Rantings of a Socialist Madman

...no, that was not a line uttered by Sir Alan Sugar, but one potentially spoken in the state of California where being a communist was still a sackable offfense.  I did not realise that this law still existed until the Guardian newspaper kindly reminded us all of it. I am very suprised that this could have possibly been going on in 'The Land of the Free' for so very long. 

"the Communist party is not a dead organisation ... and [is] actively repressing human beings in Cuba and China in brutal ways" 

The comment from Jeff Denham, the Republican Senator, still highlights the total ignorance of the American populace when it comes to Communism and a total intolerance for anything other than what they have termed market based democracy which is nothing other than a nonsense term for capitalist oppression. 

As i always explain, capitalism is a very simple system and one not compatible with the principles of a liberal democracy. Who exerts the power in a capitalist system? The power is yielded, unrestricted and with no checks or balances, by business. It is even impossible for anyone who exists outside the world of business in the United States to run for election. This is because of the immense costs of campaigning. And even if you are not a wealthy businessman you must pander specifically to the interests of business. It is indeed the only way.

The alleged sense of freedom which is supposed to come with a democratic system of government is little more than propaganda. The power belongs to business and business alone and therefore can't possibly belong to the individual. The worker. Under this kind of American styled market based democracy it is necessary for a mass portion of the population to be subservient to the whims of the wealthy. Someone must be at the bottom of the pile and must be oppressed, so the surplus of their labour can go to paying for that new house in Florida or that new BMW which their employers simply must have.

Is there really any difference between the systems in Cuba and the United States? Not really, when you think about it. As a socialist though it is easy to jump to the defence of communist Cuba but they are by no means innocent of claims of oppression. We need look no further than their dodgy freedom of information laws and questionable record on human rights, but the same claims can almost be made of the United States too. 

Denham also goes on to justify the position the state has previously taken : 

"The state has every right to hold school employees accountable for their political standing, especially if that employee belongs to an organisation that favours the violent overthrow of the government" 

I do not see what is so wrong about wanting to bring about the end of a system of government which leads to the mass oppression of millions of American's. It is little more than human nature to long for a better existence or for change. For the very poorest people, a move away from the very system which restricts them and keeps oppressed would be desirable. There is no such thing as meritocracy in a capitalist society, as the U.S. would have you believe with their notion of the American Dream. I have already pointed out that it is impossible for many to get ahead in the world, while someone must be there to work for hours on end in a baking hot factory for a few dollars an hour. This is the reality of how people get filthy rich. The only way to get extremely wealthy is via the oppression of your fellow man. You take the surplus of their labour, pay them less than they are worth and horde all what should belong to the worker yourself.

And a few dollars an hour is all they need to be paid with the pathetic U.S. minimum wage of .$5.85 an hour.  This is just less than £3. In this country we call it slave labour. Thank God we have a Labour government. 

I have been speaking with the local Lib Dems today in order to broker a deal regarding the local Chard Crimhard by-election. Under normal circumstances we would not work with the Liberal Democrats but given that a BNP candidate is standing in the ward we feel it is prudent to back them in this matter. I urge all Chard Labour supporters and members to vote for the Liberal Democrats in this election.

The BNP candidiate very nearly got elected at the time of the last election. He managed to get more votes than the combined total of the two Labour candidates who opposed him and the Lib Dems, therefore we must do all we can to keep the BNP out of Chard and the Yeovil constituency. To have the BNP gain a foothold in the region would be a total disaster!

Well tonight's meeting was certainly interesting, though i am suprised that none of the vice-chair's turned up to chair the meeting in our Chairman's absence. In this case I, as the Secretary, took the chair. Although this seems a relatively minor thing i think it is just representative of the growing apathy both inside and outside of the Labour Party.

We did get a few things done. We have set a date to discuss the policy document entitled 'Crime, Justice, Citizenship and Equalities' prior to the June 20th deadline. It will also be a public meeting. Additionally instead of having a normal meeting next month we will be showing the John Pilger documentary 'The War on Democracy' and will be having a debate about that.  

We will be having a membership drive and targetting specific wards where we have a higher portion of the vote but not quite enough to get elected as well as trying to bring back in old members.  We will also be talking to our members to try and ascertain what their opinion is on the proposed Sports Zone development for Yeovil. We are doing this prior to the meeting organised by the local trades council in which two guest speakers are arguing their positions. A local Councillor will speak on behalf of the council while a representative of the Save the Rec campaign will give the opposing argument. 

I would recommend anyone who can turn up to the Trades Council meeting to do so. I am sure it will be an interesting discussion and a good opportunity to learn more about the proposed development. 

I have not blogged for a while as i have been busy with exams and essays for the end of this university year. As many of you will know, this is an extremely stressful time. I did however just wish to commend the government on their compensation package for those hit by the 10p tax fiasco. This would appear to be the first step towards making amends for the recent shambles we have seen from the government. 

The total nonsense of a response from George Osbourne simply reveals how opportunistic the Conservative Party is. They had no concern for the low paid workers in this case and if they did they would be congratulating the government for listening to the electorate on this matter. I fail to see what evidence Osbourne has for deeming it little more than a "con" in this instance. His response is based on supposition rather than fact. 

Perhaps the Tories should focus on developing a policy of their own before attacking that of the Labour Party? 

I am not one to be quick to defend Gordon Brown; i like so many others have reservations about the man, but i just wanted to comment on the recent media slanging match going on towards the Prime Minister.

What has Gordon done exactly that is so bad? 

The 10p rate? Yes i agree it was bad. But he conceded and he done the right thing. He realised his mistake and has made amends. I am not a fan of this New Labour nonsense and i realise we've made many mistakes over the past decade, but we have also had much success. The very people climbing over each other to take a pop at Gordon Brown are the very people he has worked so hard to make better off.

Something that stuck in my head was an interview done on the news a few days ago. 

"Will you be voting Labour?" asked the reporter. 

"No!" responds to the interviewee. 

The natural question for any reporter is then - "Why not?"

And this is what got me. "I don't know. But Labour is bad. I won't be voting for them" this voter declared, or something along those lines anyway.

I feel that this is what the rest of the electorate are doing. They are seeing the headlins and automatically believing them. They too fail to ask "why?" as they should be.

But assuredly, whatever Gordon has done he does not deserve some of the nonsense the media are giving him. As are even some party members. I hear some people talking of a leadership challenge, i therefore ask my fellow comrades here, what would this achieve?

The challenges we face are not ones that will be automatically solved by a different leader. I would however love to see John McDonnell retun from the woodwork and to launch a successful leadership bid, but this would not help.

When out campaigning and people tell us about how bad Gordon is, we should ask them what EXACTLY is so bad with him? I doubt many of them would be able to answer that question easily at all.

Part of the problem is that today we have two centre parties. Labour needs to lurch back to the left and really show the electorate the true differences between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party.

As my fellow Comrade and PPC for Yeovil, Paul Smith, points out on his blog, nationally we took 24% of the vote, but in London with a socialist candidate we took 36% of the vote, is this not a shining endorsement for socialism within the Labour Party?