Neither curfew, tear gas, nor King Gyanendra’s offer to give up control of the state stemmed the fury of his subjects on Saturday, as protesters, for the first time in 17 days of demonstrations, broke through police lines to pierce the ancient heart of the city, reaching within a few blocks of Narayanhiti Palace.

The Maoists control much of the countryside, and indeed, have set up working provisional governments. Once the King flees the county, the battle for political supremacy between the various factions will begin. Right now, they’re in a loose coalition despite differences.

PS The Maoists are home-grown, not allied with China, and active in India also.

[tags]Nepal[/tags]

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That’s the price at a nearby gas station here in L.A as of last night. It was 2.97 on Thursday. That’s a 12 cent rise in two days.

In a Bloomberg News survey of oil experts, 23 of 42 analysts, traders and brokers polled - or 55 percent - said prices will increase even more next week.

Here’s a cure for the price-gouging. Nationalize the oil companies, charge only enough to break even and for a prudent reserve - and take back the 400 million the greedy pig at ExxonMobil paid himself to retire, using it to fund biodiesel and hybrid research instead.

[tags]oil prices[/tags]

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Ignore bloggers at your peril, say researchers

Bloggers and internet pundits are exerting a “disproportionately large influence” on society, according to a report by a technology research company. Its study suggests that although “active” web users make up only a small proportion of Europe’s online population, they are increasingly dominating public conversations and creating business trends.

Yessiree, everyone is reading blogs, even the CIA.

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Dave Riley expands on his thought from yesterday’s post.

If I could add one addendum and that is the ‘problem’ organised socialist groups have with regroupment politics like this.

If you think you are ‘the way’ and that your program is ‘it’ — it is very hard to then be as one in working collectively with other forces and accept them on equal terms when the assumption is that you will proceed though a process to a position of greater unity –that forces will integrate with one another to create a new party — can be anathema.

Flexibility is key, as well as having certain core beliefs that aren’t negotiable. Maybe most important, in coalitions you don’t have to agree on everything, just the issues at hand.

But the problem is that when they do this half way or with so many riders and provisoes driven by separate schemata the business can be very limited indeed. The business of politics is motion but the soc orgs are still, in their vast majority, caught up in a standalone and separate competing caucus mode.
Herein the example of the New Zealand new workers party is instructive…

But then there are many examples today that indicate various options in this process of regroupment. And as the political space enlarges the challenge is to find ways to fill it given the very small size of the organised socialist left.

Of course IF the socialist left doesn’t try to help fill it other forces will –and the orgs will be outside and marginal.

The example of the Scottish Socialist Party is very relevant in this regard as despite themselves the orgs had to sign up with the project because they were marginalised by its success.

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