Excerpt from Evo Morales' Ten Commandments to save the planet

By Evo Morales Ayma, president of the Republic of Bolivia
Message to the Continental Gathering of Solidarity with Bolivia in Guatemala City

...Along these lines, I want to share and propose for debate some 10 commandments to save the planet, for humanity and for life, not only at this level but also to debate among our communities, and our organisations.

First, if we want to save the planet earth to save life and humanity, we are obliged to end the capitalist system. The grave effects of climate change, of the energy, food and financial crises, are not a product of human beings in general, but rather of the capitalist system at it is, inhuman, with its idea of unlimited industrial development.

Second, to renounce war, because the people do not win in war, but only the imperial powers; the nations do not win, but rather the transnational corporations. Wars benefit a small group of families and not the people. The trillions of millions of dollars used for war should be directed to repair and cure Mother Earth wounded by climate change.

Third proposal for debate: a world without imperialism nor colonialism. Our relationships should be oriented to the principle of complementarity, and to take into account the profound asymmetries that exist family to family, country to country, and continent to continent.

And the fourth point is oriented to the issue of water, which ought to be guaranteed as a human right to avoid its privatisation into few hands, given that water is life.

As the fifth point, I would like to say that we need to end the energy debacle. In 100 years we are using up fossil energies created during millions of years. As some presidents are setting aside lands for luxury automobiles and not for human beings, we need to implement policies to impede the use of agro-fuels and in this way to avoid the hunger and misery for our peoples.

As a sixth point: in relationship to the Mother Earth, the capitalist system treats the Mother Earth as a raw material, but the Earth cannot be understood as a commodity; who could privatise, rent or lease their own mother? I propose that we organise an international movement in defence of Mother Nature, in order to recover the health of Mother Earth and re-establish a harmonious and responsible life with her.

A central theme as the seventh point for debate is that basic services, whether they be water, electricity, education or health, need to be taken into account as human rights.

As the eighth point, to consume what is needed, prioritise what we produce and consume locally, end consumerism, decadence and luxury. We need to prioritise local production for local consumption, stimulating self-reliance and the sovereignty of the communities within the limits that the health and remaining resources the planet permits.

As the next to last point, to promote the diversity of cultures and economies. To live in unity respecting our differences, no only physical, but also economic, through economies managed by the communities and their associations.

Sisters and brothers, as the tenth point, we propose to Live Well, not live better at the expense of another, a Live Well based on the lifestyle of our peoples, the riches of our communities, fertile lands, water and clean air. Socialism is talked about a lot, but we need to improve this socialism, improve the proposals for socialism in the XXI century, building a communitarian socialism, or simply Live Well, in harmony with Mother Earth, respecting the shared life ways of the community.

Finally, sisters and brothers, certainly you are following up on the problems that exist. I have reached the conclusion that there will always be problems, but I want to tell you that I am very content, not disappointed or worried because these groups who permanently enslaved our families during the colonial time, the time of the republic and this period of neoliberalism, they continue as family groups, resisting us.

It is our struggle to confront these groups who live in luxury and who do not wish to lose their luxury, or lose their lands. This is a historic struggle and this struggle lives on.

Sisters and brothers, in the hope that the Continental Gathering of the Social Forum of the Americas culminates with strong bonds of unity among you and a strong action plan in favour of the people of Bolivia and of our peoples, I repeat my fraternal greeting.

[Translated by S. Bartlett. From Bolivia Rising.]

The Fragile Absolute, or, Why is the Christian Legacy Worth Fighting For?

http://www.versobooks.com/books/tuvwxyz/xyz-titles/zizek_fragile_absolute.shtml


“From now on, even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

Saint Paul’s militant declaration from Corinthians asserts for the first time in human history the revolutionary logic of a radical break with the past — with it, the age of Cosmic Balance and similar pagan babble is over. What does it mean to return to this stance today?

One of the most deplorable aspects of our postmodern era is the re-emergence of the “sacred” in all its different guises, from New Age paganism to the emerging religious sensitivity within deconstructionism itself. How is a Marxist to counter this massive onslaught of obscurantism? The wager of Zizek’s The Fragile Absolute is that Christianity and Marxism should fight together against the onslaught of new spiritualism. The subversive core of the Christian legacy is much too precious to be left to the fundamentalists. Here is a fitting contribution from a Marxist to the 2000th anniversary of one who was well aware that to practice love in our world is to bring in the sword and fire.

“The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged from Europe in some decades.” — Terry Eagleton

Slavoj Zizek is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Social Studies in Ljubljana. His books include For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor, Mapping Ideology, The Sublime Object of Ideology, The Indivisible Remainder: Essays on Schelling and Related Matters, Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Lacan (But were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock), The Plague of Fantasies, and The Ticklish Subject. He is the editor of Verso’s Wo Es War Series.

Publication: April 2000
188 pages
Paper
ISBN-13: 978 1 85984 326 0
US$18.95 / £12.99 / CAN$23.50

Wal-Mart Watch Launches Wal-Mart Employee Speakout Website

WASHINGTON, Oct 16, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Wal-Mart employees share stories of low wages, poor treatment as Walton family prospers
On the heels of Wal-Mart's closure of a unionized Tire & Lube Express in Gatineau, Quebec, Wal-Mart Watch today unveiled a new website -- walmartspeakout.com -- which will serve as an unprecedented tool for Wal-Mart workers to speak out and share their stories about Wal-Mart's low-wage, low-benefit business model. These stories expose Wal-Mart's poor treatment of the very same workers who are responsible for the tremendous financial success of Wal-Mart and the Walton family.
In recent months, Wal-Mart workers across the country contacted Wal-Mart Watch to express frustration and desperation regarding Wal-Mart's low wages and unfair treatment of its employees. These workers fear retaliation for speaking out against Wal-Mart or using the company's "open door" policy to address their concerns. In response, Wal-Mart Watch created the website to provide an opportunity for workers to tell their stories and expose the truth about their lives as Wal-Mart employees...


SOURCE Wal-Mart Watch

http://www.walmartspeakout.com

the evil of the " liberal communists" - Slavoj Zizek

“The exemplary figures of evil today are not ordinary consumers who pollute the environment and live in a violent world of disintegrating social links, but those (i.e. the liberal communists) who, while fully engaged in creating conditions for such universal devastation and pollution, buy their way out of their own activity, living in gated communities, eating organic food, taking holidays in wildlife preserves, and so on"
- Slavoj Zizek

Global crisis sends east Germans flocking to Marx

Thu Oct 16, 2008
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081016.wkarlmarx1016/BNStory/International/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20081016.wkarlmarx1016

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Two decades after the Berlin Wall fell, communism's founding father Karl Marx is back in vogue in eastern Germany -- thanks to the global financial crisis.

His 1867 critical analysis of capitalism, "Das Kapital," has risen from the publishing graveyard to become an improbable best-seller for academic publisher Karl-Dietz-Verlag.

"Everyone thought there would never ever again be any demand for 'Das Kapital'," managing director Joern Schuetrumpf told Reuters after selling 1,500 copies so far this year, triple the number sold in all of 2007 and a 100-fold increase since 1990.

"Even bankers and managers are now reading 'Das Kapital' to try to understand what they've been doing to us. Marx is definitely 'in' right now," Schuetrumpf said.

The revival of Marx's treatise reflects a broader rejection of capitalism by many in eastern Germany, a communist country until 1989 and now racked by high unemployment and poverty.

A month of intense financial turmoil has toppled banks in the United States and forced a series of government bailouts in Germany and elsewhere, reinforcing anti-capitalist sentiment.

Chancellor Angela Merkel -- herself an easterner -- unveiled a 500 billion euro financial rescue package this week, a move decried as a reward for irresponsible bankers.

A recent survey found 52 percent of eastern Germans believe the free market economy is "unsuitable" and 43 percent said they wanted socialism rather than capitalism, findings confirmed in interviews with dozens of ordinary easterners.

"We read about the 'horrors of capitalism' in school. They really got that right. Karl Marx was spot on," said Thomas Pivitt, a 46-year-old IT worker from east Berlin.

"I had a pretty good life before the Wall fell," he added. "No one worried about money because money didn't really matter. You had a job even if you didn't want one. The communist idea wasn't all that bad."

CAPITALISM EVEN WORSE

Unemployment in the former communist east is 14 percent, double western levels, and wages are significantly lower. Millions of jobs were lost after reunification. Many eastern factories were bought by western competitors and shut down.

"I thought communism was s ---- but capitalism is even worse," said Hermann Haibel, a 76-year old retired blacksmith, who was strolling near Alexanderplatz in the heart of old East Berlin.

"The free market is brutal. The capitalist wants to squeeze out more, more, more," he said.

Free market hopes were high in the east when Chancellor Helmut Kohl promised "flourishing landscapes."

But while some areas on the outskirts of Berlin, in Leipzig and along the Baltic shore are thriving, much of the rest suffers from depopulation and high unemployment.

The opposition Left party, which traces its roots to Erich Honecker's SED party, has capitalized on the frustration and become the east's most popular party with support of 30 percent.

"I don't think capitalism is the right system for us," said Monika Weber, a 46-year-old city clerk.

"The distribution of wealth is unfair. We're seeing that now. The little people like me are going to have to pay for this financial mess with higher taxes because of greedy bankers."

Like many other east Germans, Ralf Wulff said he was delighted about the fall of the Berlin Wall and to see capitalism replace communism. But the euphoria was ephemeral.

"It took just a few weeks to realize what the free market economy was all about," said Wulff. "It's rampant materialism and exploitation. Human beings get lost. We didn't have the material comforts but communism still had a lot going for it."

But not everyone condemned capitalism. Astrid Gerber was a master tailor in East Berlin before her company was shut down.

"It was my dream job," said Gerber, 42. She was unemployed for seven years, then opened up a newsstand but gave it up after her family disintegrated due to her 90-hour work week.

"Capitalism has its advantages but so does communism," she said. "I can't say one is better than the other."

Ignatieff, Rae, and Dion (song)

Words by Andrew Taylor




Anyone here seen my old friend Dion,
can you tell me where he's gone?
He pished lotta grits so I guess they're rid of him,
I just look around - the man he's gone.

Anyone here seen my old friend Ignatieff?
Or is he cheering on some fresh new war?
He pished off a lotta anti-War Americans
ran back to Canada, the man was gone.

(brief instrumental interlude-organ)

Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
My advice: keep off his lawn!
He screams at lotta kids who dare step foot onto it
he just hollers and they're gone.

Didn't you love the poses that they postured?
Aren't they dying to lead you and me?
Bob left the NDP, so you'll agree,
Some day soon, it's gonna be his pay-day!

Anybody here seen my friend Paul Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him crucified on top of the hill
with Dion - but not Ignatieff and Bob .