Communist Party statement on prostitution
“…for the rest it is self-evident that the abolition of the present system of production must bring with it the abolition of the community of women springing from the system i.e. of prostitution both public and private!”
(Marx & Engels, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848)
Welcome to Kenya’s Gen Z Revolution!
Kenya had been praised to the heavens by the West in yesteryear: it was a beacon of hope and prosperity; East Africa’s most prosperous nation; a success story of capitalism and “development”; and (most important of all) a bulwark of the West amidst encroaching Chinese influence on the continent.
Kenya is a member of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and Ruto just sent the Kenyan Police to Haiti. 🤷🏼♀️
Related/Notes:
Gen Z Will Lead the People’s Revolution in Kenya (The Elephant*)
Read More »Hypocrisy thrives where double standards prevail.
Earlier, I stupidly tweeted out an article about the Jones Act and shipbuilding and Colin Grabow, from the Cato Institute, liked it (he was quoted in the article). I looked him up and decided to listen to this video on the shipbuilding competition between China and the US, where he and a lawyer for United Steelworkers were on the panel. China is eating their lunch, and it’s the ruling elites’ own fault, yet they scapegoat China for it. The double standards over China’s “unfair economic practices” AKA the subsidizing of their shipbuilding industry irritates me (liars irritate me even more). States give subsidies, grants, and tax breaks to corporations, all the time. Fincantieri Marinette Marine is just one example, but Wisconsin had done the same for Foxconn. Foxconn received tax breaks and $3B in subsidies, which was “the largest ever subsidy provided by a state to a foreign company”, despite not living up to their promises.
Colin Grabow wants to end the Jones Act. I’ve made at least three video clips regarding the Jones Act, two with Sal Mercogliano from What’s Going On With Shipping and one from the government-funded CSIS (I’ve posted them, below). Spoiler alert: Sal says that the problem isn’t the Jones Act. Meanwhile, both CSIS and the Cato Institute (part of the Atlas Network) blame the Jones Act. Deregulation is a wet dream of big corporations (which fund both the Cato Institute and CSIS).
Read More »Related:
Trump’s attacks on Chinese cars strike a chord — with both parties
“Ohio knows all too well how China illegally subsidizes its companies, putting our workers out of jobs and undermining entire industries from steel to solar manufacturing,” Brown said in a statement. “We can’t wait for China to run this same playbook in the auto industry — we need strong rules, including but not limited to tariffs, to stop a flood of Chinese electric vehicles that threaten Ohio auto jobs.”
…
He said the average price gap between a Chinese vehicle and its U.S.-made counterpart ranges from 44 percent to 179 percent. “That is a massive gap,” the executive said. “Tariffs alone aren’t going to take care of that.”
Reuters: Mexico yields to US pressure on incentives for Chinese car makers
He said that such incentives have declined during the government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office in late 2018, although they have been offered to large investors such as Audi.
Hypocrisy, Thy Name is the United States:
Read More »Seven unions representing teachers and other public workers in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Thursday attempting to end the state’s near-total ban on collective bargaining for most public employees.
Unions in Wisconsin sue to reverse collective bargaining restrictions on teachers, others
Related:
Wisconsin’s Act 10 Is in Jeopardy (WSJ)
The law, signed by former Gov. Scott Walker, has saved the Badger State from turning into Illinois or New York, where public unions essentially run the state government for their own benefit. According to the MacIver Institute, Act 10 has saved Wisconsin taxpayers $16.8 billion since it was passed in 2011, making public finances more manageable at every level of government.
Progressive mayors who publicly rail against the law know that repealing it would wreak havoc on municipal budgets. According to Wisconsin Right Now, Milwaukee’s budget says it has saved about $345.4 million in health insurance since 2012 because of Act 10’s requirement that public employees contribute to their health plans.
The lawsuit by teachers and other public unions focuses on a narrow part of the law that exempts public-safety employees. The unions say this creates a “favored” class of workers and imposes “severe burdens on employees in the disfavored group.” Act 10’s “anti-democratic regime,” the unions continue, subjects “general” employees “to a panoply of burdens and deprives them of important rights,” while exempting police officers and firefighters from “all its injurious provisions.”
Attacks on Public-Sector Unions Harm States: How Act 10 Has Affected Education in Wisconsin
A Decade After Act 10, It’s A Different World For Wisconsin Unions
WSJ quotes MacIver Institute, from the Atlas Network via State Policy Network, Bradley Foundation, and Americans for Prosperity (Kochtopus). Former WI Governor Scott Walker, another Atlas/Koch tool, does not rule out intervening.
Shortly after the start of the war against Gaza, Palestinian trade unions appealed to their colleagues worldwide for a boycott of arms supplies to Israel. That appeal is being heeded in many countries. That list of countries is growing every day.
Unions Worldwide Boycott Arms Supplies to Israel
In this next of a series of reviews of some important books published this year, I look at Branco Milanovic’s Visions of Inequality.
Visions of inequality
I don’t have time to write something very long, but I’d like to present you with something weird and kinda of important: An open letter from the editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post trying to convince the Jewish mainstream to permanently banish Jews who are not sufficiently Zionist and/or don’t 100 percent approve of Israel’s current mass slaughter in Gaza.
Going to hell with no possibility of redemption (archived)
“The pure socialists’ ideological anticipations remain untainted by existing practice. They do not explain how the manifold functions of a revolutionary society would be organized, how external attack and internal sabotage would be thwarted, how bureaucracy would be avoided, scarce resources allocated, policy differences settled, priorities set, and production and distribution conducted. Instead, they offer vague statements about how the workers themselves will directly own and control the means of production and will arrive at their own solutions through creative struggle. No surprise then that the pure socialists support every revolution except the ones that succeed.”
Left Anti-Communism: a Trojan Horse That Weakens the Working Class – MLToday
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Britain has withdrawn its initial defence of The Grayzone news site journalist Kit Klarenberg.
UK National Union of Journalists withdraws its defence of Kit Klarenberg
Related:
NUJ expresses concern over detention of journalist Kit Klarenberg (now, 404’d)
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
You must be logged in to post a comment.