The Unorthodox Website Blog

Karl Marx

A recent statement by the Heads of State of progressive Latin American countries said that ‘capitalism threatens life on the planet’. In 15 numbered clauses they answer the ‘Draft Declaration of the 5th Summit of the Americas’ which, the Heads of State say, does not provide the answers to the Global Economic Crisis.

I agree with 14 of the 15 points these leaders raise, mainly about capitalism and U.S. neo-colonialism being a cause of much of the crisis, and the need for drastic reform of organizations like the IMF, WTO and World Bank, and the need to remove the U.S. sanctions, etc. against Cuba.

The only clause I take issue with is number 9. calling for free movement of people. The problem is much more complex than that, and it is of course capitalism and neo-colonialism which is to blame for so many people seeking a better life in other countries.

Diana has posted this comment to a much earlier blog of mine via her voice channel Andrew Russell-Davis.

I repeat it here so it doesn’t get missed. The site is well worth many visits, especially for the many podcasts.

May I add that Diana and Andrew are welcome to contribute to this site whenever they wish, but I agree that her own site is the best place for people to visit for the many messages from Diana.

Tony

” Hello Everyone,
As I explained to Tony not everyone naturally will be accepting, believing in my being back so therefore rather than cause problems for his site and perhaps risk his being institutionalised somewhere for believing he speaks to a dead princess … well alright ex – princesss and that she contributes to his site, that I’d respect this and bow out gracefully.

WE’LL KEEP THE RED FLAG FLYING HERE!

A leftwing comrade and former Labour MP, Alice Mahon, has finally had enough and decided she can no long remain a member of a Party which has abandoned all its principles. As she said in an interview, even if people leaving the Party and not voting for it lets in the Tories, it won’t be much different since New Labour and Tory policies are virtually identical.

I just wonder why more true Socialists haven’t left New Labour. Surely they must realize it is a lost cause.

First, under Neil Kinnock, the Party abandoned unilateralism – i.e. taking the lead by giving up our nuclear weapons, which are not independent and not a deterrent. Then, under Tony Blair’s disastrous leadership, the whole New Labour image was invented.

A friend sent me a ’round robin’ email the other day principally about Islamic fundamentalism/extremism and the duty of ordinary peace-loving Muslims to speak up and condemn the extremists. Also mentioned in the email was the failure of ordinary Germans, Japanese, Rwandans, etc. to speak up against atrocities committed by their fellow-countrymen in recent history. Knowing I’m basically a pacifist, he asked for my views.

The first thing I’d say is that USA, and its tag-along faithful lapdog UK, are not the world’s self-appointed policemen with the right to invade any country they like on the pretext that human rights violations are taking place there. In any case they are very selective indeed about which countries they invade – usually ones where there is a lot of nice oil to exploit, or ones where to invade and establish a puppet regime, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, would further their selfish interests.

How I’ve longed to write those words for the past 50 years or so, since I first heard about CND and its ‘Ban The Bomb’ campaign. Now, at long last, there is a U.S. President, Barack Obama, who seriously seems to want to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The process of reducing the vast nuclear stockpiles of the USA and USSR was given a boost by the end of the Cold War, which really occurred BEFORE the tragic collapse of the Soviet Union, during the Gorbachov years of perestroika and glasnost. But it has stalled since, and even seemed to go into reverse with the last Bush administration.

Not only do the USA and Russia need to bilaterally reduce their nuclear stockpiles, and eliminate them all together as soon as possible, but the Nuclear Non-Ploriferation Treaty needs to be dug out of cold storage and implemented in full.

Tales From The Woods presented Dave Woodland’s 50th birthday bash at the Inn on the Green, Ladbroke Grove last nite (April 4th), and it was a great occasion with a good atmosphere, and some splendid, first-class entertainment. So good was it that people from the public bar were allowed to swarm in during the final numbers, and enjoy the talent of the TFTW House Band, Dave Sampson and Danny Rivers.

The Inn on the Green has acquired a new video screen which replaces the cumbersome wooden contraption housing the DVD player/projector, and the pull-down screen. Only problem was when, due to poor lighting behind the screen, I couldn’t locate the switches or the leads properly, and at one point dropped Brian ‘Bunter’s excellent compilation DVD into the machine itself, instead of into the groove in the drawer due to my tilting the machine upwards to get more light. But I got the DVD out, and the guv’nor got the lead sorted.

I’ve reached the age when I need the subtitles to understand anything on TV featuring people under about 40. This is partly due to my being a bit deaf, partly due to the different language the younger generation uses, but mainly due to the fact that people in this age group tend to speak too quickly, too indistinctly, do not enunciate, tend to either mis-pronounce or badly pronounce words and then run them together. I am often amazed at the subtitle interpretation of what people in the under-40 age group are supposed to be saying, as what comes out of their lips sounds nothing like it.

Of course subtitlers working for TV are often illiterate, or foreign, and get things wrong themselves. So there are some glaring spelling and grammatical errors, many of which are quite amusing. But it is still a Godsend. I couldn’t understand younger people in the two main soaps – EastEnders and especially Coronation Street – without subtitles.