When analysing a policy position we must ask the question: cui bono? – for whom does it serve? To begin to answer this question, it is vital to first determine who is proposing the policies and where their interests lie. Ron Paul, the 72-year-old doctor turned Republican Congressperson from Texas, is a member of what the Occupy Movement calls the 1%. In a 2008 article the Los Angeles Times reported that Paul has assets in $2-5.3 million dollar range, with investments in gold mining companies, a medical corporation (which he runs), and mutual funds. Even more, like most establishment politicians he controls vast sums of money donated to his campaigns. Currently his presidential campaign website reports that it has almost $4.5 million. The 2008 L.A. Times article noted that his 2008 presidential campaign raised over $34.5 million. When analysing the effects of Paul’s policy positions it would be foolish to ignore either Paul’s personal wealth or the wealth that he controls in his campaigns. It would be to ignore class and, correspondingly, to ignore the sort of class analysis which can arm working people with the tools to understand the fight ahead of them.
Paul might say he supports the Occupy movement – or parts of it. But even if he pays lip service to Occupy, why should working people believe Paul anymore than they’d believe Boehner, Bush, Obama, or Pelosi? Politicians both lie and present arguments whose substance materially defends the members of the 1%. This is indisputable.
Below are some examples of the anti-working class, environmentally destructive, racist, sexist, homophobic, and anti-science policies that Ron Paul promotes. It is not a comprehensive examination of his positions, but it should be enough to convince any justice-minded person that Ron Paul deserves our contempt and condemnation, not our support.
Now here’s a “It Gets Better” video I can get behind (thanks Devon!)
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.
Sign up for Updates!
Tags
Afghanistan Antonio Gramsci Barack Obama Capitalism Christianity Class Democracy Egypt Gender Germany Imperialism Iran Ireland Jesus Karl Marx Lenin LGBT LGBTI Libya Links Love Martin Luther King Jr Marxism Materialism Music Palestine Propaganda Quotes Race Racism Religion Repression Resistance Revolution Sexism Sexuality Socialism Solidarity State Terrorism Unions Utopianism Video Vision WarLinks
- 3arabawy
- A Better World is Probable
- A Marxist History of the World – Neil Faulkner (Counterfire)
- Black Agenda Report
- Bradley Manning Support Network
- Carlos Latuff
- Ceasefire Magazine
- Chomsky.info
- Coalition of Immokalee Workers
- David Harvey
- Democracy Now!
- Dollars and Sense
- Feminist Frequency
- Fire in the Mountains
- Glenn Greenwald
- Goddard College
- Haymarket Books
- ill Doctrine
- International Socialism (journal)
- International Socialist Organization (Aotearoa / New Zealand)
- International Socialist Organization (U.S.)
- International Socialist Organization (Zimbabwe)
- International Socialist Review
- International Socialists (Pakistan)
- International Viewpoint
- Iraq Veterans Against the War
- Jacobin Magazine
- John Cronan Jr.
- John Molyneux
- Kevin Gosztola (OpEdNews)
- Kevin Gosztola (The DIssenter)
- Left Business Observer
- Left Turn
- Lenin's Tomb
- Liberty Tree
- Martín Espada
- Marxists Internet Archive
- Michael Albert
- Monthly Review
- MR Zine
- News from the Gutter
- Organization for a Free Society
- Organizing Upgrade
- Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela / United Socialist Party of Venezuela, PSUV
- Pop Culture Pirate
- Praxis Makes Perfect
- Public Eye
- Rebellious Pixels
- Red Pepper
- Revolutionary Socialists (Egypt)
- Roland Boer
- Sherry Talks Back
- Slim Lopez
- Socialism Conference
- Socialist Alternative (AU)
- Socialist Review
- Socialist Worker
- Socialist Worker UK
- Socialist Workers Party (Ireland)
- Socialist Workers Party (U.K.)
- Solidarity Webzine
- The Real News Network
- Venezuela Analysis
- War Times / Tiempo de Guerras
- We Are Many
- WikiLeaks
- Z Magazine
- ZNet
The Working Class As Vanguard Fighter for Democracy by V. I. Lenin
“…the Social-Democrat [Socialist]’s ideal should not be the trade union secretary, but the tribune of the people, who is able to react to every manifestation of tyranny and oppression, no matter where it appears, no matter what stratum or class of the people it affects; who is able to generalise all these manifestations and produce a single picture of police violence and capitalist exploitation; who is able to take advantage of every event, however small, in order to set forth before all his socialist convictions and his democratic demands, in order to clarify for all and everyone the world-historic significance of the struggle for the emancipation of the proletariat”. - “Trade-Unionist Politics and Social-Democratic[Socialist] Politics: The Working Class As Vanguard Fighter for Democracy” in What Is To Be Done?: Burning Questions of Our Movement by V. I. Lenin
“Like” Us On Facebook
Click HERE to visit our Facebook page. Recent Posts
- Healthcare is a human right, not a mandate to buy private services
- Lukács: ‘concrete analysis is not the opposite of ‘pure’ theory’
- Uniting the Front – Division and Unity on the Left
- Links for 14 March 2012
- Links for 11 March 2012
- Links for 10 March 2012
- Links for 9 March 2012
- A Green Party mayor cracks down
- Why I’m a Marxist (part one)
- Four classics by Lenin
- Chomsky: ‘If the Nuremberg Laws were applied to U.S. presidents’
- Rosa Luxemburg “the mass strike is not artificially ‘made’, not ‘decided’ at random”
- Hitler, Catholics, and birth control
- Tony Kushner: “The dreams of the Left are always beautiful”
- Look here! This is capitalist ‘peace’!
Follow Me On Twitter
- Obama Blasts Obama's Evasive Stance On Gay Marriage http://t.co/Y5ildgWu #NC #gaymarriage #amendment1 #obama #samesexmarriage #northcarolina 1 week ago
Monthly Archive
- March 2012 (10)
- February 2012 (7)
- January 2012 (20)
- December 2011 (16)
- November 2011 (10)
- October 2011 (3)
- August 2011 (16)
- July 2011 (12)
- June 2011 (4)
- May 2011 (18)
- April 2011 (9)
- March 2011 (57)
- February 2011 (28)
- January 2011 (34)
- December 2010 (49)



































