A bird's eye view of the vineyard
Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb
The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?
What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are
Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of
The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by
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Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
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Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
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Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
Why Are Some Rapes More Equal Than Others? Tue Mar 18, 2025 07:00 | Steven Tucker
When rapists are Right-wing we, rightly, hear all about their crimes. But not so much when they're Left-Wing, says Steven Tucker. Which is probably why you've never heard of the alleged crimes of this gay rights activist.
The post Why Are Some Rapes More Equal Than Others? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Tue Mar 18, 2025 01:36 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
How Does Gender Ideology End Up Everywhere? Mon Mar 17, 2025 19:00 | Caroline Ffiske
All it took for the Department of Health to add a question on gender identity to the form reporting a child's death was one email. This is how gender ideology gets everywhere, says Caroline Ffiske.
The post How Does Gender Ideology End Up Everywhere? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Far-Left Campaigners Are Targeting GB News and Have Enlisted Ofcom as their Attack Dog Mon Mar 17, 2025 17:00 | Toby Young
The boss of GB News has said the channel is the victim of a "coordinated" attack by the far Left after Ofcom launched yet another investigation into one of its programmes.
The post Far-Left Campaigners Are Targeting GB News and Have Enlisted Ofcom as their Attack Dog appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
How a Heat Pump Destroyed One Consumer?s Perfect Energy Rating Mon Mar 17, 2025 15:52 | Sallust
Colin Ferguson spent thousands renovating his home back in 2013 and received a perfect energy rating for his trouble. When he recently installed a heat pump, however, his EPC rating dropped off a cliff.
The post How a Heat Pump Destroyed One Consumer’s Perfect Energy Rating appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3What is this - some sort of co-option job for Labour hacks to make themselves feel good about themselves for a change? I think if you are looking for more run of the mill social democrats in Venezuela Carlos Andrés Pérez might be a sure safer bet, he was three term vice-president of the Socialist International, a predecessor of Chavez and way back in 2004 was happy enough to call for the violent over throwing of the Chavista regime - oh and he over saw a massacre of a few protesters back in '89 after an uprising against his free market reforms. And sure, wasn't this self same wee chap that Chavez had his original coup against?
Huzzah! Tis a social democrat beneath those neo-liberal clothing! What's your point with this posting? Now I'm no expert on Venezuela, hardly have a notion whats going on over there at all - but these sort of contributions that contend he is a trot, social democrat or neo-liberalist really say more about the sort of political games that are played between the various parties of the Irish left, their hangers on and some more obscure sects than shed light on events there. Wrap the red beret around me, boys.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/601
So Chavez's predecessor Carlos Andrés Pérez is a member of the same Socialist International as the 26-County Labour Party. Small world.
Referring to the initial post, are there any socialists out there who still believe that socialism can be implemented by getting elected to a bourgeois parliament? I think everyone knows that there are limits to what Chavez can do, including Chavez himself, which is why such focus has been placed on the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela organising itself from the bottom up.
Like a lot of stuff on Venezuela, this article seems far too keen to force Chavez and the movement he heads into a neat little box drawn from past experience. I don’t think Chavez is either a Trotskyist or a social-democrat in the traditional sense. If you had to sum him up in a couple of sentences, I’d say he’s a reformist who started out with unusual determination to put his reform programme into practice, who didn’t allow himself to be blown off course when the privileged classes dug in their heels and tried to sabotage reform (unlike most social-democratic leaders who have been only too willing to throw in the towel at the first sign of difficulty). Along the way, Chavez has had to encourage a quasi-revolutionary mobilisation of his supporters, and the scale of that mobilisation has a radicalising logic of its own which has pushed his government further to the Left. How far Chavez is prepared to go, I don’t know.
Anyway, this is an article by Stuart Munckton of the Australian DSP, arguing that Chavez is actually putting the transitional programme of Leon Trotsky into practice – wouldn’t entirely agree with him, but I think it may be closer to the truth than this article’s take on things:
‘A common analysis of the politics of Chavez, the government he leads, and, in some cases, the broader revolutionary movement based on the impoverished, working people, is that they can be understood as “social democratic”. Social-democratic politics tend to be understood as seeking to implement reforms that alleviate some of the worst aspects of the profit-driven capitalist system, to the benefit of ordinary people, without breaking with capitalism itself.
Certainly, the Chavez government has implemented a wide number of reforms that in and of themselves don’t do away with capitalism — a system based on private ownership and control over the economy, run for profit and based on the exploitation of working people — but have still benefited the poor majority.
However, describing the process as social democratic misses the profoundly revolutionary nature of the struggle being led by Chavez (who in almost every speech he gives calls for the need to construct socialism and describes himself as the “subversive within Miraflores”, the presidential palace).’
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/727/37703
And a bit of shameless self-promotion – this was my two cents earlier in the year:
http://www.irishsocialist.net/publications_chavismo_the....html