Currently viewing the tag: "Class"
“After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a scab.
A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.
When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out.
No man or woman has a right to scab so long as there is a pool of water to drown his carcass in, or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab has not.
Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commision in the british army.
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife, his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country.
A scab is a traitor to his God, his country, his family and his class.”
by Jack London, b. 1876, d. 1916
via M. Thanks!
”The people’s revolution instead of the proletarian revolution? [The argument is that] 95 percent of the people are interested in the revolution, consequently it is not a class revolution but a people’s revolution… In reality, the worker-Communist should say: of course, 95 percent of the population, if not 98 percent, is exploited by finance capital. But this exploitation is organized hierarchically: there are exploiters, there are subexploiters, sub-subexploiters, etc. Only thanks to this hierarchy do the superexploiters keep in subjection the majority of the nation. In order that the nation should indeed be able to reconstruct itself around a new class core, it must be reconstructed ideologically and this can be achieved only if the proletariat does not dissolve itself into the “people,” into the “nation,” but on the contrary develops a program of its proletarian revolution and compels the petty bourgeoisie to choose between two regimes. The slogan of the people’s revolution lulls the petty bourgeoisie as well as the broad masses of the workers, reconciles them to the bourgeois-hierarchical structure of the “people” and retards their liberation.” – Leon Trotsky, “Thälmann and the “People’s Revolution”“, April 1931
(via Alexander)
Further Reading:
Class politics needed to build the Occupy movement by the Socialist Workers Party of Ireland
We Weren’t “Born This Way”:
A Critique of “Born This Way” by Lady GaGa
by Liam O’Ceallaigh
Last Sunday (13 February 2011) at the 2011 Grammy Awards, Lady GaGa (Stefani Germanotta) began promoting her new album and single Born This Way. Early Thursday morning I wrote a short article “You Weren’t “Born This Way”” critiquing the song and its message, as well as how Lady GaGa arrived at the Grammys (i.e. carried in an egg by horned slaves/servants).
My criticisms were straightforward: (1) rather than being “born this way”, our differences are largely the result of socialisation and choice, and (2) how it is unacceptable for someone who claims to support social justice to arrive at the awards carried by horned slaves/servants.
The article has been passed around a bunch and I’ve received a lot of interesting feedback which has prompted me to pen this followup piece. Hopefully this answers or clarifies some of the questions, concerns, and criticisms people have raised. If after reading this piece you have other comments that weren’t answered or addressed, then please, by all means, e-mail me (butterflywalking (at) gmail (dot) com) or write a comment below.
Socialist Politics:
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