The restrictions discussed in this article do not seem inordinate considering that past history has shown whenever any religious group attains political power Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist or Hindu for example, it implements a regime of persecution and religious fanaticism far worse that anything the Chinese authorities are undertaking with these prophylactic measures to protect their secular values. We daily read about the persecution of the Rohingya by Burmese Buddhists, of Palestinians by fanatic Zionists motivated by a devotion to Biblical real estate, of non Muslims being systematically persecuted in Islamic countries and Muslims and other non-Hindus in In India by the Modi government and here in the US the ultra-right white supremacists as well as the crypto-fascists of the Republican party are motivated by a dogmatic and anti-humane Christianity that supports military actions and both subornes and often openly advocates the denial of the human rights of those it condemns. Marxist-Leninists have moved on beyond the simple minded superstitions of religious beliefs (the opium of the people) and while we defend the rights of those so inclined to follow their religious beliefs as long as they do not try to impose them on others it is still the responsibility of a secular state to regulate religious activity to ensure the rights of others are not violated by religious intolerance. The Chinese Communist Party and Government are trying to fulfill this obligation as best they can. As with any human activity there are bound to be mistakes made and hopefully the Chinese authorities will listen to constructive criticism of its policies when this criticism is not part of the usual ant-Communist and anti-Chinese propaganda emanating from the US and other imperialist governments and the bourgeois MSM.
Monday, September 23, 2019
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Eastern German Elections 9-1-19
Some quotes: "Under Communism, the party called the shots, she said. Now the market does. “I’ve come to realize that everything they taught us about capitalism all those years ago is true,” Ms. Sonntag [East German restaurant owner] said. “Politics is just for show. Money rules.”
"In his village, four in 10 people vote for the AfD. Calling them extremists is not helpful, he said. “On the state and national level they are extremists,” he said. “On the local level, they are often citizens who no longer feel represented.”-Social Democratic mayor of small East German village."
"In his village, four in 10 people vote for the AfD. Calling them extremists is not helpful, he said. “On the state and national level they are extremists,” he said. “On the local level, they are often citizens who no longer feel represented.”-Social Democratic mayor of small East German village."
The people of the former East Germany feel left behind after West German capitalism took over and left them unemployed and impoverished -- after having stirred them up to overthrow their socialist government with promises of riches and a better future -- many now feel betrayed. The choice between Barbarism or Socialism is clear as the fascist AfD Party is growing in strength in Eastern Germany feeding off of the desolation left behind by the capitalist overthrow of socialism. These disaffected citizens were originally attracted to Die Linke (the reincarnation of the former Socialist Unity Party that ran the communist German Democratic Republic -DDR] but have been defecting lately to the AfD, perhaps in part because Die Linke has been joining with the fake socialists running the SPD ( Social Democratic Party of Germany). The vast majority of East Germans do not support the AfD at this time but they split their votes between Die Linke, the SPD and the Christian Democrats (Merkel) meaning the AfD is on the road to getting the most votes in the elections today (9-1-19) in Brandenburg and Saxony -- two former DDR areas. Anti-immigrant racism is one of the driving forces leftover from Nazism propelling the popularity of the AfD -- the same kind of racism that drives Trump's base as well proving that the fight against racism must be one of the central pillars of any progressive movement along with the demand for a transition to socialism -- these two demands should be clearly enunciated as the demands any socialist group supports when it enters into a Center-Left coalition -- the antiracism demand should be unconditional but, since other coalition partners are not calling for socialism we socialists can't make this an unconditional demand but only make it known that we favor socialism as the solution to the problems of Trumpism and US imperialism in general.
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