German Green Party not really Green any more

The Green Party started in Germany, and Greens hold major political posts at the national level. However German Greens recently supported putting German troops on foreign soil (for the first time since WW II), are actively engaged in dismantling the social support system, are immigration-unfriendly, and on and on it goes.

Petra Kelly, co-founder of the German Green Party, which she described as “a non-violent ecological and basic-democratic anti-war coalition” would be appalled at what German Green party has turned into. Wait. She’d not be simply appalled, she’d be organizing against them.

Nothing has remained of the promises that go back to the social protest movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when the Green movement originally formed. The demand for more social justice has given way to the Greens actively participating in the brutal dismantling of social services.

The demand for peace and non-violence has been realised in the form of the first out-of-area combat operations of the German army since the end of World War II. The protection of the environment has been reduced to symbolic acts.

The Greens are now preparing to repeat the same fraud on a European level. The European Federation of Green Parties fully supports the European Union and its enlargement, while claiming that they will be able to give this process a human, social and democratic face.

In practice, the German Greens—who appear to be the main authors of this document—have been acting in diametrical opposition to these proclaimed aims. This glaring contradiction between words and deeds points to the fundamental class issues on the rejection of which the Green Party was founded more than 20 years ago.

Social justice and equality can only be achieved in a struggle against the European Union.

The Greens are hostile to any such social mobilisation. They represent the interests of a privileged elite and have every reason to fear resistance from below. When, in early November, 100,000 people protested against the social cuts of the Schröder government in Berlin, the chairwoman of the German Greens, Angela Beer, denounced the protesters as “politically incompetent” and “lacking any ideas.”

This from a party founded on antiwar principles! It’s no wonder Germans are abandoning the Green Party. Like our Democratic Party, it no longer appears to have identifiable core values. And one wonders if they know or even care.

April, 2 2003: German Greens back airspace for US warplanes

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Stephen King: forget piracy, boomers are just tired of buying crap

Stephen King: forget piracy, boomers are just tired of buying crap
Stephen King’s editorial in the new Entertainment Weekly (not online, but the best part is below) opines that the real crisis in the entertainment industry isn’t piracy, it’s mental fatigue among moneyed baby boomers.

So what happened in the ’90s? I think we’re seeing an entire generation — my generation, the baby-boom generation — turning off the lights upstairs and putting a sign on the door: SORRY, BUT I’M TAKING A NAP. MIND CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. Pretty much the same deal is going on with music sales. Piracy and illegal downloads, although covered to a fare-thee-well in the press, account for only a fraction of the drop in $$. I think what’s happening is all too clear: We baby boomers are just too pooped to party. Oh, we do buy some records — you may have heard that we love the Beatles, Rod Stewart, and those funksters the Rolling Stones. Just don’t try to get us to listen to anyone who isn’t registered with AARP! Bob Seger was probably correct when he told us rock & roll never forgets, but it sure gets tired.

Hey. There is music other than 60’s rock! Electronica, hip hop, experimental, modern blues, etc. - but you do have to look for it with an open mind.

Movie-ticket sales have remained strong, but only because the studios are selling a product aimed almost solely at Gen-X and Gen-Y. Most R-rated movies go in the tank. PG-13 rules. A film like “The Fast and the Furious” strikes box office gold, while Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River” muddles along at the box office. I’d argue that 20 years ago, “Mystic River” would have done “Chinatown” box office numbers. Now the baby boomers look at the previews on TV and think, Nah, that looks too serious. Too hard. Guess I’ll stay home and watch “Jeopardy!” And the “Jeopardy!” answer is “Just about the saddest thing Steve King can think of.” The question is “What do you call a whole generation going to sleep?”

“Hope I die before I get old? One reason this boomer enjoys volunteering with ANSWER is the huge mix of people, cultures, and ages. A while back some punkers in Lancaster CA put on a benefit show for ANSWER. An ANSWER organizer in his early 60’s spoke at it, then went stage-diving into the slam pit with the 20 year olds. I find this inspirational! Someone apparently forgot to tell him he’s a boomer and thus should be burned out and retreating from life.

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We are everywhere: The irresistible rise of global anticapitalism

<This new book> tells the tale of what is commonly known as “the anti-globalization movement.”

Except that most Westerners get that term wrong. The antiglobalizers aren’t just a handful of white American union members, treehuggers and black-clad radicals.

Most of the movement is action by people worldwide, facing life or death stakes: peasants fighting water privatization in Bolivia; farmers fighting biopiracy in India; rebel Zapatistas fighting for autonomy in Mexico; the landless poor hijacking farmland in Brazil; AIDS activists fighting pharmaceutical giants in South Africa.

This book is about the whole globalization movement, Latin American campesinos, crusty punks from Oregon, environmentalists in Niger, students in Mexico city, pie-throwers in San Francisco, squatters in Ontario, anarchists in Italy, refugees in Australia, factory workers in Poland, landless farmers in Thailand. The list goes on.

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Should someone tell the White House?

Indonesia criticises US over Iraq.

Indonesia’s foreign minister says the US-led invasion of Iraq has angered Muslims and led to increased instability

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