This whole piece is one big appeal to dumb down radical politics because people are too stupid to differentiate between Ken Loach and Stalin. It’s a liberal reformist agenda dressed up as ‘common sense’ in ‘plain language’. This is the exact same rhetoric and content that the ‘left wing’ of the Labour party have been dressing up in different ways for as long as I can remember. It’s about as new and exciting as Tony Benn’s pipe and slippers.

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:12:43 +0100

MPs reject legal protection for religious anti-gay equality beliefs

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:02:18 +0100

MPs reject legal protection for religious anti-gay equality beliefs:

andrewneilblog:

An amendment proposed by Conservative MP Edward Leigh, a staunch equal marriage opponent, to amend the Equality Act in order to provide further legal protections for those who disagree with allowing gay couples to marry has been defeated by the House of Commons.

I am so so pleased that this has happened.

Tory MP Gerald Howarth: ‘There are plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who want more than just same-sex marriage’

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:02:05 +0100

Tory MP Gerald Howarth: ‘There are plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who want more than just same-sex marriage’:

andrewneilblog:

Former Conservative defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth has warned of the dangers of the “aggressive homosexual community”.

“I warn her, I fear the playing field is not being levelled I believe the pendulum is swinging so far the other way, and there are plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who see this as but a stepping stone to something even further.”

…

‘agressive homosexual community’

…

What further step? More equality? HOW CAN THIS BE SEEN AS AGGRESSIVE?!