The events that took place in Western Province on 14 January strongly and correctly underpin that Zambia’s politics are tribalist – that tribalism in Zambia exists and is partly instigated by self-seeking politicians through inciting disgruntled ethnic groups in order to advance their political objectives. What is called nationalism comes to emphasise political allegiance to the state. Political states in Africa were mapped out by European imperialist nations under the guise of economic interests and military influence. Thus African kingdoms and empires were brutally decimated and different ethnic groups were forcibly integrated into colonial states and protectorates. British imperialism...
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For most of the twentieth century, Isaac Rab (1893 – 1986) was well known in the Boston area as a socialist soap-box orator, lecturer, and teacher. He was a founding member of the World Socialist Party of the United States and a central figure in its Boston Local for many years. In this book, Karla Rab, who is the granddaughter of Isaac Rab, tells the story of his life and presents a large selection of his surviving correspondence as well as many photographs. She draws on her own reminiscences and on those of many others who knew her grandfather....
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On this day in 1959 Fidel Castro was sworn in as prime minister of Cuba. He officially stepped down two years ago. The lie that Cuba is or was communist remains however and it is primarily with this in mind that SOYMB offers the following article, which first appeared in the Socialist Standard of February 1979. IT IS NOW TWENTY years since the hated Cuban dictator Batista went into exile. As he did so the small army led by Fidel Castro finally took control of Havana, the capital city, after years of rural guerilla warfare. This event, coupled with...
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Jane Cunningham a Missouri State Senator has proposed a law the wholesale repeal of child-labor laws in that state. The law would allow employment of children under 14. She believes this will instill a “work ethic” in the young. She says that her bill simply loosens an overly broad prohibition on child labor and would allow kids to work at movie theaters, to babysit or to cut lawns, blaming the hysteria on union “misinformation” and politics. (HuffPo) Sounds nice and moderate? Here are the actual provisions of the bill: Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when...
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The fanfare and euphoria that greeted the discovery of oil in Ghana is not only based on the assumption that it will help boost the not-so-healthy economy of this poor nation but more fundamental though unvoiced factors also account for the uproar. The dismal reality of the actions of the global oil magnates in African countries is one such factor. They act in brazen defiance of the norms of civility and dignity of the local populations. The humiliating treatment meted out to Liberia’s Charles Taylor due, in part, to his refusal to do business with Dick Cheney’s Halliburton is...
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“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as ‘right to work.’ It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining.” — Martin Luther King Jr. “What we’re trying to get to is to get Missouri on the map as a place where businesses want to be and where that they would like to locate. National-siting corporations, frankly, they’re taking a look at Missouri and saying, “Are you a right-to-work state or are you a forced-union state?…the other states that...
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CEOs, government leaders and academics around the world are headed to ski-resort Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting – a power gathering that mixes business, politics and champagne. It is an event that draws a wide range of decision makers, from Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, to the Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, to U2′s Bono. Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev will go ahead with his trip to the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos, despite the bomb attack in Moscow. The five-day conference – from Wednesday to Sunday is really about...
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Review of Karl Marx and the Anarchists by Paul Thomas This excellent book is a running commentery on Marx’s fierce battles with crackpots he regarded as disasters to the socialist movement: the anarchists Max Stirner, P. J. Proudhon and Michael Bakunin. One of its principal merits is that it debunks, with the support of voluminous and correctly interpreted quotations, the idea that Marx was a dogmatic old bully, hopelessly impatient and irritable with anyone who dared to dissent from his views. Stirner’s sole claim to fame is his book, The Ego and his Own, which was purported to be a rebellious...
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The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) defines “middle class” as people who have at their disposal between 70 percent and 150 percent of the average after-tax income. For a single person, that means between €1070 and €2350 per month. despite falling unemployment, the proportion of individuals and families living on roughly average incomes has dropped, weekly Die Zeit reported. Germany’s “middle class” has been steadily shrinking since the late 1990s. The share of middle income earners as a proportion of the population fell from 59.2 percent to 58.7 percent over the course of 2008 – the last year...
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