Strike Scene
Louis Lozowick
1935
THIS is the world of the Republican Party… any questions?
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Study for “Construction of a Dam”
William Gropper
1938
THIS is what we have to return to… “One for all and all for one”… “He ain’t heavy; he’s my brother”… NOT “Greed is good”… NOT “The race goes to the swiftest”… NOT “I earned it… its MINE”. In any case, the Apostle said, “The love of money is the root of all evil“, NOT “The love of social justice is the root of all evil”… my, my, my... note well that the Republicans are trying to stuff this part of our history “down the memory hole“.
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Editor’s Foreword:
This letter to the editor well-summarises what the libertarian idiots and chowderheaded “culture warriors” are doing to our country. That is, they’re cutting into “social capital”, the reserves that society built up from the time of the New Deal to the inauguration of Slobberin’ Ronnie in 1981. For 32 years, the Affluent Effluent has partied hearty by preying on the rest of us. The top 5 percent have 275 percent of their 1981 incomes in real terms… the rest of us have only 85 percent. None dare call it “class warfare”… of the country club set against all others.
However, it can’t go on much longer… lately, in December 2012, Jim DeMint, one of the more-unhinged rightwing nutters, resigned his Senate seat to head a District-based stink-tank. He’d won re-election in 2010, so, he had four more years left in his term. Recently, he said that the GOP couldn’t count on “angry white men” forever… you see, at present, the most-solid GOP bloc is white men over 70… and they’re dying off steadily. Have some patience… the rightwing scourge may soon be over. After all, DeMint resigned a “safe” seat… that says something. I believe that extremist (and wrongheaded) Tea Party policies are going to lead to further meltdowns in GOP-run states as basic government functions become unaffordable due to tax cuts favouring the Affluent Effluent. That won’t be pretty…
When the Tea Party tanks, it’ll take “social conservatism” along with it. That is, those who allied themselves with the GOP due to its anti-abortion platform will founder at the same time as the greedsters do. Whether one likes it or not, the rest of us outnumber the troglodyte Evangelical stormtroopers of the GOP. After all, Our Lord Christ didn’t use the cudgel of the state’s police power to spread His message… neither should we. That’s what HH said recently… we should follow him… NOT certain loud parties in the District. Read n’ heed…
BMD
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In 1966, Mao Zedong initiated the Cultural Revolution in China. It was an ideologically-based movement to replace capitalism and certain traditional practises with Maoist orthodoxy. The result was a fiasco. Characteristic features of the movement were the eviscerating of universities and intelligentsia, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, public humiliation, and property seizure. The abuses continued until after the death of Mao in 1976. China’s Cultural Revolution has been seen… even in Communist China today… as an unmitigated failure.
Today, in Kansas, we see eerie parallels. Governor Sam Brownback and the Legislature are in the process of destroying education, social services, scientific research, infrastructure maintenance, and the ability of low wage-earners to improve their lot. They’re trying to eliminate the progressive income tax from which the state gets half its revenue in favour of continuing and expanding the regressive sales tax. Brownback tries to convince people that we need the sales tax to continue funding higher education, but the truth is that his reduction of the income tax created the need to do so. Another result of no- or low-income tax in a state is higher property taxes. This self-inflicted wound benefits only those with significant wealth to start with. The conservative Tax Policy Center rated this programme as the worst in the nation.
Other Brownback initiatives include reduction of university faculties, evisceration of such social services as mental health, children’s food programmes, and Medicaid, making abortion totally unavailable, expanding the presence of guns in society, and disdain for the suffering of the less well-off. He’s doing this in the name of ideology and extremist orthodoxy. So far, we haven’t suffered as badly as Mao’s China, but we’re well on the way.
10 May 2013
Douglas B McGaw
Emporia KS
http://cjonline.com/opinion/2013-05-10/letter-kansas-road-likened-maos
Voices from Russia 
Statement of Pyotr Simonenko, Head of the KPU on Victory Day, 9 May 2013
Tags: Communist Party of the Ukraine, Communists, Eastern Front (World War II), Great Patriotic War, KPU, patriotic, patriotic movement, patriotism, political commentary, politics, Pyotr Simonenko, Red Victory Banner, Russia, Russian, Russian history, Soviet, Soviet people, Soviet Union, Ukraine, Ukrainian Communist Party, USSR, Victory Day, VOV, World War II
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Dear veterans! Dear compatriots! I warmly greet you on the Day of the Great Victory!
68 years have passed since that spring when Soviet soldiers hoisted the Red Victory Banner over the Reichstag. In the history of the 20th century, no event was more heroic or glorious. On top of that, it determined the development of mankind for many decades to come; it left an indelible mark on the destiny of the Ukrainian people, which sacrificed the lives of millions of its best sons and daughters on the altar of Victory. There’s probably no family in our country that didn’t suffer bereavement in those terrible years of the Great Patriotic War… they lost loved ones that died a heroic death on the battlefield, or tortured by the Gestapo in their dungeons, or treacherously shot in the back by Bandera’s collaborators, or deported to Nazi captivity.
Defending our socialist motherland, they saved mankind from the Nazi nightmare; Ukrainians, together with all the other fraternal Soviet peoples, performed miracles of courage as brothers, showing their trust in the rightness of their historical path. The Fascists didn’t take into account the fact that when they set foot on Soviet soil, for the first time in the course of the Second World War, they faced people ready to fight to their last drop of blood for their motherland, for their government, for their freedom! From the first days of the war, at a time of defeat and enemy victories on all borders, on all fronts, Communists were in the forefront of those defending our Soviet Motherland on land, in the air, and in underground partisan groups in the backwoods, deep behind the enemy lines. The only desire of every Communist was to be the first one to jump into the attack, and to work harder all the time. Everyone… from private to marshal… equally took notice of Stalin‘s stern and righteous order, “Not one step back!” Of the Communists who went to the front, half of them fell in battle for our Soviet Motherland.
Then, in the midst of the war, the Soviet people mastered the science of winning! They managed to create new weapons to overcome the power of the enemy! They persevered… and won! The Great Patriotic War amply demonstrated the advantages of the socialist planned economy, multiplied by the power of the spirit of the Soviet people. This society of patriots and internationalists, inspired by Lenin‘s ideas, and led by the Communist Party, couldn’t help but defeat fascism.
Good is Always Stronger than Evil!
When we greet the 9 May holiday with tears in our eyes, it isn’t just petty sentiment. After all, it embodies the holy memory of a warrior who recalls his battle comrades who departed into eternity, and the admiration of a grandson for his grandfather’s unsurpassed heroism, and the grief of a widow that once again re-reads the yellowed death notice. It embodies an evident remembrance that time can’t erase. Victory Day is dear to all patriots, to all anti-fascists, to all honest people. This is a true people’s holiday. It’s a feast for the ages! No words can express my wonder at the podvig of our illustrious veterans! Their feat is immortal!
Thank you, Motherland, for what you are!
Soldiers of Victory! Don’t despair… be proud and resolute, as in 1945. However, life’s been hard on the veterans; their wounds hurt and their hearts overflow with sorrow and anger when they see nationalist scum desecrate the graves of their comrades, and pour scorn on the historical truth, mocking the memory and valour of the fallen! I confide to the children of the Victors… you shouldn’t forget for a moment that live next to Heroes… that isn’t only extraordinary and fortunate, it’s also a huge responsibility. Don’t let the Johnny-come-lately collaborator-traitors steal the Victory from the Liberators… who despised death, fighting for the future of their children and grandchildren! Defend them from the coldness of some in the government, as they defended our future from fascism! Don’t let new invaders and burglars take away our gains, change our banners, eliminate our ideals, crush our wills, and suppress our desire for a better life!
On 9 May, we should hold “Parades of the Victors” in all our cities and villages, led by the Red Banner of Victory, with our people holding the portraits of their fathers and grandfathers who gave their lives during the Great Patriotic War, defending their socialist motherland from the Fascist barbarians, and of those who didn’t survive to today’s Victory Day! Let these parades remind all of us… Our cause is just! Victory will be ours!
Glory to the Soviet Soldier-Liberator!
Glory to the Soviet Victor-People!
Glory to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War!
Eternal memory to the victims!
Dear veterans, its Victory Day! I wish you good health and long life!
7 May 2013
Pyotr Simonenko
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Ukraine (KPU)
Chairman of the Communist faction in the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada
KPU official website
http://www.kpu.ua/s-dnem-velikoj-pobedy/