Maurice,
I have to say that I am not sophisticated enough in terms of Marxist theory to
understand all of the intricacies of the differences among socialist parties.
But what I do know is that if one observes a country, its culture, and its
history, it's unreasonable to criticize it for not having policies that align
one's own country, (which is totally different with a different history and
culture), or one's own personal value system. The tendency to do that is very
American, even if the individual doesn't think that's his orientation. It's
American 21st century left of center exceptionalism to talk about feminism or
free will or civil rights when making judgements about an ancient Asian culture.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Maurice Peret
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 2:05 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Beijing control over family size is attack on
women
Hi Miriam,
One observation I would make is that the SWP never has nor ever would count
itself among the American "left." The party broke from the Stalinist
stranglehold and its members were, in fact, expelled from the Communist Party
USA early on and worldwide precisely because of its opposition to the
privileged bureaucratic cast that gained and then maintained their brutal
control over the people. It was a counterrevolution, to be sure. An interesting
story was that James P.
Cannon, who was a founding leader of what ultimately became the Socialist
Workers Party, smuggled out documents of the Soviet left opposition led by Leon
Trotsky following a meeting of the Communist International. The party's
analysis of the Maoist regime is little different. It is easy enough, I think,
to research what the Militant had to say on the subject by going through the
archive additions. the paper has been in circulation since 1928, but for a
short stint when the U.S. Post Office refused to deliver issues due to its
staunch opposition to imperialist entry into World War II. By many standards,
members of the SWP could accurately be called conservative within the
Marxist/Leninist framework of building a revolutionary proletarian party. Its
position on this subject is, therefore, not surprising nor unexpected.
On 6/29/21, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Very interesting. I remember when the anti Communist propaganda
focused on the one child policy and forced abortions in China back in
the 50's and early 60's. I wonder what The Militant was saying then?
The fact is that China functions with very different values than
American leftists, whatever American leftists think, or thought in the
past. It is a very old civilization with a huge population and ever
since the Communists have taken power, the goal has been to have a
planned economy so that starvation would be eliminated. Personal
freedom and Democracy were never the plan. Neither was conquering
other countries. China has always concentrated on itself. If you visit
China, and I have, the social atmosphere is totally different than it
is in the west. It is also obvious that the Chinese are extremely
competent at whatever it is they choose to do. But from the minute you step
off the plane, you know that you are in a controlled environment.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 10:41 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Beijing control over family size is attack
on women
Beijing control over family size is attack on women
https://themilitant.com/2021/06/26/beijing-control-over-family-size-is
-attack-on-women/
BY SETH GALINSKY
Vol. 85/No. 26
July 5, 2021
Worried that its population is aging and there won’t be enough young
workers to exploit to maximize state profits, the Chinese government
announced last month that it was raising the limit on the number of
children a family is allowed to three and began a propaganda campaign
to encourage more childbirth. Now Beijing officials are considering
dropping all restrictions on larger families.
The Chinese rulers fear that having a shrinking and aging population
is a barrier to challenging Washington for greater economic and
political influence.
Government interference in the personal decisions of when, if and how
many children a woman has is reactionary. These decisions should be in
her hands alone in conjunction with her family. To make that possible
it is necessary to fight for access to family planning, including aid
in conceiving a child if needed and the right to safe and secure abortion.
At the beginning of the 1970s the Maoist regime in Beijing pressured
women to have fewer children. In 1979 government bureaucrats imposed a
general cap of one child per woman. Those who violated the law had to
pay huge fines or were forced to have abortions.
At the end of 2015, with Chinese women averaging only 1.05 children,
the second lowest in the world, Beijing raised the cap to two. That
did little to increase the birthrate. In China, just like in the U.S.,
the U.K., France and other countries, birthrates have been declining for
years.
The decline in workers’ real wages, the rise in the cost of living and
lack of child care, a result of the bosses foisting the capitalist
crisis on the backs of working people, are also key to the decline in
family formation worldwide. Even in the United States, the strongest
imperialist power, many young workers today can’t earn enough to live
on their own, so they put off having children.
An affordable family is even harder to establish in China with low
wages, sky-high rents and mortgages, and meager pensions. Child care
as well as nursing homes and other facilities for seniors are further
out of reach for working people there than in the U.S. And it’s women
who face the biggest burden, with the responsibility for children and
the elderly falling almost entirely on the family.
When Xinhua News in China published the results of a poll that asked
22,000 people, “Are you ready for the three-child policy?” Twenty
thousand chose, “I won’t consider it at all.” The poll was quickly
deleted from the agency’s website.
Working-age couples in China often have to take care of “two sets of
parents who don’t have much income for savings or pension plans if
any, plus any kids they already have,” reports Al Jazeera.
While the rulers in Beijing are trying to get women from the majority
Han population to have more babies, they subject women among the
mostly Muslim Uighur people in the Northwest to strict birth control policies.
Long discriminated against and persecuted by Beijing, Uighurs often
face forced sterilization and abortions, reports The Associated Press.
This goes hand in hand with Beijing’s systematic detention of hundreds
of thousands of Uighurs in forced labor camps.
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--
Irvin D. Yalom “Truth," Nietzsche continued, "is arrived at through
disbelief and skepticism, not through a childlike wishing something
were so! Your patient's wish to be in God's hands is not truth. It is
simply a child's wish—and nothing more! It is a wish not to die, a
wish for the eveastingly bloated nipple we have labeled 'God'!
Evolutionary theory scientifically demonstrates God's
redundancy—though Darwin himself had not the courage to follow his
evidence to its true conclusion. Surely, you must realize that we
created God, and that all of us together now have killed him.” ― Irvin
D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept