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Right After All: Marx Hits Mark on Cruelties of Capitalism
By Linn Washington, Jr.
London – The many criticisms of capitalism leveled over a century ago by Karl Marx, the co-author of the Communist Manifesto, may prove to be more right than wrong.
Evidence both anecdotal and empirical of many of Marx’s observations abounds across London, the city where the German-born Marx, who held a doctorate in philosophy, lived for three decades before his death in 1883.
Income inequity – an element of the capitalism Marx criticized – is at historic high in Britain as in the US.
The richest ten percent in Britain live 100 times better off than the poorest, according to a report published last year in the Guardian newspaper.
In London, the richest capital city in Europe, 41 percent of children live in poverty, according to statistics listed in a Museum of London exhibit.
That Guardian report placed average household wealth for Britain’s top ten percent at the equivalent of $1.3-million-U.S. dollars compared to the equivalent of $13,531 for Britain’s poorest.
Marx stated that the accumulation of wealth “at one pole is, therefore, at the same time, accumulation of misery.”
Homelessness steadily increases around London due largely to recession-related deprivations like unemployment, which lead to loss of shelter, according to reports from social service agencies and the news media.
A homeless man often sleeps on the side-walk in front of a hi-end Hugo Boss clothing store located on the main shopping street in London’s posh Chelsea section, where the average home price is $1.9-million in U.S. dollars.
The home prices in London’s Chelsea section mirror home prices in New York City’s upscale Chelsea, a community located not far from NYC’s Wall Street, currently the scene of mushrooming protests against the greed and inequities spawned by capitalism.
The sleeping location for that homeless man in London’s Chelsea is across from the entrance to the Sloan Square Tube Station of London’s fabled Underground.
The ever-increasing fares for riding London’s excellent subway system drives the poor onto the city’s less costly buses. In September, Britain’s Transportation Secretary told members of Parliament that rising prices for privatized intercity train fares have transformed most rail travel into a “rich man’s toy.”...
For the rest of this article by LINN WASHINGTON, JR. in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent online alternative newspaper, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/807
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Hey kidz!!! Yup, Marx talked about the cruelties of Capitalism . . .
. . . but in true "By Way Of Deception" form, completely ommits any mention of the cruelties
of Communism and Zionism . . . ;-)
I saw this posted on Ryan Dawson's "Anti-NeoCons" site:
(link to video - approx. 3 minutes)
"Luke Rudkowski Attacked by Police, Baton to the Gut at Occupy Wall Street Arrest"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YXuvhg8Ahw&feature=player_embedded
One reader commented:
"Hitler had the Black shirts, Stalin had the brown shirts and now the NYPD has the white shirts."
I was reminded of this:
conducting me from Paris to Irun in the autumn of 1916 explained to me: 'Governments
come and go, but the police remain.'"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life" (p. 308)
I have always been fascinated by that motto of, "To Protect And Serve . . ." . . . as I grew up in a era of Vietnam and Civil Rights protests. I would watch and listen as CBS's "Uncle Walter Cronkite" explained these black and white TV images to me and I began to ask the question, "To Protect and Serve . . WHOM???"
. .. also, against "WHAT???"
I have always wondered what someone from another galaxy must think of we sentient primates that for thousands of years have based social orders and governmental systems on the celestial patterns of a central sun, a single orbiting moon,
. . . and a neighboring planet Venus that just happens to trace out the pattern of a five pointed star over a four year period . .. then disappears behind the sun only to reappear on the other side where it traces out this same four year five pointed star pattern, but rotated 72 degrees . . .which gives the ILLUSION of being flipped upside down to these clever primates observing it. . .
. . . and thinking it one of the 7 "Free Willed Gods" of the otherwise orderly and circumpolar heavens . . . (1-The Moon, 2-Mars, 3-Mercury, 4-Jupiter, 5-Venus, 6-Saturn, 7-The Sun) . . .
. . . that is there to establish, "Ordo ab Chao", or "Order Out Of Chaos" . . . with a CLUB!!! . . .
(link to video - approx. 1 minute)
"NYPD Officer on Wall Street bragging 'My little nightstick's going to get a workout tonight'"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBxPzhXF ... r_embedded
"Chaos", of course, being defined as any "CHANGE" that does not benefit or poses a threat to the existing power system. . .
How amusing it must be to an alien intelligence that we clever primates have for thousands of years associated these same 7 "Free Willed Gods" to the metals found on our planet. . . (1-Silver, 2-Iron, 3-Mercury, 4-Tin, 5-Copper, 6-Lead, 7-Gold) . . .
. . . even to our so-called "Modern Times" when we refer to the "Beta Thug" Police as "Cops" or "Coppers" as we cower and submit before that "totem" of authority expressed by a badge with a star on it . . .
Yup, since before the days of storybook characters like "Cain" and "Lamech" until today . . . many governments have come and gone, but the police have remained the same . . . "
As David Bowie once sang,
"Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?"
- "Life On Mars" by David Bowie
peace