Raju J Das

It’s oppressive if a follower of religion X says that religion Y—and its followers—are inferior. No to religious supremacism. Yes to freedom of religion in private life and to secularism. But it’s justifiable to criticize a religious group that uses religion to oppress others.

Postmodernism and rightwing politics: x.com/clairlemon/sta…

No’s for fair elections: No person donates more than a day’s (or a week’s) average income. No corporate funding. No bribing voters. No use of religion in election. No restriction on free speech/assembly. No non-factual claims. No govt or business control over media. @adrspeaks

When an elected official like a prime minister or president spends time electioneering, why should they still draw a salary or use state-funded resources like transport and accommodation?

With large diasporas who can vote by postal ballot or influence relatives back home, politicians use costly foreign tours—paid for by the public—to court diaspora voters. Why should people who don’t support these leaders fund their electioneering?

Politicians spend millions in public money on lavish foreign tours—part vacation, part PR. Many barely understand the economics or politics of the places they visit. The real work for big business is done by bureaucrats. The politicians’ foreign trips rarely serve the public.

When presidents and prime ministers travel abroad at public expense, most of of their time is spent lobbying for contracts & markets for their national capitalists—especially those who funded their own and their parties’ rise to power.

When a government implements a policy, it’s really the ruling class—big business—acting through the state. Behind every policy is one or another faction of big business, or big business as a whole, more or less.

When a government implements a policy, it’s really the ruling class—big business—acting through the state. Behind every policy is one or another faction of big business, or big business as a whole, more or less.

What use is all our knowledge about famine? What use is the power of national and international organizations? What use is the wealth produced by ordinary people worldwide? If suffering like the ‘man-made’ famine continues, what have we really achieved?

Court rulings like this can help foster a culture of action. But if rulings alone could change the world, we wouldn’t still face genocide, climate collapse, predatory wars, poverty, and public health crises. Real change requires class conscious, organized action from below.

If politicians need financial support, let everyone—CEO or worker—donate one day’s income. But capitalists, though a tiny minority, earn millions more than workers—and donate millions. This is how they buy politicians. How is this democracy? How is this one person, one vote?

In poorer countries too, nationalism means little. Politicians mainly work for local capitalists. . A handful of corporations control the nation’s resources—and the wealth created by the majority. These elites, including the nationalists, collaborate with imperialism.

In wealthy countries, ‘nation first’ or ‘national interest’ means little. Politicians who claim to represent the people serve corporate power instead. A handful of companies now control the nation's resources—and the wealth created by the labour of the many (=the real nation).

When a government orders its security forces to attack those protesting injustice—or to wage predatory wars and genocide against innocents—those in uniform must remember where they truly belong: on the side of the people.

Every hour, 6 people die in road accidents in India. Add to that the deaths from starvation, farmers’ suicides, unsafe workplaces, poor healthcare, and lack of housing, etc. These are NOT accidents. They ARE social murder — carried out by capitalists and their politicians.

More specifically: there is no real alternative to the Marxist theory of class, inequality, state, poverty, economic development, war, genocide, environmental crisis, rise of fascism and politics of hatred, worsening public health or any other major problem facing humanity today.

In all major capitalist countries, as the economic system is in terminal decline, the state is increasingly normalizing genocidal violence, waging useless wars, slashing social spending, and criminalizing people’s democratic right to dissent and protest. It has no legitimacy.

So the fight for real democracy boils down to this: the family of humanity — wage workers and petty producers — must displace the corporate elite and their political accomplices, and seize state power. The means of production and the state must belong to the people. Period.

The corporations that control the means of production — and decide whether we work or eat well — along with their political lackeys, are the biggest threat to democracy. They define what democracy is: the people choosing which branch of the ruling family will govern them.