Archive for September 2008
Reformism vs Revolution
(this is a debate between me and the Resident Action Movement’s #1 candidate, Oliver Woods. I think it’s quite illuminating. He shows himself to be pro-capitalist, anti-socialist, and a denier of class struggle and indeed the very existence of classes with irreconcilably hostile interests. Socialist Worker is a key component of RAM, and it’s saddening to think that the former Communist Party of New Zealand has swung right to the point where it would endorse a candidate like this)
The original post I responded to can be found on Oliver’s blog.
The argument for Open Borders
(above: refugees in an Australian concentration camp)
This was originally a post I wrote on Revleft, a forum I frequent. JimmyJazz and Spartan are the names of two people on the forum, and this post was a reply to a thread JJ started advocating that the US somehow “close it’s borders”. I tried to cover all the arguments against Open Borders put forward by leftists, and raised many of the arguments for it.
JimmyJazz, don’t quote from my sig to justify you’re position. I am an advocate of Open Borders, and the Lenin quote in question does not in any way justify more border controls.
Basically, you’re entire argument is disconnected from reality. You see the capitalist state repressing and discriminating against immigrants, and you see the capitalist class using the fact that these immigrants are illegal (and thus denied contracts, union rmembership etc) to make them a social underclass, and your solution is… “closed borders”.
JJ, the US border is already closed, You are only able to cross it legally with the permission of the capitalist state in the form of visas or whatever. And please explain to me how, in concrete terms, the border can be made any more closed than it is. Do you really think the US is going to build a gigantic wall along it’s border, so high (and perhaps electrified and covered in poisoned spikes) that noone can cross it? Do you have any idea how much that would cost? There already is a wall being built along the US-Mexico border, and that’s proven to be both ridiculously expensive and ineffective – immigrants can still get in.
Fidel Castro on Sports in Revolutionary Cuba
The following article is from Reflections of Fidel Castro, and I came across it at The Marxist-Leninist Blog.
What went unsaid about Cuba
Cuban President Raul Castro with the Cuban Olympic team
I have carefully followed the Western media’s reaction to my Sunday reflections on the Olympic Games in China. Actually, rather sensitive events were overlooked while others were highlighted ad libitum by the advocates of world plunder and exploitation.
Let’s see:
“Fidel Castro today blamed the judges and the Mafia for the poor performance of the Cuban delegation at the Olympic Games. He also justified the Cuban tae kwon do athlete Angel Volodia Matos, who was permanently suspended after kicking a referee in the head, and expressed his full solidarity with him.”
“The former Cuban President called on Monday to make a deep analysis of sports in Cuba. He also expressed his solidarity with an athlete who was permanently suspended together with his coach for assailing a judge.”
“Castro manifested his full solidarity with the tae kwon do athlete permanently suspended for attacking a referee and a judge.”
“Castro in solidarity with the Cuban tae kwon do athlete permanently suspended for aggression.”
There is a long list of similar sentences. This was the prevailing line of information. I didn’t expect otherwise. I was doomed, the same as the Cuban boxers in the face of bribed referees and judges, and I knew what would be publicized.
As was to be expected, not a word was published about hunger, undernourishment, lack of medicines, sport gear and facilities suffered by 80% of the countries competing there.
Western imperialist hypocrisy over South Ossetia
Tskhinval after the Georgian attack
Bosnian parliament in Sarajevo after Serbian attack
(Above: Spot the difference!)
In the weeks leading up to the recent conflict in South Ossetia and Georgia, the big news was that the Serbian general Radovan Karadzic had been captured. The capitalist media was spitting with fury at the heinous crimes this foul, despicable monster had committed. The most heavily denounced of these was his use of artillery strikes against the civilian areas of Sarajevo. The actions of Karadzic were carried out in the name of preserving Yugoslavia’s territorial integrity against ethnic separatists.
