Few institutions illustrate the oppression of people in capitalism better than prisons. Millions of people, almost completely members of the working class, in the United States and around the world, are presently wasting away for violations of the laws of private property or for crimes that stem from residing in a society based on want for some and privilege for others. There is no question that the vast majority of crimes today for which individuals are incarcerated are crimes of property. The Crime Index for 2001 makes it clear that somewhere in the region of 84 to 90 percent...
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Herbert Spencer’s concept of Survival of the fittest…Pseudo Scientists, in Economics, Anthropology, History, etc., have have probably erected more obstacles to the clear understanding of reality than any other group, for their misconceptions are tinted with the gild of scholarship. Herbert Spencer, with his Social Statics, was perhaps the most outstanding of those scholars whose opinions and conclusions were accepted on a large scale by peoples on both sides of the Atlantic. In Britain he developed quite a following, but nowhere so avid and devoted desciples as among the burgeoning tycoons in the U.S.A. Following the American Civil War,...
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From the Western Socialist, #2, 1969 “PRODUCTION FOR USE” – a phrase uttered so often by socialists as to become almost a cliché, yet understood (in a superficial fashion) by both enquirers and opponents. It describes our concept – our visualization – of a future social system superceding the present “un-social” system we call capitalism. Our enquirers and opponents alike recognize this. But the full implications of the term are not grasped, even by many who consider themselves to be socialists. The thinking of these people is so conditioned by the institutions of the present order that their thoughts...
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From the Western Socialist, #1, 1968 From mythological archives comes the legend of the phoenix, a bird of rare and unseemly attainments. After a lengthy and variegated existence, a pervasive act of its own volition caused it to be consumed in fire, and eventually to rise in callow newness from its ashes. Modern Japan has a close affinity with that fabulous bird. Playing a reckless role in the attack on Pearl Harbor, it suffered in consequence the fiery ordeal at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and then, in rapid strides proceeded to rise from apparent disaster to take its place among...
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From the Western Socialist, #1, 1960 Why does the World Socialist Party belittle the nationalization of wealth, when it really means the same thing as Socialism? If the government, on behalf of the people, decides to take over the wealth of the nation, what sense is there in wasting our time doing the same thing? Would it not be better for us to get in and help them do it? -W.S. Reader We gather from W.S. Reader the wording of the query that our correspondent is a little mixed up in his differentiation, or lack of it, between the...
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From the Western Socialist, March-April, 1942 “The mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political, and spiritual process of life.” When Karl Marx presented this analysis to a confused world, back in 1859, he provided an explanation of cause and effect in the social world that still serves the needs of our more inquisitive minds today. The slovenly and the superficial will miss its meaning, the sycophantic drudge will seek to sabotage its lesson but, to the serious student of social affairs, it affords a meaning of untangling the snarls that disconcert his...
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