In your link to http://www.sa.org.au in this posting I read the “what we stand for” section. It states “We have regular meetings where we try to apply a Marxist analysis to political questions today.” What do they mean by this Weez? Isn’t Communism based on Marxism? We have our local representative calling us “communists”. Do you think he’s confused with the meaning of “communism”?

Now you know why I said “…a little socialism.”

Pure communism is an incentive killer. If ‘to each according to his needs’ is the basis, Joe gets paid the same as Jim even though Jim may be a slacker. There’s no motivation for Joe to work any harder or better than Jim.

Pure capitalism does not recognise the value of humans, rather treats labour like a replaceable commodity, not simply a by-product of people’s real lives.

Pure executions of political theory rarely work. All require some abridgement to make them practical. Democratic socialism is somewhere between communism and capitalism. Some balance in society must be maintained between human rights and potential for profit.

The Marxist analysis you cite is not necessarily an application of Marxist values in whole. To my mind, it is more a test to see if a particular scenario is benefical to the worker or not.

In the USA, the word “socialism” is equivocal to “communism” in most places you go, commonly on the sort of etymological basis you suggest. It’s a bit of a red herring, often caused by an incomplete understanding of the successful applications of democratic socialism in various countries around the world, notably Canada and Australia.

re the cartoon: Saturday I added my body to people who gathered in the main street of Ballarat to protest the IR crap. The Trades Hall in Brat is very very old and lovely. We gathered at the 8 Hour Day monument. Ther were eloquent passionate speakers – Andrew McCallum from ACOSS, our state Labor lady rep and our federal Labor lady rep, a catholic bigwig (the Rat is Very Mick) a lawyer in his lawyer costume, and the Labor crowd comprised people with poodle dogs which I wouldnae thought were the rabble pooch of choice, and a lot of heavy AMWU guys and all the others with their union banners. Dear Weezil I want you to know that every time anybody mentioned hoWARd, I yelled out “Lying Sack Of Shit’ just for you.
anyhow, there was media and betacams and plenty of photographers and point being, that in the middle of this, one of them left (in the middle of an mpassioned speech?) he had been near me and I noticed his techwiz camera and felt it did not go with his AMWU-type outfit. I say ‘type’ because it was Not Quite Right. too clean, no ciggies, tats, no 2 day growth etc – he was a cop or ASIO or an INFIDEL that’s fer sure. just like the 1950’s.
There may have been a knock at my door since, but I wouldnae heard it as I had Bob Seger Nightmoves up loud and on continuous loop.

Wave ya sign! Raise a little hell!

BTW, ‘lying sack of shit’ is the local moniker for the Federal Attorney General (or F.A.G. as we sometimes call him…. no offence intended to all those fags out there… :D)

Brownie,
“lying sack of shit” is perfect for HoWARd (and Ruddock, and Bush).
Keep yelling!
Curiously, ‘unflushable turd’ is what I find myself yelling at G-SAVE Johnny.

Hi Weez, been lurking MGK since its birth, and congrats on the now fully-fledged querty!

Interesting co-incidence that prompts my first post – just got hold of a battered copy of John Pilger’s “Hidden Agendas” (1998) at the Balmain markets, and right there, on page 77:

*
*BBC Shortwave Broadcasts, July 1997.

So looks like hoWARd’s IR agenda has been fermenting these past eight years and is now freshly-kneaded and set for a final rise before baking. Hopefully, though, protests by employees, Unions and some pollies will keep the oven unlit. (See that “South Australia is to join other states in a High Court challenge to the Federal Government’s industrial relations changes. http://tinyurl.com/75dsd )

I’m ready with my bucket of ice,
Booti

ooops, the whole quote went west! Musta abused the blockquote html, 🙂

““On his return from the United States in 1997, Keating’s successor, John Howard, said how impressed he was with America’s ‘low unemployment rate’ based on ‘lower wages’ and minimal unemployment benefits. He said what Australia needed was a lower minimum wage and reduced dole payments. He made no mention of the fact that with a third of the Australian population living on welfare benefits as the main item of family income, with almost half of males aged between 24 and 44 receiving close to poverty wages, Australia was already embracing the American Way. ‘We’ve got to meet the exciting challenge,’ he said, ‘of the new world being shaped around us.’”*

the lower wages Lil Johnnie applauds, is the reason we have to TIP everybody everywhere over there; and, one way to ‘meet the exciting challenge’ is to have 9 year olds dealing crack which is what goes with the American Way. for gods sake.