What Was The Paris Commune? by The Anti-Social Socialist

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“The Paris Commune of 1871 was one of the greatest and most inspiring episodes in the history of the working class. In a tremendous revolutionary movement, the working people of Paris replaced the capitalist state with their own organs of government and held political power until their downfall in the last week of May. The Parisian workers strove, in extremely difficult circumstances, to put an end to exploitation and oppression, and to reorganise society on an entirely new foundation. 130 years later the lessons of these events are of fundamental importance for socialists today.” — Greg Oxely, The Paris Commune of 1871, May 16, 2001

Abby Martin and Peter Phillips: Corporations Rule the World

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Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin and Peter Phillips

Empire Files on Apr 13, 2019

Abby Martin sits down with Peter Phillips, former director of Project Censored and professor of Political Sociology at Sonoma State University. His new book, Giants: The Global Power Elite details the 17 transnational investment firms which control over $50 trillion in wealth—and how they are kept in power by their activists, facilitators and protectors.

Will Griffin: Militarism is Capitalism

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With Will Griffin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Peace Report
February 13, 2019

“[Modern militarism] wants neither more nor less than the squaring of the circle; it arms the people against the people itself; it is insolent enough to force the workers … to become oppressors, enemies and murderers of their own class comrades and friends, of their parents, brothers, sisters and children, murderers of their own past and future. It wants to be at the same time democratic and despotic, enlightened and machine-like, at the same time to serve the nation and to be its enemy.” — Karl Liebknecht

Michael Parenti: The Culture Struggle

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with Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
January 31, 2019

“But you can’t do that with Class. By definition, you can’t say we’ll have a society where the rich capitalists and workers are equal together.”

Ending Capitalism Is Not Enough by Eric Schechter

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by Eric Schechter aka LeftyMathProf
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Eric’s Rants and Videos blog
January 22, 2019, revised March 12, 2019

leftymathprof on Mar 12, 2019

The world is falling apart, and reforms won’t suffice. “End capitalism” is a good start, but ultimately too simple an explanation. We need to end hierarchy and property, because they concentrate power, which corrupts. Separate property requires markets, which cause increasing inequality, alienation, and externalities. The externalities include war, poverty, and climate change. Climate change will kill us all soon if continued.

Yellow Vests, Class Struggle and Spontaneous Revolution by Gaither Stewart

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by Gaither Stewart
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rome, Italy
January 18, 2019

In What Is To Be Done of 1902 Lenin opposed revolutionary spontaneity because it “strips away the disciplined nature of the Marxists idea of revolution, leaving it arbitrary and ineffective.” True to himself, Lenin then returned to opposition to spontaneous revolution after WWI during the German Revolution of 1918-19 when in a spontaneous uprising against the post-WWI system Rosa Luxemburg and the Spartacist League failed in an attempt to overturn German capitalism.

The United States of Greed and Bullies

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
January 13, 2019

A nation built on greed is not a nation; it is just a legal framework for rape and pillage, slavery and exploitation, theft, murder, and genocide. A nation whose primary function is to protect the exclusive right of the rich to engage in those behaviors under other names has no more moral legitimacy than the lawless state that allows common criminals to run wild. Greed by any other name smells just as foul. Greed cloaked in terms of “national security” or “for the good of the economy” is just as detestable as the greed that steals toys from children and purses from old women.

Chris Hedges and Charlie LeDuff: Shitshow: The Country’s Collapsing and the Ratings Are Great

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Jan 12, 2019

Societies are held together by a web of social bonds that give individuals a sense of being part of a collective and engaged in a project larger than the self. The shattering of these bonds plunges individuals into deep psychological distress that leads ultimately to acts of self-annihilation, according to sociologist Emile Durkheim. Few reporters have examined this anomie better than Charlie LeDuff, first in his book Detroit, and now in his latest book Shitshow: The Country’s Collapsing and the Ratings Are Great. LeDuff joins Chris Hedges in the studio.

Native Americans and the New Confusion in US Politics by Caleb Maupin

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by Caleb Maupin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Caleb Maupin (website)
Caleb Maupin (Facebook Page)
New Eastern Outlook, Jan. 2, 2018
January 7, 2019

When it comes to the genocide of Native Americans, the people of the United States seem to face an existential crisis. The cultural clashes and recent diversification of rhetoric around this issue illustrates how deeply confused the people of the United States truly are about their identity and their history.

Peter Phillips: The Global Power Elite: A Transnational Class

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Dandelion Salad

TheRealNews on Dec 26, 2018

Peter Phillips, the author of the book, “Giants: The Global Power Elite,” examines the roles and networks of the world’s richest and most powerful. This class is no longer bound to national concerns, only to the expansion of its own power, says Phillips.

The Yellow Vests and the Left by Jim Kavanagh + Yellow Vests Shift to the Left

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by Jim Kavanagh
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Polemicist, Dec. 19, 2018
December 21, 2018

Something’s happening here…

Class Act

The “yellow vest” (gilets jaunes) movement has upended French politics, at least.

Amazon Is the New Factory

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Dandelion Salad

LeftStreamed on Dec 1, 2018

Warehouse Labour in the Digital Economy

Your Corporate Overlords Are Delighted To Exploit You

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
December 2, 2018

If you like being a peon, a serf, or a slave, by all means, continue on with business-as-usual. Your corporate overlords are delighted to exploit you. They’re thrilled at the prospect of profiting off your descendants for all eternity. But their hourglass is running out of sand. The planet’s ecosystems are collapsing. We will not last long as underlings. This is a paltry comfort as we slide toward mass extinction.

Capitalism: A Crime Story

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Dandelion Salad

“Ordinary acts of capitalism are criminal in nature. Deliberately pouring mercury into indigenous peoples’ water basins, for decades, consciously poisoning people with asbestos mining and processing, and putting ignitions in cars leaving them knowing their switch often people get killed.”  — Harry Glasbeek

Chris Hedges and David Harvey: The Ideology of Neoliberalism is a Con, Part 2

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Nov 17, 2018

In the second part of his interview with Chris Hedges, CUNY Professor David Harvey, author of A Brief History of Neoliberalism argues Neoliberalism as an economic policy works not by generating wealth but redistributing wealth by “accumulation of dispossession.”