Plutocracy III: Class War (must-see)

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
See video below

Warning

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

Dandelion Salad

Scott N June 2017

Income inequality has become a big issue in the modern day political spectrum. While these economic and class divides seem more pronounced than ever before, this documentary film Plutocracy: Political Repression in the USA reveals the main reasons of these struggles pre-date the beginnings of the industrialized labor force.

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Christmas 1914: When Rank and File Imposed Truce During Imperialist War by Henry Hagins

Image by Diego Sideburns via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Henry Hagins
Workers World, Dec. 16, 2014
Originally published Dec. 24, 2015
December 25, 2016

The “Christmas Truce of 1914” was a short-lived, unofficial lull in combat between two antagonistic rival forces, determined to exercise military, political and economic supremacy over each other in Europe and in the colonized world, to which these imperial powers lay arrogant false claim. One of the bloodiest episodes in human history, World War I was largely played out on the battle-scarred lands of France and Belgium, starting in August of 1914.

Remembrance Day: Why I’ll Wear a Dandelion Instead of a Red Poppy

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Stop the War Coalition on May 24, 2016

“Dandelions” written and sung by Steve O’Donoghue

Christmas 1914: When Rank and File Imposed Truce During Imperialist War by Henry Hagins + John McCutcheon: Christmas in the Trenches

Image by Diego Sideburns via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Henry Hagins
Workers.org, Dec. 16, 2014
December 24, 2015

The “Christmas Truce of 1914” was a short-lived, unofficial lull in combat between two antagonistic rival forces, determined to exercise military, political and economic supremacy over each other in Europe and in the colonized world, to which these imperial powers lay arrogant false claim. One of the bloodiest episodes in human history, World War I was largely played out on the battle-scarred lands of France and Belgium, starting in August of 1914.

War – Part 1: The Road to Total War (1983)

Image by The Official CTBTO Photostream via Flickr

Warning

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

Dandelion Salad

RonRbc on Aug 28, 2012

Part 1 of the outstanding National Film Board of Canada/Gwynne Dyer series shown on PBS in 1983, in which renowned historian Gwynne Dyer traces the evolution of warfare from earlier ages to the Total War of the Twentieth Century.

Balls To War – When A World War Stopped To Play Football (Christmas Truce 1914)

Dandelion Salad

In case you missed this from last year posted at the end of an article. Merry Christmas!

Image by Diego Sideburns via Flickr

StoptheWarCoalition on Sep 8, 2013

http://noglory.org/ Video by Heathcote Williams and Alan Cox. On Christmas 1914 in the first world war, thousands of troops on both sides unilaterally declared a truce and played football friendlies instead of trying to kill each other. Their officers moved quickly to stamp out such peaceful developments and in the following four years 16 million people were slaughtered.

[…]

1918 by Michael Parenti

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Michael Parenti Blog
michaelparenti.org
October 24, 2014

Image by Diego Sideburns via Flickr

Looking back at the years of fury and carnage, Colonel Angelo Gatti, staff officer of the Italian Army (Austrian front), wrote in his diary: “This whole war has been a pile of lies. We came into war because a few men in authority, the dreamers, flung us into it.”

No, Gatti, caro mio, those few men are not dreamers; they are schemers. They perch above us. See how their armament contracts are turned into private fortunes—while the young men are turned into dust: more blood, more money; good for business this war.

Dead Poppies: When Remembrance Becomes Militarism by Lesley Docksey

by Lesley Docksey
Writer, Dandelion Salad
England
November 30, 2013

Image by Staffs.Live via Flickr

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
— From In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, May 1915

It was that time of year again, when sellers of poppies knock at the door and veterans line the streets of the local town with collecting tins and trays of fake red flowers sold in aid of the Royal British Legion; a time when, if you don’t buy or wear a poppy you would be made to feel ‘unpatriotic’.  But times they are a-changing.

The Folly of ‘Commemorating’ War by Lesley Docksey

by Lesley Docksey (with grateful thanks to Nick Spurrier)
Writer, Dandelion Salad
England
September 9, 2013

Any student of history knows that many of the problems the Middle East and Africa are now experiencing stem from the Great Powers having parcelled up the land, drawn borders where none had existed and put into power various friendly leaders in the aftermath of World War I. That includes the failures of Western actions in Iraq and Libya, and the ongoing failure of Syria, the West’s refusal to accept a popular President in Bashar al Assad and its efforts to undermine him, resulting in a horrific humanitarian mess.

Remembrance Day: “Let this silence be a scream for peace.” by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
London, England
13 November 2011

“Did you really believe, when they told you the cause,
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame,
The killing and dying it was all done in vain
Oh Willy McBride it all happened again –
And again, and again, and again, and again.” — (The Green Fields of France, William Bogle, 1944 – )*

Across the world the fanfare commemorating the “day the guns fell silent” has been trumpeted (literally, in many places) as having special resonance: 11.11.11: a once in a century event.

A Veteran Remembers By Howard Zinn (2006)

by Howard Zinn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Nov. 11, 2011

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Let’s go back to the beginning of Veterans Day. It used to be Armistice Day, because at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, World War I came to an end.

We must not forget that conflict. It revealed the essence of war, of all wars, because however “just” or “humanitarian” may be the claims, at the irreducible core of all war is the slaughter of the innocent, organized by national leaders, accompanied by lies.