Quote
May 21, 2013
793 notes
"Feminism is anti-sexism. A male who has divested of male privilege, who has embraced feminist politics, is a worthy comrade in struggle, in no way a threat to feminism, whereas a female who remains wedded to sexist thinking and behavior infiltrating feminist movement is a dangerous threat. Significantly, the most powerful intervention made by consciousness-raising groups was the demand that all females confront their internalized sexism, their allegiance to patriarchal thinking and action, and their commitment to feminist conversion. That intervention is still needed. It remains the necessary step for anyone choosing feminist politics. The enemy within must be transformed before we can confront the enemy outside. The threat, the enemy, is sexist thought and behavior. As long as females take up the banner of feminist politics without addressing and transforming their own sexism, ultimately the movement will be undermined."

—

-bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody


just going to emphasize that last sentence again: As long as females take up the banner of feminist politics without addressing and transforming their own sexism, ultimately the movement will be undermined.

(via browndenim)

(via anarcho-queer)

Link
May 21, 2013
145 notes
Under Mayor Bloomberg: inequality widened, rents rose, the homeless population exploded, every major public union contract expired and the rich got richer.

thenationmagazine:

Bloomberg by the numbers.

(via sinidentidades)

Quote
May 21, 2013
691 notes
"For those relegated to non-being, to even appear is a violent act."

—

George Ciccariello-Maher (via ninjabikeslut)

wait shit what? who is this person? where is this from?

(via mattachinereview)

This is a quote about cops arresting black teenagers in Philly for just being in public from one of my college professors.

(via telegantmess)

(via monetizeyourcat)

Text
May 21, 2013
5,482 notes

Why did the libertarian fail algebra?

crazydepressednihilist:

logicallypositive:

He refused to solve inequalities.

i wonder how many angry libertarians have reblogged this

(Source: rigatonideology, via sans-nuage)

Text
May 21, 2013
73 notes

rigatonideology:

whatissocialism:

if marx was right why didn’t he see yahoo! buying tumblr

actually he did:

Centralisation may result from a mere change in the distribution of capitals already existing, from a simple alteration in the quantitative grouping of the component parts of social capital. Here capital can grow into powerful masses in a single hand because there it has been withdrawn from many individual hands. In any given branch of industry centralisation would reach its extreme limit if all the individual capitals invested in it were fused into a single capital. In a given society the limit would be reached only when the entire social capital was united in the hands of either a single capitalist or a single capitalist company.

Text
May 21, 2013

GeoTumblrs.com

Photo
May 21, 2013
1,484 notes

(Source: jaidefinichon, via wilmasxicana)

Text
May 21, 2013
84 notes

diablod:

we’ve decided to shake up the console wars this year. the wii u sucks, the ps4 is too big, and the xbox has no games

(via monetizeyourcat)

Text
May 21, 2013
2 notes

Swedes shaken by second night of riots in Stockholm suburb triggered by police shooting

image

HUSBY, Sweden - Some 200 youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze in a largely immigrant suburb of Stockholm on Tuesday, the second day of rioting triggered by the fatal police shooting of a man wielding a knife.

Dozens of windows were smashed, 10 cars and several containers were set on fire, and seven police officers were injured. Cars and containers were also set ablaze in another of the Swedish capital’s suburbs, Fittja, although police said it was not clear whether the two events were linked.

The unrest began Sunday night in response to the May 13 shooting, in which police killed a 69-year-old man who had locked himself in an apartment in Husby, west of Stockholm. Police refused to give the nationality of the victim.

Six youths were arrested early Tuesday, but two were released after questioning, police spokesman Jorgen Karlsson said.

Many local residents see the shooting as an example of police brutality, and the violence has stirred debate in Sweden.

Known for its strong welfare state and egalitarian society, the country has nonetheless had the biggest surge in inequality of any OECD country over the past 25 years, according to a recent publication by the global economic watchdog.

“This is not OK. We will not give in to violence,” Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said. “We must all help out to regain calm. The residents of Husby need to get their neighborhood back.”

Reinfeldt added that Husby — where around 80 percent of the roughly 11,000 residents are first- or second-generation immigrants — has been going in the right direction during his seven-year tenure, with employment increasing and crime falling.

The atmosphere was tense on Tuesday, with residents expressing both anger at police and sadness about the destruction. City workers were seen clearing the debris of a burnt-out container and documenting fire damage.

“It’s frustrating and difficult to see how those of us who live here get affected by something that has nothing to do with us,” said university student Muhamad Abukar, 24. “And then outsiders get the idea that we are animals, uncivilized.”

Abukar said he had seen the riots from his balcony and that those involved were mainly teenagers aged 13 to 16.

Reza Al Bazi, 14, and his friend Sebastian Horniak, 15, said they witnessed the violence throughout the night.

“The people of Husby have become tired of police brutality, so they react like this,” said Al Bazi.

Horniak claimed he witnessed police firing warning shots in the air and calling a woman a “monkey.” “I got upset yesterday because I saw police attack innocent people, they beat a woman with a baton,” he said.

Horniak’s claims of racist remarks were backed up by the organization Megafonen, which represents citizens in Stockholm’s suburbs. One of its representatives, Quena Soruco, said she heard police use abusive words such as “rats, hobos, negroes.”

Sweden’s Justice Minister Beatrice Ask told the TT news agency that anyone who feels mistreated by police should file a report.

Prosecutors have launched an internal probe into the shooting. Police say they shot the man in self-defense because he attacked them with a knife when they broke down the door to an apartment where he had locked himself up with a woman.

(Source: startribune.com)

Tags: Sweden police violence pigs ACAB fuck the police resistance police brutality civil unrest racism repression riot immigrant communities

Link
May 21, 2013
74 notes
How the Obama Administration Talks to Black America

socialismartnature:

“Convenient race-talk” from a president who ought to know better.
May 20 2013, 12:21 PM ET

===

The first lady went to Bowie State and addressed the graduating class. Her speech was a mix of black history and a salute to the graduates. There was also this:

But today, more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, more than 50 years after the end of “separate but equal,” when it comes to getting an education, too many of our young people just can’t be bothered. Today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they’re sitting on couches for hours playing video games, watching TV. Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader, they’re fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper.

And then this:

If the school in your neighborhood isn’t any good, don’t just accept it. Get in there, fix it. Talk to the parents. Talk to the teachers. Get business and community leaders involved as well, because we all have a stake in building schools worthy of our children’s promise. …

And as my husband has said often, please stand up and reject the slander that says a black child with a book is trying to act white. Reject that.

There’s a lot wrong here.

At the most basic level, there’s nothing any more wrong with aspiring to be a rapper than there is with aspiring to be a painter, or an actor, or a sculptor. Hip-hop has produced some of the most penetrating art of our time, and inspired much more. My path to this space began with me aspiring to be rapper. Hip-hop taught me to love literature. I am not alone. Perhaps you should not aspire to be a rapper because it generally does not provide a stable income. By that standard you should not aspire to be a writer, either.

At a higher level, there is the time-honored pattern of looking at the rather normal behaviors of black children and pathologizing them. My son wants to play for Bayern Munich. Failing that, he has assured me he will be Kendrick Lamar. When I was kid I wanted to be Tony Dorsett — or Rakim, whichever came first. Perhaps there is some corner of the world where white kids desire to be Timothy Geithner instead of Tom Brady. But I doubt it. What is specific to black kids is that their dreams often don’t extend past entertainment and athletics  That is a direct result of the kind of limited cultural exposure you find in impoverished, segregated neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods are the direst result of American policy.

Enacting and enforcing policy is the job of the Obama White House. When asked about policy for African Americans, the president has said, “I’m not the president of black America. I’m the president of all America.” An examination of the Obama administration’s policy record toward black people clearly bears this out. An examination of the Obama administration’s rhetoric, as directed at black people, tells us something different.

Yesterday, the president addressed Morehouse College’s graduating class, and said this:

We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices. Growing up, I made a few myself. And I have to confess, sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. But one of the things you’ve learned over the last four years is that there’s no longer any room for excuses. I understand that there’s a common fraternity creed here at Morehouse: “excuses are tools of the incompetent, used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness.”

We’ve got no time for excuses — not because the bitter legacies of slavery and segregation have vanished entirely; they haven’t. Not because racism and discrimination no longer exist; that’s still out there. It’s just that in today’s hyper-connected, hyper-competitive world, with a billion young people from China and India and Brazil entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything you haven’t earned. And whatever hardships you may experience because of your race, they pale in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured — and overcame.

This clearly is a message that only a particular president can offer. Perhaps not the “president of black America,” but certainly a president who sees holding African Americans to a standard of individual responsibility as part of his job. This is not a role Barack Obama undertakes with other communities.

Taking the full measure of the Obama presidency thus far, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this White House has one way of addressing the social ills that afflict black people — and particularly black youth — and another way of addressing everyone else. I would have a hard time imagining the president telling the women of Barnard that “there’s no longer room for any excuses” — as though they were in the business of making them.

Barack Obama is, indeed, the president of “all America,” but he also is singularly the scolder of “black America.”

READ MORE

(via cultureofresistance)

Photoset
May 21, 2013
19,512 notes

badhoruss:

thatpointlessidiot:

[a bunch of blindly mislead idiots redacted]

The milkshake:  This is not limited to fast food nor to milkshakes.  That ‘concoction’ is the industry standard artificial strawberry flavoring found in everything strawberry flavored that isn’t naturally flavored.

Chicken nuggets: Total lies.  My sister works at the Tyson plant that provides KFC and McDonalds their nuggets.  There’s no ‘pink paste’ stage.  ’Reflavoring’ is an injection of mostly salt into the meat in order to give it some taste because modern day chicken is nearly flavorless.  If you want to disgust people, show them the conditions of the processing plants that dismantle the chickens.

The pubic hair one: You eat more of your family’s pubic hairs cooking in your own home.  You think you don’t shed once you walk in your own door?

Peanut butter: This is a cold hard truth of food mass production.  There will be insects.  You can never get rid of them or take them out of the process.  The FDA places limits on how much can be allowed into specific foods so that food manufactories don’t get lazy and just say ‘Well we can’t keep it out.’  The FDA limit helps immensely because it makes these places try to keep the insect population down through keeping things clean.

Shellac: Oh my god this is so stupid.  ’Shellac’ is an INGREDIENT.  It’s a NATURAL PRODUCT produced by INSECTS.  It is then PROCESSED into food-grade glaze or colorants, OR into wood and furniture polish.  They don’t just take wood polish and dump it on your jawbreakers.  Grow up.

Bacteriophages: The ‘phages of which you speak are used to kill the listeria virus.  Listeria is a bacteria that attacks the immune system and has a one in five mortality rate.  Bacteriophages?  They’ve been used as an alternative to antibiotic medications in Russia and France for 90 years.  That’s really disgusting and dangerous!

Coke: This is total and complete bunk.  It would have been far more effective to point out that colas and carbonated drinks have been linked to weakened bones in those who overconsume them, but this is complete lies here.  Again.

Salads: I think you mean propylene glycol.  And again, this is bullshit.  PG only causes reactions in those allergic to it.  It has a very low toxicity and can only negatively affect human health if very large amounts are ingested very quickly and over a very short period of time.  By which I mean ‘Find a vat of it and start drinking it and nothing else.’  Again you go for the lie instead of pointing out that fast food salads are processed and contain as much fat and cholesterol as most of the other foods offered by a fast food place.

Beef additives: This has nothing to do with fast food.  This is common in MOST meats in the US.  This is because the US has become so obsessed with the fat content of meat and making it ‘healthy’ that we have literally bred almost all the flavor out of every food animal breed we currently use.  Flavorants are almost ALWAYS injected during processing or most of our meat would be bland and tasteless.   ‘Flavorants’ typically being concentrated broth and/or salt and seasoning.

Cheese: Lies again.  Only those cheeses labelled as ‘Pasteurized process cheese food’ and ‘Pasteurized process cheese spread’ match these stats.  Pasteurized process cheese is simply a blended cheese made to have a sharp taste and be easily melted.  Your lie here is that the 47% is referring to the cheese’s fat content, not cheese content.

This image is full of lies and misrepresented half-truths and anyone spreading this as truthful should rethink their approach.

thank you oh my god

shit vegans tell themselves to feel superior

(Source: the-more-u-know, via freedominwickedness)

Tags: not so subtle classism fuck yo hippy vegan bs if you shit on other people to do it and lie half the time

Photoset
May 21, 2013
16,004 notes

hamdoullahcava:

Muhammad Ali on the Vietnam War Draft

(via daniellemertina)

Link
May 21, 2013
10 notes
Venezuela: New labour law 'part of transition to socialism' | Green Left Weekly

amodernmanifesto:

Venezuela’s new Labour Law for Workers came into effect on May 7, guaranteeing shorter working hours, longer maternity leave and pensions for all Venezuelans.

Described by the Venezuelan government as the “most advanced labour law in the world”, the law reduces the working week from 44 hours to 40, and requires that employers provide two consecutive days a week off.

When the law came into effect, labour minister Maria Iglesias said the new working hours are part of the process towards a “just distribution of wealth”.

The next day, Carabobo state labour affairs committee president Jose Joaquin Vargas hailed the law as an important part of the transition from “capitalism to socialism”. Vice president of the National Federation of Public Sector Workers Franklin Rondon told VTV on May 5 that the law was “historic”.

“We are in a historic moment, in 14 years the achievements we have obtained for workers are numerous; we have achieved much more than in the past 40 years,” Rondon said.

Vargas urged workers to ensure their employers and unions act in accordance with the law.

In the next six weeks, the government will inspect workplaces to ensure employers adhere to the new requirements. Employers were told earlier in the year that they would need to make any necessary changes before May 7. However, Iglesias said that day that inspections over the next six weeks will be “corrective in nature”.

The minister warned that penalties will be imposed on employers who fail to adhere to the law after June 15.

(via newmilitant)

Photoset
May 21, 2013
160 notes

class-struggle-anarchism:

thepeoplesrecord:

Let’s explain what our various ‘isms’ mean before we call ourselves ‘whatever-ists’

…
My definition of working class is much closer to the Occupy concept of the 99%

So, everyone who’s not a billionaire?

but that’s also a loaded term so instead let’s use the phrase “working people”.

No.

It’s the same as the Marxist definition of “working class”

No it isn’t.

but with less connotations attached to it.

Hmmm, less connotations? Everything to do with radical politics has negative connotations - there are people who make it their business to make sure of that. “Working people” is meaningless - a person who works is not necessarily working class. Donald Trump is a working person. We are not a collection of working people we are a CLASS. So what if there are negative connotations, it doesn’t change the fact that the struggle against capitalism is a struggle between classes.

We need to make it clear that you can eat as much humous as you like, as long as you don’t own a large a chain of businesses then you’re the right class for Left Unity.

So if you own a small chain of businesses you’re alright?

Reformist/ Revolutionary
What is a revolution if it’s not a series of radical reforms?

The complete reorganisation of society from the bottom up, abolition of private property and wage labour

For me, this whole distinction is a way for “revolutionaries” to smear “reformists” by which they mean anyone who doesn’t already identify themselves with an explicitly revolutionary ideology like that of “Trotskyism”, “Leninism” or “Anarchism”.

…or anyone who believes that capitalism can be reformed without the violent expropriation of the bourgeoisie 

This definition of revolutionary excludes the vast majority of actual revolutionaries. The Egyptians, Venezuelans and Cubans are all out as is Alexis Tsipiras and his Greek Syriza party.

Hahaha, do you like what he’s done here? Doesn’t want an exclusionary definition of “revolutionary”, goes on to list “actual revolutionaries”, thereby excluding everyone else. Stop pretending that your personal politics are “actually” correct as if there’s no debate you sneaky liberal

All these groups were inspired, not by the ideas of dead Russians, but by the desire to radically change (reform) their material conditions.

Because those are the only two possible sources of inspiration. Give me a break.

Trotskyist/Leninist/Bolshevik
This isn’t an attack on those ideologies themselves

yes it is

but what do people think of when they hear them? I know my friends think back to dimly-recalled GCSE Russian history lessons. Older people probably think of the Soviet Union they grew up hearing horror stories about. OK, so maybe people have got the wrong impression. Maybe we need to re-educate them and recover the good name of these glorious leaders

patronising crap, I don’t even subscribe to those ideologies but they describe actually existing revolutionary movements of the working class, how else should we refer to them? ‘lets-all-be-jolly-friends-ism’? 

but it’s not going to happen.

says you

Are we a Russian history discussion club or a political party?

yet another false dichotomy

Do we want to debate the legacy of Lenin or transform modern Britain?

and another

Socialist
Socialism means different things to different people…

Which one depends on your personal definition of Socialism. At a Left Unity meeting we had a debate about the word socialist. It was said that we have to be honest with people but if I tell a stranger I’m a socialist, and they think that socialism is the same as supporting the Soviet Union, am I really being honest with them? One time I was chatting pleasantly away with a Czech woman in a café in Sheffield, I mentioned that I was a socialist and she stormed away saying the socialists had killed her grandparents. A friend of mine, knowing that I’m a socialist, said I should write a blog, sincerely adding “they’ll love it in China and Russia”. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Let’s explain what socialism is before we call ourselves socialist.

This is exactly what he did earlier. Socialism means many different things to different people, so what we need to do is first explain what socialism IS. He’s saying ‘Socialism has many different definitions, but I know the only correct one’ Therefore let’s not say the word until everyone accepts my definition of it.

Capitalist/Anti-Capitalist
I’ve heard people at meetings endlessly saying things like “I don’t want to be part of a party that tries to reform Capitalism”, “Capitalism’s rotten to the core, we need to get rid of Capitalism”.

Yes go on

What I’ve never heard is someone explain what Capitalism is and what getting rid of it would look like.

You’re going to the wrong meetings

For me, Capitalism is where businesses aren’t owned by their workers which is a ridiculous and undemocratic arrangement.

That’s not what capitalism is.

Does this make me an anti-capitalist?

No.

I would say it does, many would say it doesn’t.

They’d be right.

If we can’t define what Capitalism is then how can we decide what’s the point of even talking about whether we’re an anti-capitalist party, still less falling out over it.

You honestly can’t define what capitalism is? Karl Marx managed it in 1867.

Furthermore, the vast majority of British people don’t define themselves as anti-capitalist and so any leaflet from an “anti-capitalist” party will go straight in the bin.

where it belongs.

A party that says they want workers to control their workplaces on the other hand, re-build the welfare state and re-nationalize the railways and utilities on the other hand sounds good to everyone.

Not to the millions who vote tory it doesn’t. Or the millions who don’t give a fuck. Or me, even.

I’ve got a couple of points
I’ve found that when people say this at meetings it means they’ve got a speech prepared in which they’ll attempt to spell out what’s wrong with society and how to fix it. This’ll go on forever and will bore people away from Left Unity for good.

Yes, only ‘actual’ revolutionaries who know what socialism “is” should be allowed to bore everyone.

Keep it as short as possible, people have short attention spans and are impatient for change.

You hate the working class, don’t you? This whole piece is one big appeal to dumb down radical politics because people are too stupid to differentiate between Ken Loach and Stalin. It’s a liberal reformist agenda dressed up as ‘common sense’ in ‘plain language’. This is the exact same rhetoric and content that the ‘left wing’ of the Labour party have been dressing up in different ways for as long as I can remember. It’s about as new and exciting as Tony Benn’s pipe and slippers.

Photoset
May 21, 2013
36,682 notes

(Source: thespoonmissioner, via drugdoer)