MetaFilter posts tagged with socialism

Obama as Joker goes viral

garnetgirl — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:46:07 -0800

First seen on the web this week, posters have sprung up in LA and Atlanta. Interesting discussions on the Washington Post.com site. Lots of different ideas about the posters and their meaning. Tampa Bay Times takes up the debate.

In writing this book my intention was to present, in the form of an interesting story, a faithful picture of working-class life...

hydatius — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:18:17 -0800

In August 1910, an Irish sign-painter and decorator named Robert Noonan left the town of Hastings on the south coast of England, and made his way north and west towards Liverpool, with the hope of emigrating to Canada. Already sick with tuberculosis, his condition worsened once he reached the city, and he was to die there in a workhouse hospital ward, in February 1911. He had, however, left in the care of his daughter Kathleen a package that was to change the political landscape of twentieth-century Britain. Composed between 1906 and 1910, and written under the pen-name of Robert Tressell, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists told the story of a group of house-painters and craftsmen living and working in the appalling conditions of Edwardian provincial capitalism, in the fictional town of Mugsborough, a narrative based on Tressell's own working life in Hastings. The novel's central character, Peter Owen, preaches the socialist cause to try to convert his fellow working men (the titular characters, who seem content to 'donate' their labour to their capitalist masters). Tressell was to die without seeing his book in print, but it has now sold over a million copies in numerous languages and it has never been out of print since its eventual publication in 1914; its text can be found here, and Tressell's original manuscript can be scrolled through here. The Trades Union Council keeps detailed pages devoted to Tressell, as does Hastings Museum. The Robert Tressell Society runs an annual festival in the town in his honour. Although after his death in 1911, he was buried in a pauper's grave in Liverpool, a monument was subsequently raised over the spot, as well as at the hospital in which he died. In his adopted home of Hastings he is honoured throughout the townscape, including an accommodation block of the university, and several commemorative plaques. His family received nothing beyond the £25 Kathleen was paid for the rights to the manuscript in 1914, although she and her own son continued to champion the novel's causes. There has been a marked upswing in the book's sales this year, and this week The New Statesman named it number 5 in their list of the most important progressive and liberal books ever (just behind Marx, Engels, and Jesus).

"All fur coat and no knickers."

adamvasco — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:49:42 -0800

Solving America's hunger crisis is an article by Sacha Abramsky
Feeding America has a Hunger quiz and Hunger 101 - Feed your mind. A comment from the Guardian link: If America can't get it together to look after their sick and ill people ( no NHS ) then what makes anyone think they give a damn about their poor? Has America a good track record on equality issues? No. Has America shown economic benefit of its vast wealth to all ? No. Has America developed good social safety nets for its poor? No. Why not? Because they just don't want to. It's just the way Americans are. Anything that sonds like a National health system or decent state benefits is still seen as Communist, or nearly as bad - Socialist.
ClubOrlov comments on American Socialism.

Proletarians of All Lands, Unite!

madamjujujive — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:01:23 -0800

Peasant! Free your pregnant wife from work, don't allow her to pick up heavy items since this will harm her and the child. An excellent collection of vintage soviet propaganda, public health, and infographics posters from 20s to 30s, many with full translations.

The Adaptive Value of Human Institutions:* Building a Better (Secular) 'Religion'

kliuless — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:42:14 -0800

Keynes & Marx thought "that productivity would grow sufficiently to allow our needs to be met with very little labour," and that humankind's biggest preoccupation in the future would be leading lives of comfortable (or comparative) leisure. Obviously, that has not yet come to pass. But why?** Yochai Benkler (previously), for one, is working on it... *just saw jared diamond on the evolution of religion (and was inspired ;) **e.g., one could say the social utility of the enclosure movement has reached its limit (or a local logical maximum) and that the means of (re)production might now be (self-)organised not by the state and/or market per se, but (at long last!) by a conscious collective cultural aesthetic :P

Beware the Red Menace!

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:34:53 -0800

Rasmussen Reports published a poll recently which showed that 20% of respondants believe socialism is better than capitalism. Among those under 30, the percentage goes up to 33%. And apparently, some Republicans believe that percentage is actually much higher, as the Republican National Committee has called upon RNC chairman Mike Steele to start calling Democrats "Democrat Socialists". Steele, for his part, told Fox News, "We don't see this president so much as a socialist as we see him as a collectivist".

You don't even have to be a Marxist to enjoy it

cthuljew — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:55:08 -0800

Everything you ever wanted to read about left-wing political theory but were afraid to look up. Well, left-wing politics and a few other topics besides. Use the two drop-down menus at the top of the page.

Obama vs. Marx

homunculus — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:12:20 -0800

Despite The Republican Talking Points, There's A Difference Between Obama And Marx: One Of Them's Not A Socialist. [Via]

Scott Nearing (1883-1983)

Joe Beese — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:14:40 -0800

He was fired from his university for challenging the most prominent evangelist in the country. He was put on trial for criticizing American war policy. He became an inspiration for the back-to-the-land movement. At the age of 100, he chose to stop eating.

Chavez' Venezuela At 10 Years

Rykey — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:31:21 -0800

Just ahead of a re-election referendum in Venezuela (scheduled for February 15), The Chávez Administration at 10 Years: The Economy and Social Indicators [PDF][Via]

Greatest Achievements of American Socialism

homunculus — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:40:43 -0800

Great achievements in American socialism: A slide show of two dozen excellent things the federal government bought with your money.

A ground for the love of men

Abiezer — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:50:59 -0800

Colm Tóibín reviews Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love by Sheila Rowbotham a fine essay and good introduction to the life, thought and work of "the poet, socialist, free-thinker and sexual rebel" of high Victorian England, Edward Carpenter.

The Iron Heel

finite — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:17:03 -0800

The Iron Heel, published a century ago this year, is a novel by Jack London about socialist revolution in the United States. It is set mostly between 1912 and 1932, with a foreword and numerous footnotes written from the point of view of a historian who has just discovered the manuscript some 700 years later. Here is an excerpt (which is printed on the back cover of some editions) from chapter five:

"This, then, is our answer. We have no words to waste on you. When you reach out your vaunted strong hands for our palaces and purpled ease, we will show you what strength is. In roar of shell and shrapnel and in whine of machine-guns will our answer be couched. We will grind you revolutionists down under our heel, and we shall walk upon your faces. The world is ours, we are its lords, and ours it shall remain. As for the host of labor, it has been in the dirt since history began, and I read history aright. And in the dirt it shall remain so long as I and mine and those that come after us have the power. There is the word. It is the king of words--Power. Not God, not Mammon, but Power. Pour it over your tongue till it tingles with it. Power."

Ecuador has a new constitution

PercussivePaul — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:52:52 -0800

Voters in Ecuador appear to have approved a new constitution yesterday, guaranteeing rights to clean water, universal healthcare, pensions, and free state-run education through the university level. It also may allow President Rafael Correa to remain in power until 2017. Particularly of note is a world first bill of rights for nature which grants inalienable rights to nature. This portion of the constitution was drafted with the assistance of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a group which "[provides] free and affordable legal services to community based groups and local governments working to protect their quality of life and the natural environment through building sustainable communities." The specific provisions state: (source) "Chapter: Rights for Nature Art. 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution. Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms. The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution. Art. 2. Nature has the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems. In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation on non renewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences. Art. 3. The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem. Art. 4. The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles. The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic patrimony is prohibited. Art. 5. The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing. The environmental services are cannot be appropriated; its production, provision, use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State."

Gerd Arntz and the origins of the stick figure

mediareport — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:35:09 -0800

The Gerd Arntz Web Archive collects graphics from the career of the man who - in creating over 4000 Isotypes for social scientist Otto Neurath in 1930s Red Vienna - can make a serious claim to be the inventor of the modern stick figure. He attacked the corruption of German society as the Nazis rose to power, then joined Neurath in an attempt to create a transnational visual language that bore later fruit in Otl Aicher's 1972 Olympic pictograms and the AIGA passenger/pedestrian symbol signs. [via Mark Larson and Austin Kleon]

Mythbusting Canadian Health Care

homunculus — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:11:03 -0800

Mythbusting Canadian Health Care, Part I. Part II: Debunking the Free Marketeers. [Via Orcinus.]

The 'advantage' of 'low human rights'

Abiezer — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:14:18 -0800

Only China can destroy socialism. Qin Hui, one of the country's most important public intellectuals, argues "China's rampant state-dominated, welfare-lite capitalism could so undercut competitors that it could threaten the social democratic traditions that underpin the West." [As ever, via.]

Looking Backward

nasreddin — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 19:24:15 -0800

Looking Backward: From 2000 to 1887, a Utopian novel by Edward Bellamy. A classic 19th century socialist vision of the future.

Her home is a factory.

jmhodges — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 07:36:50 -0800

The limits of pop music, and Marxist critical theory, by way of the Gang of Four.

Thou Knowest O' Lord!

nofundy — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 07:07:28 -0800

The Abrigded King James Version
And the LORD Capital said unto the socialist, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Hope you enjoy!

South American dominoes

wilful — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 21:25:03 -0800

[NewsFilter] A leftist candidate from one of Bolivia's Indian peoples who wants to legalise coca-growing has claimed victory in the presidential election. Mr Morales, an admirer of Fidel Castro, said on Sunday that he wanted ties with the US but "not a relationship of submission". He also promises to make foreign oil and gas investors pay what he says is a fairer share to Bolivians.

Too fat to be worth anything to society, except for the tax money.

shepd — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 11:42:24 -0800

Lifestyle on the line. UK to allow hospital's opinions on personal lifestyle to define state healthcare decisions.

Goddamn socialists

wilful — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 19:09:01 -0800

Cheap oil for the masses. "Officials from Venezuela and Massachusetts have signed a deal providing cheap heating oil to low-income homes in the US state. The fuel will be sold at some 40% below market prices to thousands of homes over the winter months. Local congressman William Delahunt described the deal as "an expression of humanitarianism at its very best". [Newsfilter] Why do you hate America, Hugo?

Do They Know It’s G8 Time?

dodgygeezer — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 06:39:12 -0800

"I had been planning to set up a socialist band, which I hope will play a leading role in the world socialist revolution because it is possible to influence people greatly through music and I have acquired sufficiently strong singing abilities through karaoke to convince myself that I would be capable of singing in a band." [music here]

Katrina seen from the Left

cleardawn — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 13:54:51 -0800

Storm Hits, Capitalism Preserves Profits, Humanity Drowns. Beyond pointing out that Bush cares greatly about rich white people, what does the Left have to say about Katrina? How accurate is it to blame racism and capitalism for the federal governments's lack of response?