The Jaded Prole

A Progressive Worker's Perspective on the political and cultural events of our time.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Howard Zinn Presente

When asked how he wanted to be remembered, Zinn said; "I guess if I want to be remembered for anything, it’s for introducing a different way of thinking about the world, about war, about human rights, about equality, for getting more and more people to think that way.

Also, for getting more people to realize that the power which rests so far in the hands of people with wealth and guns, that the power ultimately rests in people themselves and that they can use it. At certain points in history, they have used it. Black people in the South used it. People in the women’s movement used it. People in the anti-war movement used it. People in other countries who have overthrown tyrannies have used it.

I want to be remembered as somebody who gave people a feeling of hope and power that they didn’t have before."

There are many of us who share Howard Zinn's vision as well as his philosophy of "Socialism without Jails" where "the motive for the economic system is not corporate profit, but the motive is the welfare of people, health care, jobs, child care, and so on. But that is dominant. Where there is a greater equalization of wealth and a society which is peaceful, which devotes its resources to helping people in the country and elsewhere.

I believe in a world where war is no longer the recourse for the settling of grievances and problems. I believe in the wiping out of national boundaries."

This is our credo as well and will live on with the many written words of Zinn and others. His death is a loss to all humanity but is vision and our struggle live on.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Moyers gets to the Nitty-Gritty

Once again Bill Moyers gets explores the truth in examining how finance capital and a few Wall St. firms have taken over the government. This show is worth watching not only because Moyers and his guests lay out the problem but because he talks about organizing and guides viewers to real places to do it.
Aside from holding the country hostage while robbing us all blind these few humongous businesses (like Goldman Sachs) are also behind the creation and maintenance of the dissension and division that are the death knell of progress. They fund and organize the teabaggers, they buy Congress and write legislation and they create partisan fireworks on any issue than might affect their profits.

As Moyers points out, if there is one thing that can break the partisan deadlock, it is that both right and left KNOW that our nation has been robbed and resent the Wall St. fatcats being bailed out so they can rape us again instead of sent to prison.
It's time to organize around that.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Top 25 Censored Stories of 2009

The annual list of top sensored stroies from Project Censored are:


#1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation

# 2 Security and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA

# 3 InfraGard: The FBI Deputizes Business

# 4 ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?

# 5 Seizing War Protesters’ Assets

# 6 The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act

# 7 Guest Workers Inc.: Fraud and Human Trafficking

# 8 Executive Orders Can Be Changed Secretly

#9 Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Testify

# 10 APA Complicit in CIA Torture

# 11 El Salvador’s Water Privatization and the Global War on Terror

# 12 Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From No Child Left Behind

# 13 Tracking Billions of Dollars Lost in Iraq

# 14 Mainstreaming Nuclear Waste

# 15 Worldwide Slavery

# 16 Annual Survey on Trade Union Rights

# 17 UN’s Empty Declaration of Indigenous Rights

# 18 Cruelty and Death in Juvenile Detention Centers

# 19 Indigenous Herders and Small Farmers Fight Livestock Extinction

# 20 Marijuana Arrests Set New Record

# 21 NATO Considers “First Strike” Nuclear Option

# 22 CARE Rejects US Food Aid

# 23 FDA Complicit in Pushing Pharmaceutical Drugs

# 24 Japan Questions 9/11 and the Global War on Terror

# 25 Bush’s Real Problem with Eliot Spitzer