The Daily Blog Open Mic – Friday 29th July 2016

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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

 

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9 COMMENTS

  1. The August 2016 Issue of  Solidarity – The Aotearoa Solidarity Workers Movement Newsletter is out now, and available for download from https://issuu.com/stuartmoriarty-patten/docs/solidarity_no._18

      • http://www.indymedia.org.nz/articles/5604
        THIS IS A GOOD SUBJECT;

        A GOVERNMENT ECONOMIC POLICY ROAD SHOW IS NOW GOING AROUND THE COUNTRY.

        NACTIONAL ARE NOW FANNING ALL OVER NZ USING SS JOYCE AND HIS BOSSY AGENCY MBIE, TELLING EVERY COUNCIL AND CITIZEN WHAT’S GOOD FOR THEM RIGHT NOW.

        http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11683128

        CHECK THIS CRAP OUT THAT HAPPEND IN NAPOIER TWO DAYS AGO, WHILE THEY ARE TRYING TO STEAL OUR RAIL LINE FOR SHONKEY’S BIKE TRAILS!!!!

        WHILE A 5 FOLD INCREASE OF TRUCK FREIGHT IS TO HIT THE ROADS IN THE NEXT 20YRS WITH OUT ANY RAIL!!!

        SO THE TRUCK INDUSTRY WILL BENEFIT WHILE WE BREATHE THE FUMES AND WAKE ALL NIGHT TO THE CLAGGING AND SONIC BOOM AS THEY RUN ALL DAY AND NIGHT AND DIE EARLY AS THE PLANET BURNS THE BLOODY FOOLS KEN SHIRLEY THE (RTA) ROAD TRANSPORT ASS’N SPOKESMAN INCLUDED.

        THIS ARTICLE SAYS IT ALL.
        Beware of Capitalists Bearing Gifts

        by Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement

        Sunday, 28th February 2016

        Workers & Economy

        awsm

        This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

        Anti-capitalism_color

        Economic policy changes over the last few decades have led to the super-rich being able to increase the concentration of their wealth to an outstanding degree.

        Oxfam recently released a report that shows this clearly, with only 62 people having the same wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people on this planet.

        Many people will be astounded by this figure, but not all. Rachel Smalley of Newstalk ZB, for example, seemed to think it is neither a sign of inequality, nor something we should correct. She claims that we shouldn’t limit the wealth of the super rich and, furthermore, many of them should be admired because of their philanthropy.

        Specifically she singled out Bill Gates for praise, and she is not alone here. The rapper Puff Daddy once strode up to him in a bar and told him, meaning it as the biggest compliment he could give, “You are a motherfucker.” Likewise, friend of the rich, and champion of capitalism, Bono, has praised him for “getting shit done”. It’s not just Gates though; there is an increasing tendency for the media to pour adulation on those among the top wealth owners who choose to throw some of their unimaginable wealth at the world’s social problems.

        While it’s true that Bill Gates has given away significant amounts of his personal fortune, more than any other businessman has ever done, and who knows he may be doing it with the best intentions, but does he make a fundamental difference?

        We have to ask why is does Bill Gates have so much wealth? Is there not a link between the personal wealth of this billionaire and the poor conditions that billions of people have to cope with?

        Bill Gates in piling up his huge fortune has behaved like all other capitalists, and is part of the class whose huge profits can only be made by exploiting other people. The fact that Gates may have alleviated some misery for some individuals in Africa is beside the point. The fact is that no matter how much money is thrown into charities, the fundamental problems will never be solved under the present economic system.

        Ultimately, we need a system that sees a more equitable distribution of resources as well as more democratic control of our lives, so those resources can be used where they are needed, and not left in the hands of a few ‘kind hearted’ people to decide. Regardless of good intentions or motivations, the acts of the philanthro-capitalists like Gates are undemocratic and unaccountable. Why should the rich and famous decide what kinds of drugs will be supplied at prices affordable to the poor, or which groups get funded for their work?

        As we slip back to nineteenth century levels of inequality, it’s worth noting what Engels explained 170 years ago in his work The Condition of The Working Class in England. Expressing his disdain for the charity of capitalists he addressed them saying “[You act] as though you rendered the proletarians a service in first sucking out their very lifeblood and then…placing yourselves before the world as mighty benefactors of humanity when you give back to the plundered victims the hundredth part of what belongs to them!”

        Another Victorian, Oscar Wilde, in The Soul of Man Under Socialism wrote that, “We are told that the poor are grateful for charity. Some of them are, no doubt, but the best among the poor are never grateful. They are ungrateful, discontented, disobedient, and rebellious. They are quite right to be so … Why should they be grateful for the crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table?”

        Indeed, why should we grateful and full of admiration? In reality the workers are the true philanthropists. It is us who create the wealth that funds the billionaire’s generosity. The truth is they are the ones that live on charity – our charity.

        Next time you hear someone, who has wealth greater than some countries, say that they want to give something back ask, “Why not give it all back?” The world wouldn’t need to be saved by the rich if the world’s resources were owned and distributed in a different way, and available to all. The present system creates and perpetuates the inequalities and injustices that the philanthro-capitalists claim to be fighting.
        ◾Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement

        Comments

  2. Encouraging people to areas to ride bike trails is good, but they don’t need to use the rail lines to do this. If the rail lines are there, then use them for trains…again, if rail can work in most other countries worldwide as a viable means of transport for people and goods, why not in New Zealand?

    • HERS;S WHY WE NEED RAIL.

      2014 NZTA “FREIGHT DEMANDS STUDY”

      WHILE A 5 FOLD INCREASE OF TRUCK FREIGHT IS TO HIT THE ROADS IN THE NEXT 20YRS WITH OUT ANY RAIL!!!

      THOSE PREDICTIONS ARE IN THE LATEST GOVERNMENT “FREIGHT DEMANDS STUDY” 2014. TRUCK FREIGHT WILL INCREASE 2.4 TIMES RAIL BY 2.8 TIMES, BUT WITHOUT RAIL LAND FREIGHT WILL INCREASE (IN OUR CALCULATION) BY = 2.4 X 2.8 TIMES = EQUALS 5.2 TIMES

      SO ONLY THE TRUCK INDUSTRY WILL BENEFIT.

      WHILE WE THE PUBLIC WILL BREATHE THE POSIONOUS FUMES, AND TYRE DUST, AND STAY AWAKE ALL NIGHT TO THE CLAGGING AND SONIC BOOMS OF THESE MONSTER TRUCKS RUN ALL DAY AND NIGHT.

      THEN WE ALL DIE AN EARLY DEATH, AS THE PLANET BURNS?

      AS KEN SHIRLEY REJECTS ANY NOTION THE PUBLIC SHOULD PAY FOR RAIL WE ALSO DON’T WISH TO PAY FOR ROAD FREIGHT EITHER!

      CURRENTLY WE PAY A SUBSIDY FOR ROAD FREIGHT ACCORDING TO Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ REPORTS TO THE TUNE OF 8% ON TOP OF 62% FOR PRIVATE ROAD USERS AND RATEPAYERS NOW, WHILE TRUCKS PAY ONLY 56% IN TOTAL OF ROAD WEAR COSTS WHILE RAIL PAYS 77% OF THEIR RAIL WEAR COSTS.
      Page 28. – Who pays for Road freight subsidies?
      Answer – Private road users do & tax payers.
      Quote; Page 28.
      “The Surface Transport Costs and Charges (STCC) study4 shows that rail users overall pay 77 per cent
      of their travel costs, road users pay 62 per cent of costs, and trucks, with whom rail must compete for freight, 56 per cent. Ratepayers fund 8 per cent of road travel costs and taxpayers fund the remainder.”
      Institute of Professional Engineers of NZ
      IPENZ policy on transport
      Executive Summary

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