Introduction In recent years the environment has become a major political issue. And rightly so, because a serious environmental crisis really does exist. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat have all become contaminated to a greater or lesser extent. Ecology – the branch of biology that studies the relationships of living organisms to their environment –is important, as it is concerned with explaining exactly what has been happening and what is likely to happen if present trends continue. Since the publication of the World Socialist Movement’s pamphlet, Ecology and Socialism, of 1990 environmental problems...
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From the Western Socialist, July, 1947 Throughout the world today, working men and women are planning, discussing, organizing in trade unions, demonstrating and supporting political groups, all with a view to improving their social conditions. In some countries, they have had the right to vote for many years, and have been instrumental in the rise to power of Conservative, Liberal, Democratic, and Labor Governments. In all highly organized countries, political parties depend upon workers votes and support to achieve electoral success. After all these years of effort and aspiration, an assessment of their present social conditions should be timely....
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Our subject this evening is “Socialism – Utopian and Scientific.” Most relevant in the examination of this subject is history. Not the history you have studied at school nor the history with which current literature is so preoccupied. Currently a history titled “History as Mirror” comparing the fourteenth century and its horrible conditions with the twentieth century that we know contributes very little to understanding with...
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Down through the ages there have been various interpretations of history. For example, there are the theories which see in history the working out and realization of some sort of divine plan – like Hegel’s philosophy of history, which sees the whole historical development of society as the realization stage by stage of the so-called Absolute Idea. Again, there are the various theories which see history as moving through “cycles,” every civilization passing by some inescapable necessity through the cycle of rise, plentitude of power and decline – as in Spengler’s Decline of the West or Toynbee’s Studies in...
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As a true patriot, I would gladly die in battle defending my homeland. I love my country more than my own life. But I would also be more than willing to give my last breath in the name of, say, Mexico, Panama, Japan, or the Czech Republic. The most honorable thing a man can do is lay down his life for his country. Or another country. The important thing is that it’s a country. Like those heroes who spilled their blood fighting for independence against the British Empire, I, too, would forfeit everything to win for...
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“The ranks of low-wage working families increased by 350,000 between 2002 and 2006, raising their numbers to nearly 9.6 million, or more than one in four of the nation’s working families with children. The report by the Working Poor Families Project, an advocacy group that analyzed census data, defined low-wage families as those earning less than double the poverty rate. For a family of four, that would have been an annual income of $41,228 or less in 2006. The report’s author, Brandon G. Roberts, attributed the increase to the growth in low-paying jobs, from health-care aides to cashiers, that...
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Money – its origins, its nature, and its functions – is a subject laden with superstition and wild theory. Even those who are supposed to know all that is worth knowing about it, the economics experts, frequently find themselves tangled in the intricacies of their explanations. To the nonprofessional students of Marxian economics the confusions are based primarily on the fact that the training to which the “legitimate” theorists are subjected is geared to the needs of capitalism. To understand the real nature of capitalism, in general, and money, in particular, would inhibit ones effectiveness as an expert...
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“Dawoud Ameen, a former Iraqi soldier, lay in bed, his shattered legs splayed before him, worrying about the rent for his family of five. Mr. Ameen’s legs were shredded by shrapnel from a roadside bomb in September 2006 and now, like many wounded members of the Iraqi security forces, he is deeply in debt and struggling to survive. For now, he gets by on $125 a month brought to him by members of his old army unit, charity and whatever his wife, Jinan, can beg from her relatives. But he worries that he could lose even that meager monthly...
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WSP, FN Brill, will be speaking at the Portland pre-Mayday event at the IWW’s Liberty Hall (311 N. Ivy) this Sunday April 27th at 7:30pm.
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You can meet WSP members at our table at the 5th Annual Brooklyn Peace Fair, Saturday April 26 between 11:00 am–6:00 pm. The fair is located on the Long Island University – Brooklyn Campus at Flatbush & DeKalb Avenues.
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