Posted on 07/19/2010 6:09:08 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
“Another World Is Possible” is the slogan of the World Social Forum, an event first convened in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001 as a challenge to the World Economic Forum, the annual gathering of the world’s political and corporate leaders in Davos, Switzerland.
The possible world imagined in Brazil (and at subsequent gatherings of the World Social Forum) is based on more cooperative, sustainable, egalitarian and democratic institutions than those favored at Davos. It is designed and implemented from the bottom up rather than the top down, in opposition to both authoritarian state planning and capitalist profit maximization.
“Another U.S. Is Necessary” is the tagline to the slogan added by organizers of the latest U.S. Social Forum, held June 22-26 in Detroit, attended by about 15,000 activists. Carl Davidson of the Solidarity Economy Network describes an unusually young, ethnically diverse and enthusiastic crowd reaching for imaginative ways to make ideals reality.
--snip--
The event received little news coverage outside Detroit and not a mention in The New York Times. What coverage it did receive was dismissive. Nolan Finley of The Detroit News labeled it “a hootenanny of pinkos, environuts, peaceniks, Luddites, old hippies, Robin Hoods and urban hunters and gatherers.”
--snip--
Sally Kohn, a community organizer with Movement Vision Lab, recently posed an important question: “Why is it that the Tea Party — the right-wing edge of the conservative political sphere — exerts a gravitational pull on the Republican Party and the conservative mainstream while the United States Social Forum and the leaders and groups gathered here, who represent the left of the liberal mainstream, are disregarded as marginal and irrelevant — that is, if they’re regarded at all?”
(Excerpt) Read more at economix.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Bottom-up socialism, huh? Just another leftist fantasy that would inevitably devolve into tyranny.
There are only two economic choices: individual freedom (capitalism with just enough regulation to prevent fraud, price fixing, and similar abuses), or the absence of freedom (various forms of authoritarianism, such as the old feudalism and the newer socialism (national or soviet), communism, and comparable variants of tyranny with newer, prettier names).
The odd part of all these Socialists is that intuitively they are capitalists, meaning they want to be the Party members and the ruling elites when their redistribution of wealth plan comes full circle.
They do not aspire to stand in breadlines, go without power, have their phones tapped or submit to absolute government control of their health, wealth, welfare, job or lifestyle. They want the lush life within the Party’s exclusive walls, not a gruel and bleak USSR-style existence.
They live in theory and when it becomes reality (see CA and Detroit) they continually believe this is the exception of the effect of Marxist policies, unions, regulations and open borders.
based on more cooperative, sustainable, egalitarian and democratic institutionsfor "more cooperative" read "total state control of the individual"; for "sustainable" read "Soviet-style food shortages and bread lines"; for "egalitarian" read "self-appointed ruling class"; for "democratic institutions" read "single party state fascist oligarchy". Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.
>> Sally Kohn: “Why is it that the Tea Party — the right-wing edge of the conservative political sphere — exerts a gravitational pull on the Republican Party and the conservative mainstream ...”
Sphere’s have edges?
One thing I always wondered about Marx's philosophy "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." - So, my question is, under that system who gets the profit?
Outdated socialism posing as hipster anarchy.
The answer is NO... No its not
Held in Detroit, a true socialist model for the world
The tools are already being put in place.
The newly-passed financial bill, for the first time in American history, lets government officials outlaw any practice involving financial products that they consider “unfair” or “abusive.”
Previously, federal laws outlawed fraud and mandated open disclosure.
Now, if government officials decide it is “unfair” for some company to, for example, sell shares of stock to raise capital, they can outlaw that.
The terms “unfair” and “abusive” have no objective meaning.
We can all guess what radical leftists appointed to these government positions will do with this breathtaking new power.
Poor bastards are too dumb to see that what they are calling for is what we have and what is causing the problems.
I'm HOPING they'll try some serious shenanigans come Nov 2nd or thereabouts. Perhaps they see this fall as their last, best hope for the next 40yrs.
Then again, they ARE stupid...probably can't see the forest for the trees.
I thought that bottom up socialism were all the communes those dirty hippies went to. And after a while, they didn’t like being equally poor as everyone else, so the communes died off.
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