Karl Marx never opposed spirituality, morality and proper conduct

In the [present] capitalist age, religious exploitation is more psychic than physical, because the capitalists use the intellectuals to try to spread intellectual propaganda among the masses to prevent them from finding any philosophical justification for their suppressed grievances against the capitalist structure. This intellectual propaganda aims to convince people that they are the victims of circumstance. It argues, "Everything is destiny. Everything is preordained." Such doctrines help the capitalists to perpetuate their structure. They destroy the personal force of people and make them the playthings of fate. People accept the idea that everything is preordained, and support the status quo. Those who try to break the structure of the capitalist age and show the downtrodden the path of liberation, will have to advise the people to free themselves from the intoxicating effect of the opium of religion; otherwise how will they be able to serve the downtrodden people? A group of exploiters loudly object to a remark that was made by the great Karl Marx concerning religion. It should be remembered that Karl Marx never opposed spirituality, morality and proper conduct. What he said was directed against the religion of his time, because he perceived, understood and realized that religion had psychologically paralysed the people and reduced them to impotence by persuading them to surrender to a group of sinners.

Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

J' accuse: A Children's Doctor And A Mighty State

Question naturally arises how does a graduate from the prestigious Christian Medical College, Vellore who has been associated with several community health programmes for the last three decades, who even contributed to the state government's conceptualisation of community health programme 'Mitanin' and who played a significant role in the evolution of 'Shaheed Hospital' - a hospital started by workers for the workers under the leadership of legendary Shankar Guha Niyogi, has suddenly metamorphosed into a menace to public safety ? An idea of the challenging work which he along with his other comrades are engaged in could be had from the 'encounter killings' of twelve tribals at Santoshpur which recently made headlines at the national level. (March 31, 2007) In this particular case security personnel marched into the hamletts of tribals, in 'Naxal afftected' Bastar area of Chhattisgarh, abused the villagers alleging that they were naxalite sympathisers and took away some of them. By the evening news came that twelve such people were killed by these security personnel after brutal torture. A few of them were just hacked to death. - Subhash Gatade

Japan Infiltrates The Middle East

The United States is pushing Japan toward greater engagement in the Middle East. Despite its support of the Iraq fiasco, Japan's reputation in the region is far better than that of the United States, and many people in the Middle East still feel positively about the role it can play. Washington wants Tokyo, a trusted ally, to shoulder some of the economic and security burdens. More importantly, Japan is the preferred U.S. candidate among Asian powers to penetrate an increasingly eastward leaning Middle East. In providing advanced technology and investments that the region desperately needs, Japan has an advantage over India and China in this new rivalry for Middle East influence. - Shirzad Azad

Aliens in Babel

Is there anyone who has not entered Iraq? - Come to think about it, no. - Let me see, there are the Americans, the Iranians, the Israelis, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the Dans, the Brits, the Eastern Europeans, the Western Europeans, the South Africans, the Koreans, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Syrians, the Saudis... - Yeah and today I heard a lot of Latin Americans too. Venezuelans, Ecuadorians, Bolivians, Chileans, Mexicans, Argentinians, Brazilians... (By the way, the Iraqi football team just hired a Brazilian coach, probably much to the displeasure of Muqtada Baby who frowns upon football that "degenerate sport". Great news no? Iraqis can't walk in the street but hey they can play some first class football !) - Layla Anwar

The Centrality of Iraq and Afghanistan in Defeating the Empire

The failure of Washington's will to a world empire has led to the shrinking of power relative to its global situation prior to 2001. And in large part that is due to the fighting capacity and organized resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan: Both have demonstrated that despite the great store of modern technological warfare and monopolies of media propaganda, wars are decided on the ground, by the popular majorities directly affected. It is they who set in motion the conversion of enthusiastic domestic majorities for the US war to demoralized minorities; it is they who have given backbone and resiliency to the Middle Eastern governments who vacillate between collaboration with and rejection of the colonial powers. - James Petras

Globalization And Democracy: Some Basics

Elected by no one and drawn from the corporate world, these panelists meet in secret and often have investment stakes in the very issues they adjudicate, being bound by no con­flict-of-interest provisions. Not one of GATT's five hundred pages of rules and restrictions are directed against private corporations; all are against govern­ments. Signatory governments must lower tariffs, end farm subsidi­es, treat foreign companies the same as domestic ones, honor all corporate patent claims, and obey the rulings of a permanent elite bureaucracy, the WTO. Should a country refuse to change its laws when a WTO panel so dictates, the WTO can impose fines or international trade sanctions, depriving the resistant country of needed markets and materials. - Michael Parenti

The difference between an opinion and an incitement

"Every idea is an incitement. It offers itself for belief, and if believed it is acted on unless some other belief outweighs it or some failure of energy stifles the movement at its birth. The only difference between the expression of an opinion and an incitement is the speaker's enthusiasm for the result."

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935)
US Supreme Court Justice, also known as "The Great Dissenter"

Why Socialism?

I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society. - Albert Einstein - In this brilliant statement of Einstein, he is essentially propagating the Prout economic model. The means of production are owned by society itself - by the local people! Work and jobs would be guaranteed to every man, woman and child. The educational system would teach students to love others and think for the collective, NOT for themselves, NOT for the individual - which is what capitalism teaches round the clock. Einstein says, let people place the glory of life on collective humanity rather than on individual power and success. Einstein was a brilliant man in many spheres. what he says is also common sense. Local economic power, local economic control, local ownership of production, is common sense. But to date, greedy, blood-sucking capitalists do not allow people to have local control over their economies. In Kentucky all the millions of tons of coal under the ground and millions of tons of precious commercial timber above the ground are owned by OUTSIDERS. It borders on criminal - this kind of economic system. It leaves Kentucky the second poorest state in America. We cannot allow it. We must demand that local resources belong to the local people. When will the people of America - nay the world - demand local control over local production? - WPA

Freedom of expression in Venezuela and the non-renewal of RCTV's licence – Hands Off Venezuela!!

We recognise that the non-renewal of the broadcasting licence for RCTV is a legitimate and democratic decision of the Venezuelan government. The reason for this action is not that RCTV is against the government of Hugo Chavez, but rather that this TV channel participated directly in the organisation of the military coup against the democratically elected government. We welcome the decision to set up a new public access TV station "TVes". The problem of the media in Venezuela is not that the government is curtailing freedom of expression but rather the need to democratise access to the media, which is dominated by a handful of monopoly groups that use their position to sabotage the expressed will of the majority of the Venezuelan people.

Unanimity at the graveyard

"Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only a unanimity at the graveyard."

Justice Robert H. Jackson - (1892-1954) U. S. Supreme Court Justice

Iraq Vet: 'My Brain Will Not Let Go'

"Developing post-traumatic stress disorder requires that a person be exposed to a life-threatening situation, that's one of the criteria," said Hebda. "Their response is intense fear, horror or helplessness." About 60 percent of men and half of all women experience some kind of traumatic event during their lifetimes, according to the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Most people who experience such an event will develop PTSD in the days or weeks that follow, the center says. Symptoms include reliving the trauma, avoiding places or people that are reminders of the trauma and feelings of irritability. - Thom Patterson - It is not enough to just join the US army. Young boys and girls, older men and women who join, need to think deeply first, is this a just war!! GOD - the Supreme Entity - never gave any human being the moral right to go and kill people in other countries. International law also forbids it. But sometimes, politicians are criminals. Right now, most American politicians, not just in the White House but also in the Congress who vote again and again to perpetuate US wars, are criminals. Young boys and girls cannot follow criminals. They must think deeply themselves, they can talk to God - but they should remember that the majority of politicians are criminals and are never to be followed blindly, most particularly when it involves killing other human beings. - WPA

Grieving Moms vs. Washington Pols

Since the Democrats have set the upcoming Memorial Day recess as the deadline for getting Bush a spending bill that he will sign, the odds favor an impending capitulation rather than an extended impasse. But the Democrats have to worry that they may discover, as they head back home, that Bush is set on escalating the war and that they've been hoodwinked again. - Robert Party - The Democrats have not at all been hoodwinked again. They are in active collusion with Bush to escalate the war in Iraq and start a war in Iran. Why? Because war is making all of them richer with each passing day. The lives of American soldiers and certainly of Arabs mean nothing whatsoever to Democratic Senators and Congressmen. The bottom line is how much money will they get personally out of continuing the war. Investigations has been carried out on the huge profits from war gained by Diane Feinstein's husband. How much money directly, personally, is Nancy Pelosi making from serial perpetual war? She is the key person today who goes on colluding with Bush to maintain that perpetual war. It doesn't really matter which war or where the war is. The main point is, keep it going. It's making money for them. So our Congress is not at all hoodwinked. What about the American people? How long will they be hoodwinked by Democratic Party double-talk? - WPA

US poised to take control of Kleiaat airbase!

Just as if acting on cue from the Bush White House, a new "terrorist group" called Fatah al-Islam commenced operations in the vicinity of the Kleiaat airbase during the evening of May 20. Fath al-Islam laid road traps to prevent Lebanese army units from Tripoli from reaching the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, the scene of fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam that resulted in the killing and wounding of tens of Lebanese troops.

Cheney Attempting to Constrain Bush's Choices on Iran Conflict: Staff Engaged in Insubordination Against President Bush

There are many other components of the complex game plan that this Cheney official has been kicking around Washington. The official has offered this commentary to senior staff at AEI and in lunch and dinner gatherings which were to be considered strictly off-the-record, but there can be little doubt that the official actually hopes that hawkish conservatives and neoconservatives share this information and then rally to this point of view. This official is beating the brush and doing what Joshua Muravchik has previously suggested -- which is to help establish the policy and political pathway to bombing Iran. - Steve Clemons

A border runs through it: Tiny town worries feds

Step through the front door of the Haskell Library and you're in the United States. Walk across the carpeted floor to the circulation desk and you're in Canada. But if you sit down on the couch, you're back in the U.S. The 106-year-old Romanesque building, which straddles the international border, has enjoyed a kind of informal immunity from border restrictions through the years. But a U.S. Border Patrol crackdown focusing on three unguarded streets linking Derby Line with Stanstead, Quebec, across the border, could soon change that.

Wife Abuse - Part 1

Four women are battered to death every day in United States. Thousands more are in hospital emergency rooms, barely alive. In all countries, it is men who are generally the perpetrators, and women who are the victims.

Battering includes many forms: emotional abuse, economic abuse, sexual abuse, using the children as extended ammunition against the wife/mother, threats, using male privilege (in a patriarchal structure), intimidation, isolation - all to keep their women in perpetual fear, thus putting the men in maximum control.

We must support all efforts towards the liberation of women - physical freedom from violent, raging partners, intellectual freedom from controlling men who put them down and denigrate their intellectual endeavors, and spiritual freedom from male priests who would keep them submissive and silent. - Garda Ghista

Wife Abuse - Part 2

Educators need to teach young people about violent relationships, about domestic violence. In the same way that young people learn about cancer warning signs, about the dangers of drunk driving, about sex, contraception and AIDS, similarly they must learn from grade school onwards, in every year of school, what is domestic violence. Every year young girls should be given the first questionnaire so that they are thoroughly prepared when they reach marrying age, because the warning signs will be embedded in their minds! In this manner, young women will at least have a fair chance to escape the tragic life of a victim. The statistics for Kentucky, USA reveal that 50 percent of women in Kentucky are abused at some point in their lives. This is simply unacceptable. - Garda Ghista

Wife Abuse - Part 3

In Carol Adams' book, Neither Man Nor Beast: Feminism and the Defense of Animals, she writes, "Look at the way women have been treated. We've been completely controlled, raped, not given any credibility, not taken seriously. It's the same thing with animals. We've completely mutilated them, domesticated them. Their cycles, their entire beings are conformed to humans' needs. That's what men have done to women and the earth." So we see that by expanding one's consciousness to realize how one's own suffering of not only women, but the suffering of all created beings on this earth, one no longer feels like an isolated woman living terrorized in a house. Rather, one feels surrounded by a whole family of relatives with whom one can empathize. Thus we can say, sufferings became a hidden blessing. - Garda Ghista

A New Vision for Bengal

Amra Bangali along with the members of some progressive groups are protesting against the massacre of Nandigram in front of the Indian High Comission in London on 3rd April 2007. With the goal to serve in the time of need, Amra Bengali has been active in the past and will continue to be so in the future. While communists oppress, capitalists exploit, and Hindis impose their cheap pseudo-culture on the great people of Bengal, there is a crying need today for new leadership, a new movement and a new socio-economic, political ideology to free all Bengali speaking people from their present state of oppression and exploitation and restore this rich and ancient culture to its former heights of glory. - Dinabandhu Maity

Requesting your help

Dear Readers,
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In February, 2007 we moved WPA from a shared server its own dedicated server. The cost of a dedicated server is 12 times that of a shared server. The cost of maintaining the site has become too high. In addition, we want to organize a conference to finally meet and talk about solutions. Those of you who love this site, please send funds to help the continued expansion of this site and upcoming conference. Please send checks or money orders, payable to "World Prout Assembly" to:

World Prout Assembly
7 Bordeaux Drive
Highland Heights, KY 41076
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Donations can also be made through the Amazon boxes on the site.
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With love and gratitude,
-
Garda Ghista
at WPA

Heroism Is the Real Meditation

After starting meditation, one starts psychic fighting against the crude force, the crude force functioning within the mind, the crude force functioning within the society, the crude force functioning within the family and the crude force functioning within the country. One starts fighting, so one becomes a hero. This heroism in fighting is the actual meditation. This is life. Life is the constant fight against belligerent forces. Life is fight. When one starts to fight one becomes a [genuine] human being in a human body.

Shrii Prabhat R Sarkar

Effecting Regime Change in Iran

There is reportedly a heated debate underway between members of the Cheney Cabal – who want to bomb-bomb-Iran – and members of the Condi diplomacy crowd, who want to conduct "covert" destabilizing operations within Iran and to impose crushing sanctions on the Iranians, themselves.--Gordon Prather

Bangladesh: Hindu properties continue to be 'vested' Some 200,000 families lose 1.22 lakh bighas since 2001

In his latest research report, Barkat mentions that the affected Hindu families met with more incidents of violence and repression in the immediate-past five years of the BNP-led government than in the previous five years of the Awami League government.

New Bush Scandal Helping Big Oil Companies Hide Billions From Government at Taxpayer Expense

The Bush Administration (and the oil industry) want the percentage of oil and gas royalties to double by 2009 and continue to insist that the Royalty-in-Kind scheme is simpler and more efficient because it reduces accounting and transaction efforts. But it is this very reduction in reporting through a de facto "honor system" that has allowed oil companies to keep more money while also preventing the Government Accountability Office from being able to evaluate whether the program is actually profitable to the government.

The Man Whose Back is Against the Wall

by Libyan poet Muhammad Al-Fayturi (Asad's translation):

"For whom?
I embrace fire while dead...
and fight
I, who have no land, no country
no face, no time
no glory, no price
For whom?
Your eyes spit in my eyes..
I am the fugitive..
Stare in my eyes as you wish
Say that I was a coward
that I was weak
Cry over my birth
Raise your quivering hands
to the sky
If only you searched my soul..
my blood..
You will only find
rejection and contempt
I hate you all..
Do not beg..
Do not smile..
Your dry smile..
only fills me with contempt
for you
A rock I am,
so do not call
I condemn you all,
you clowns
I do not make exceptions..
In the name of your glory,
my nation is clothed
in mourning
And in the dust of your horses,
my homeland was lost!
...My cause is mine alone
and after me, there is fire"

Gutted Instinct: Andhra is no solace to tribals escaping Maoist-Judum crossfire

At first sight, Sunnamvari Matka, a tiny tribal hamlet in the Vararamachandrapuram mandal of Khammam district, looks like it has been ravaged by a forest fire. Charred tree stumps, roofless huts, burnt bushes, scattered utensils and earthen pots present a picture of tragic destruction. But the fear in the eyes of the 40-odd Gothi Koya tribal inhabitants tells a different story. A team of AP forest rangers trekked here one afternoon recently and burnt every hut in the village. They then beat up the villagers with lathis, and threw their clothes and foodgrains into the bonfire.--Madhavi Tata

Ethanol Booms, Farmers Bust

While most farmers own some land, the vast majority rent part or all of their acreage. Rents already swelled in some areas for this season, and farmers are bracing themselves for an even greater increase in 2008. A study by the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers forecasted that if corn prices stay high, rent for prime farmland in the state next year will rise by 19 percent -- to 218 dollars an acre. For young farmers, something rural America desperately needs, such inflation can make getting into the business impossible.--Lisa M. Hamilton

Bush authorises covert CIA operations to destabilise Iran

The timing of the plan coincides with a steady stream of articles, prominently placed in the media, highlighting Tehran's crackdown on women's dress, arrest of dissidents, alleged nuclear weapons programs and support for anti-occupation militia operating inside neighbouring Iraq. While it is impossible to know how many of these reports are direct CIA "plants," they point to a concerted campaign of propaganda and disinformation. Whatever the impact inside Iran, such stories serve to poison public opinion in the US and internationally in preparation for a possible military strike.--Peter Symonds

STATE VS NAXALS :VIGILANTE STATE

The war on Maoists in Chhattisgarh is beginning to turn on civil society, reports Shivam Vij The large number of protests by the civil society, both in Delhi and Raipur, over the arrest of a Human Rights activist in Raipur is the most significant sign yet of the Chhattisgarh government's troubles over its policy against Naxalism.

Refugees Face Uncertain Life in Lebanon

Beddawi was already home to 20,000 Palestinians, and has been overwhelmed by the influx from the Nahr el-Bared camp three miles away. Some of the newcomers are making do in Beddawi's six schools, its hospitals, clinics and mosques; others moved in with relatives at the camp.--Zeina Karam-- Refugees from a refugee camp. This is the reality of being Palestinian. This subhuman condition enforced by the warlords of Washington is the beating heart of all global citizens. Being Palestinian is the only way to affirm our humanity before the National Security State that makes us into non-persons who can be shot at will.--WPA

With US Funding, Mexico Tracks Communication

"Suddenly, anyone suspected of organized crime is presumed guilty and treated as someone without any constitutional rights," said Sales, a law professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. "And who will determine who is an organized crime suspect? The state will."

Death of new-borns and the Kerala model

38 babies died in one hospital in Thiruvananthapuram over the past four months, shocking a state which boasts of the lowest infant mortality rate in the country. The much discussed and extolled Kerala model of health development is ailing, reports P N Venugopal.