siam is correct.....Money

siam is correct.....Money has become a licence for the control of energy, issued by a special interest sector for its own benefit.

The deregulated money creation powers allow these crooks to take control of the world's resources and economies, to colonize and enslave without the use of any weapons, but with the perceived power of imaginary money.

This is what capitalism is about: Control with imaginary, non existing money "created" from the air for the purpose.

With the experience of 45 years of fighting communism , I find a lot of similarities between the collectivization and enslavement efforts of the idiot twins of communism and capitalism. Their methods may be different, but the results for and of total control are the same. And always under the guise of "freedom" and "free enterprise" to strip people of all independence, potentials for any degree self sufficiency and decision making.

The communists used bayonets, the capitalists use "competition" and the perception of power.

The fraudulent "free trade" agreements, the WTO rules, and "globalization" are the best examples for and of the destruction of democracy.

I discovered in 1985 that the still used definition of so called "economic efficiency", meaning the biggest profits for the least monetary inputs, are a major fraud, the origin of the problems used as weapon for enslavement, preached by a priesthood of brainwashed economists miseducated in our universities.

Ideologies are dead, as every ideology can and has been used for weapons of enslavement and mass murder.

The fraud of monetary efficiency is the origin of the ongoing economic disasters. The solution can only be the acceptance of physical efficiency for economics.

I copyrighted my "Principle for the application of physical efficiency for economics" in 1991. It has been featured on many worldwide economic forums, including several by the World Bank, used in Phd dissertations and remains unbreakable.....and unknown.

Which is OK by me.

Ed Deak, Big Lake.

Congratulations, Al I ...

I will certainly be on the watch for Al's book. Being geographically out of the loop, if anyone knows where it can be purchased, perhaps post it here. (It has been a long time coming. 8-D lol

I have known Al well in the distant past, sharing many a political discussion late into the night over libations. It was obvious even then, that sooner or later, he was destined to produce this book.

But while I am pleased we have over much time and distance similarly and separately come to an understanding of the importance of the pivotal "economic democracy" concept, it would seem from the review at least that we may not quite share the same optimism of the current trade union movement. But then I will await the book for a fuller review of his own words. (Which is not to say that I think the working class does not need trade unions or some other particular model of its own "class organizations"... which it fully controls. I am just very negative about the current trade union leadership of them. Which is subject to being changed by future working class activism, no doubt. This picture could change very quickly in the right circumstance.)

Likewise, I share a "hope" at least with Al, that a relatively peaceful "reform" process, again entirely "democratic" and arising out of a much needed new period of working class activism and engagement in class struggle with capitalist power, will lead to a transformation of society beyond capitalism. I may, again awaiting his own words in the book, rather than just the interpretation of this review, be some less optimistic about an entirely "peaceful" transition, and that "some level" at least, of a clash of counterpoised "powers" may not be imposed on the working class. Especially in the case of a rise of fascism out of capitalism... a potentially very dangerous game changer.

Still, I do hope, though it all much depends now on how quickly and with what overwhelming mass the working class arises out of its long slumber here, and moves to engage those in the trade union movement and Social Democracy that seek to hobble them with bullshit and class collaboration. From there, perhaps even simultaneously, preparing and organizing for the struggle to take the system on, however the ruling class and its ass kissers choose to array themselves against us.

Continued next post...

Congratulations Al II

From previous post...

In any case, now even, as one begins to sense the coming change time, in response to another very old but wise admonition as well, it is already time to begin to hope for the best, and I would add prepare for the best, but to as well prepare for the worst.

We do not control entirely how the game develops once it opens. They have something to say about that as well. And naiveté on this score is one of the greatest dangers, as much as the risks of premature and over reaction.

Congratulations Al, on finally getting it done. Perhaps in the course of the development of this emerging new period, we shall get to meet again... only now as very old men. :-) Hopefully wiser. Hopefully. :-) You, of course, being much older than I.

Communism and Capitalism

In early 1983 I wrote a letter to the Burnaby NDP newsletter comparing Capitalism to Communism and suggesting that Capitalism is even worse than Communism. Why, because we will be controlled by the media into believing that we are much better off under Capitalism rather than Communism. I'm not saying Communism is better than Capitalism, just that it is the same wolf in different clothing. I also said the working class will be slowly enslaved under Capitalism. My comments were vetted and the letter published without the comparison.

Now is the time for Unions and the NDP to begin challenging Capitalism and explain to their members what the problem with Capitalism is. It surprises me to find that Union members vote for capitalist politicians. It's a juxtapose vote.

That's the failure of the unions since the early 60's when they were much stronger than now. It's also a failure of the NDP to clearly define what they represent. They to have fallen into the Capitalism trap.

Capitalism and The NDP

"Now is the time for Unions and the NDP to begin challenging Capitalism and explain to their members what the problem with Capitalism is." Camero409

Now, if there are other voices like yours within the NDP beginning to emerge brother, and union leadership, that would be a very hopeful sign indeed, in my view. We need as broad a working class political and union development as is possible to emerge here. And if there can be a critical kind of concensus develop between those of us on the serious left, typically independent and outside, even perhaps yet within other party strutures, and the NDP, that would go a very long way to successfully getting this new period of the ground.

I wish you well within the NDP. If there is still hope within the NDP and union leadership, it will have to come from such as yourself.

By a curious coincidence,

By a curious coincidence, one of the Komintern, Communist International, meetings in the '30s, declared social democracy as the greatest enemy of communism. After the war, social democrats were hunted down in the Soviet occupied countries, sent to the gulags and killed, by the hundreds of thousands.

So, now we have multinational capitalism declaring the same , and although social democrats have not been hunted down, yet, it is only a matter of time.

Another beautiful example is the discovery of communist China by Western capitalists, as the ideal place to invest in their slave labour industries and make huge profits on both ends, while destituting their home countries. Especially the unionized labour, the enemies of both.

The good brothers under the skin, pretending to hate each other

Ed Deak.

Time for new tactics

Thanks for the review. This book sounds like it has been well thought out and I should really give it a read before commenting.
It sounds as if Al Engler has discovered what many of us have: that Leninist, vanguardist parties have only managed to create State Capitalist regimes, many of which have now crumbled under the weight of their own internal contradictions. Without popular, democratic control of the economy, the workers of these countries essentially became subjects to the ruling bureaucratic castes ("Communist" and "Socialist" parties). Without meaningful democratic structures, free labour unions, and internal competition (except perhaps in some "market socialist" models), the resultant societies became stagnant and inferior versions of capitalist societies.
What I think is missing is the admission that "Social Democracy", Fabian "Socialism" and the like will also never create Socialism. Reformism, however well-intentioned, is essentially the administration of Capitalism, and will never do away with it. Social Democracy and reformist unionism have their uses, don't get me wrong. However, reforms are often hard-won and easily lost.There hasn't been a union in this country that has seriously challenged Capitalism since the days of the Wobblies and the One Big Union. Today, the mainstream unions and the NDP only represent the left wing of Capitalism and as such, can only offer working people piecemeal changes.
Although I am not a member, I have found that the World Socialist Movement website offers some great analysis of the failures of Capitalism, efforts to reform it from within, and attempts to build socialism by authoritarian means.

http://www.worldsocialism.org/index.php

Fiat lux is right!

Reading Ed's comment above reminded me of the quote from Albert Einstein in an article "Why Socialism". He said, "The situation prevailing in an economy based on the private ownership of capital is thus characterized by two main principles: first, means of production (capital) are privately owned and the owners dispose of them as they see fit; second, the labor contract is free. Of course, there is no such thing as a pure capitalist society in this sense. In particular, it should be noted that the workers, through long and bitter political struggles, have succeeded in securing a somewhat improved form of the “free labor contract” for certain categories of workers. But taken as a whole, the present day economy does not differ much from “pure” capitalism."

It seems pretty clear that the notion of "free labor" is gradually being achieved. As long as borders prevented the movement of capital there was a protection against a "free labor" contract or something approaching it. With Free Trade and globalization all bets ore off and it is being achieved without workers even realizing they are being screwed. It is almost like the original globalization proponents all put their heads together and asked what was preventing them from cutting labour cost and some neocon came up with, "Hey it is that borders mean too much, let's make them meaningless through Free trade pacts". That is why Mulroney never listened to Canadians.

It takes a change through peaceful means or we are all headed to working for peanuts to make the man rich.

Time We Were At It...

I agree with Fait and others here re the failure of the Leninist Party and State, and that both what it passed off as Communism AND existing Capitalism everywhere came to be different faces of the same essential Capitalist System. Now, in our time, entirely obvious.

There was a failure, by accident or design, it matters now not which, on the part of Leninism, to understand the importance of "democracy" to the working class, and especially the importance of its application/linkage to the ruling class controlled economy. Again, all this, as traditional capitalism now increasingly turns away from even the pretence of it as well, and the Social Democratic State of Capitalism withers and dies, and a kind of still low level fascism emerges, is becoming suddenly obvious to more and more people.

Without the principles of "democracy" applied to the economy , working class and the social interest participation in its ownership, direction and day to day management, there is no real democracy at all... and it is only driven by the ambitions and excesses of ruling class greed. This is now obvious as well.

And no less obvious is, that it MUST change. Society must finally evolve beyond the system of private ownership capitalism... over the means of production, marketing, distribution and of paramount, finance. This system has been allowed to go to the public well once too often finally... and we are at serious risk of it breaking the natural environment, the well being and survival of all extant species, including humans, as well as the bank.

It is time to draw this historical period since the bourgeois revolution of the English Civil War(s) in the 17th Century, and its subsequent Industrial Revolution to a close. It is time we were about it in earnest, with renewed vigour. There is more at stake than just their individual and class greed interests. And if across the broad spectrum of the serious left, the working class and unions etc, we can reach even a minimalist consensus on this, even if some of the detail is left fuzzy for now, until we get to where it is critical, we can be about this important work with the greatest dispatch and efficiency.

Wealth can not be created,

Wealth can not be created, only taken from others, the environment and the future.

The main purpose of globalization and free trade is the replacement of democracy with autocracy. In the case of "free trade" a gang of 3 "experts" making decisions in secret, without records, witnesses, or reasons given, overruling all democratic decision making powers.

Regardless of their original intentions the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have become criminal organizations and the intent behind the World Trade Organization has never been anything else.

There's no such thing as global government under any form of democracy, because democracy can only exist as local decision making powers.

Ed Deak.

The ruling class won't even countenence a legal protest against

something like the G20 meeting, do you actually think they are going to let you legislate socialism into existence? How Utopian. Obama sent a hit squad half way around the world to put a bullet in a 16 year old Somali pirate-many of whom are forced into crime since their traditional fishing waters have been polluted by the same people that are supposed to play nice with labour. Obama did this just to show everybody what? Colour doesn't matter to him? The law is the law? Unless of course you are a war criminal like Bush or Cheney. Long before any actual threat to private wealth arose, many will be jailed, disappeared assassinated. This, if the existing gate keepers don't do a number on you in the press, courts or some other power apparatus-Eliot Spitzer ring any bells? I don't say we don't try to get as much done legislatively as possible and raise consciousness but I dare say we shouldn't sow even more seeds of illusion than we already have to deal with. And we don't have decades to slowly increment reforms-the planet won't last that long given the rate that we are polluting it, and it is only going to get worse before it gets better-tar sands an example. The entire west coast and all the first nations to whom the Canadian government is treaty bound-will not stop a western pipeline if IF the USA rejects the Keystone proposal and Alberta feels it has no other choice but to deal with the Chinese. They may do it even with the US pipeline going through-they are preparing the Arctic for deep water oil drilling in whale sanctuaries no less. And don't think a PM like Harper wouldn't call in the American military if he felt overwhelmed-that agreement is already on paper.

Stalinism "socialism in one country" is what failed not Marx's

internationalism. That was also a utopian fallacy. In any case read Trotsky Lenin's right hand man if you want to know how the revolution was betrayed. What we did learn from the Soviet Union was just how powerful and productive socialized production could be-the Soviet Union went from an agrarian backwater to a modern nation state in less than 50 years-they had 17 imperialist powers trying to strangle the USSR in it's infancy, they went through a civil war, then they went through the Second World War with a complete loss of infrastructure and 22 million dead. Yet they still put a satelite into space long before we did and managed stave off the capitalist counter revolution in the process. And the West, how well has unfettered capitalism done this past century under practically ideal conditions? 2 world wars brought about by inter-imperialist rivaliries, 2 great depressions-and as we can see growth rates that don't even match the ones put out by the USSR when it was overthrown. More people in jail than any other so called free nation in the world-more murders infant mortality poverty corruption at all levels from Wall Street to the White House-and you say the Soviet Union was a failure? And all of those other "marxist revolutions" What happened to them whereever they got a toe hold anywhere in the world-how did the capitalist bully boys act then? Coups phoney drug wars as a pretext to invasion, Dictator's like Pinochet and the Shaw of Iran. How many children die every day under the capitalist system circa 2010 A.D? And why do the people yearn for the days of Stalin once again? Could it be 'SATAN' or perhaps the invisible hand of Goldman Sacs.

22 million died in Stain's

22 million died in Stain's gulags. Some of them my friends, who disappeared overnight and were never seen again. My mother arrested and tortured four times by the secret police, my uncle jailed for 15 years, for nothing, I was sentenced in absentia, but they didn't catch me.

The poverty and enslavement of the people was incredible.

Any praise of the Soviets reminds me of the denials of Hitler's death camps, that started 10 years after the war.

Ed Deak.

Sufficient Critical Mass I ...

"The ruling class won't even countenence a legal protest against
something like the G20 meeting, do you actually think they are going to let you legislate socialism into existence? How Utopian. Obama sent a hit squad half way around the world to put a bullet in a 16 year old Somali pirate-many of whom are forced into crime since their traditional fishing waters have been polluted by the same people that are supposed to play nice with labour." Rocy Racoon

Actually, like I have said, I don't think they are. Indeed, in my own mind, I know they are not. It all turns however, on how quickly and with what kind of mass and commitment the working class hits the political streets of the coming period.

That said, you proceed on the basis of setting up and observing "real" democratic processes, at the same time preparing for "eventualities". And when and if... in my view almost certainly... but in the meantime, I'm prepared to take the gamble that gives the time for folks, and myself, to discover what will really happen for certain, for ourselves.

('Cause you see, I don't think you really know for anymore certain than I do. Historical evidence is important, but it is also past history. It is not this time, this here and now... and a different circumstance just MAY emerge, depending, as I have said, on how it all turns in the coming period. History never actually exactly repeats itself, and the participants to each class struggle period, to a degree, have to learn for themselves... often, almost entirely over again. Human generations and their experiences come and go that quickly.)

All that said, there is much truth in your comments on the history of the old USSR. I agree.

Fait Lux is also doubtless telling the truth from his perspective. Though Fait needs to be reminded, IF I remember him telling us here correctly, that his family were part of the old aristocratic system of Czarist Russia, (I forget the details of Faits family history.) and that Czarist regime imposed its own brutal history of poverty,starvation, war, repression and slaughter on the Russian peasantry and their nascent working class. Out of which events the Russian Revolution and the Leninist Party arose. It was a brutal round on all sides. There were no entire innocents all round either. (Sometimes one's memory is selective, including my own.)

Continued next post...

Sufficient Critical Mass II ...

From previous post...

Hopefully, just hopefully, time and circumstance has changed sufficiently here in our time and place, and there will be the kind of a working class engagement emerge that will simply overwhelm the existing ruling class order, and indeed make a peaceful transformation of our society possible. (And I deliberately do not apply any "isms" anymore, to what I expect to emerge. That can wait for another time and generation perhaps. I will be content with democracy, especially applied in the early going to the economy.)

Because I AM aware of history, I have serious doubts. I am also however, for myself, prepared to set those doubts aside. Otherwise, we narrow down and restrict so much, who and what qualifies to participate, that nothing happens because no one is good enough.

Everyone, or near everyone, tends to think that their own understanding/ faith is the one and only true path. When in reality it is more likely, that at least many roads lead to the same Rome... simply going by their own particular route.

In our case though, it would doubtless be better, if we could manage to travel the same road "more or less" together. :-) Of sufficient critical mass. My view anyway.

The Economy...

The economy, in my view, is the critical ingredient here. Democratize the economy and everything else will tend to flow therefrom, over whatever amount of time.

It is working class and "the social interest" power over the economy that needs to be our focus... the prize on which to keep our eye.

Money as Debt

These is a great discussions about the most important topic humans can discuss, starting with Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and going to the present, with writers like Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges and Naomi Klein. Can we imagine a just society? Do we recognize the injustice of our current structure? If we can, how would we get from here (Fake Democracy) to there?

And the lack of understanding of our financial system is actually quite pivotal. Our monetary system is in fact simple, but buried in obscurity to the point where politicians don't understand how it works, nevermind the rest of us.

The post by 'saimdave" above contains a great link.

Another great reference is Canada's own Walter Stewart's famous book Towers of Gold, Feet of Clay, where point by point he explains how fiat currency is pretty much a pyramid scheme.

Last but not least, check out the excellent video Money as Debt, by BC's own Paul Grignon, which is probably the easiest version to access:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2550156453790090544#

If we are EVER to have any chance of remaking society into a socialist democratic state (like Sweden or Denmark), we MUST overcome our lack of training in understanding how simple our monetary system should be.

22 million died in Stain's

"22 million died in Stain's gulags. The poverty and enslavement of the people was incredible.

Any praise of the Soviets reminds me of the denials of Hitler's death camps, that started 10 years after the war."

Clearly the atrocities under Stalin are unforgiveable. We must never forget this fact and govern ourselves accordingly.

But neither those acts, nor those of Nazi Germany, diminish the inhumane deaths acruing around the world as a result of US imperialist pursuits.. Likewise, there is no room for praise of our own barbaric acts no matter how we market them to ourselves.

Sam....Those and today's

Sam....Those and today's atrocities, plus the thousands of years of atrocities before them, have been committed by people using religious or ideological theories as scriptural legalization for crimes.

As I wrote before, the 2 world wars and the death camps of Stalin, Hitler and Mao have killed about 120 million people.

Today's neoclassical market capitalism kills about the same number in 4-5 years with starvation, bad water and easily preventable illnesses.

I've been fighting all forms of dictatorships and their faith based licencing all my adult life and intend to do it till I drop and get upset when I hear any praise of either of these criminal systems.

I've spent 3 postwar year in Austria and all I could hear was how good they had it under Hitler.

Ed Deak. .

Swedish Capitalism...

"But neither those acts, nor those of Nazi Germany, diminish the inhumane deaths acruing around the world as a result of US imperialist pursuits.. Likewise, there is no room for praise of our own barbaric acts no matter how we market them to ourselves." samuidave.

Amen, brother.

I agree with Jeffrey that this has been a great discussion. (Though I would remind him that the working class of Sweden and Denmark are still subject to the democratic limitations of capitalism, "perhaps" only marginally less than we,, where the old Social Democratic State of Capitalism still more survives, and that likewise they are also part of the capitalist system global axis... And that Sweden's armed forces are present in Afghanistan, serving the US Empire cause, along with ours.

They are not quite so pristine an "ideal" and out front democracy developmentally as social democrats sometimes like to portray them.

Still, a great discussion. :-)

Denmark...

By the by, Denmark also has armed forces in Afghanistan, as part of the imperialist capitalism axis serving, and hoping to benefit from the US Empire.... again, along with our bootlick selves of course. :-) (Number of
Denmark's armed forces serving in Afghanistan is about 750 by the latest count I could determine.)

A Social Democratic State is still a capitalist state, merely helping its ruling class to make capitalism more stable, palatable to the no less wage slave working class, and workable. Hence, it seeks to serve the ruling class interest.

Well I don't equate Stalinism with Marxism or anything else the

bolshevik revolution managed to accomplish. Stalin was the gravedigger of revolution and his essentially nationalist policies is what killed the social and political revolutions in Eastern Europe. Of course Western Capitalism served as the transmission belt for Soviet Totalitarianism-the threat from the West justified totalitarianism just as the so called terror threat is justifying all forms of fascism over here. But the original Leninists ushered in the most progressive democratic society the world had ever seen only to see it degenerate for many reasons-not being supported by the Western socialists who turned into nothing more than nationalist parties in matters of war-we should have joined along class lines to bring an end to Hitler, but anyway I hate to see what was essentially a progressive movement fall prey to alot of what is really propaganda and smears. One thing no one can argue with and that is socialized production-we have that today-the only problem is ownership is not socialized if it were we would not be facing these crisis of over production and advances in technology would be used to advance the human condition not lay people off work and send them to the garbage heap-like disposable razors or something. So we have to change our social relationships and get rid of class first off that is the last hurdle other phenomenon that support capitalist repression like racism and sexism will far by the wayside once thier reason for existence is gone.
RR

Changing the Class Social Realationships...

"So we have to change our social relationships and get rid of class first off that is the last hurdle other phenomenon that support capitalist repression like racism and sexism will far by the wayside once thier reason for existence is gone." Rocky Racoon

With which I agree entirely.

And which is the central issue, while it does tend to make the class system some more palatable, that Social Democracry refuses to deal with.

who decides what's more effective???

Given that we are the product of two thousand years of accumulating “one small reform” after another, and that the human condition on this planet, as a result of these countless “fundamental changes”, is steadily becoming more precarious, one must wonder at how larger unions will somehow morph into or create more effective social movements.

Of course, aside from failing to elaborating on the logistics involved, the key words that Engler fails to define are: “more effective social movements”: More effective relative to what? More effective at the redistribution of wealth and/or political power; or at reducing pollution; or at controlling the distribution and abundance of population and the influence of religion; or at telling folks the truth about global resource depletion and scarcity, and how that scarcity will seriously impact everyone’s lives; or more effective at insuring that everyone takes part in decision making; or simply more effective at imposing the will of the union leaders?

Not so fast...

Sorry everyone, but there is rather good evidence to suggest that a gradualist or reformist programme is doomed to failure.

As David Harvey explains in A Brief History of Neoliberalism, something like what the author is suggesting was seriously attempted in Sweden. In the 1960s the Rehn-Meider Plan would have gradually transferred ownership of corporations to workers through their unions. While generous offers were made to the capitalist class in how this would be accomplished, the serious prospect of a classless society (achieved violently or not) was unacceptable to the capitalist class.

The response of Swedish capital was to organize into a kind of capitalist unionism as was done in the US in order to more effectively seize control of the state and create powerful propaganda organizations with which to capture public discourse. This was the start of the ongoing neoliberalization of Sweden.

Given how favourable the Swedish conditions were to change, it seems fair to conclude that a classless society will NEVER be achieved without some significant degree of coercion, as the desire for power on the part of the capitalist class outstrips any rational calculation based on material well being.

I'm not suggesting Leninism is any kind of answer, but it would be naive to imagine that capitalists will A) Not realize where a gradualist movement is headed, and B) Not use everything in their power to stop it.