"..actual responsibility lies in solidarity, organizing and unified action."

There's the key. I mentioned Che in another TO thread and it's what he argued, the necessity to change our way of thinking in order to design a more healthy and enlightened society.

I am amazed at the ignorance of people who do not appreciate the concept of socialism. It's the easiest form of gov't to understand; it only has 1 rule:

Be fair.

Anyone who has a high regard of Lenin had better talk to someone who actually when through the march to the Siberian gulag spending years there. A dear friend managed to escape (less than half a dozen did in his era) and after decades made it to America. Believe me, this was a horror that Hitler never approached.

Which Lenin? Power corrupts, and the writings of Lenin as a Marxist theorist clash with his actions as a leader in power. One may make the same observation about people like Thomas Jefferson, who, although he did not reach the same level of power, also did not practice what he preached in many cases.

That's why the founding fathers settled on a republic which is designed to protect the "minority"- the rich! That's because they knew then that people in a paradigm of direct democracy would coalesce around fairness. And this is also why there were no constitutional mechanism to ensure that "we the people" would be educated, and enlightened, enough to know the esoterica that underline democracy's true history and foundation in Nature. Because if you want to have a successful oligarchical construct to serve an oligarchy, you wouldn't want the electorate to be too smart as to be a threat to the wealth of a few men. This is at the heart as to why America is in its pathological spiral today, held together by our pretensions, and nationalistic platitudes, that merely serve our collective delusion.

"It's all of our faults" No, no it's not. "Turn off the lights, drive less, recycle" Pathetic.

The US Government and its Wall Street owners don't care if millions die - look at what they did to the Ukraine. Look at what they did to Iraq, and Syria, look at what they did to millions of Americans while laughing about in on CNBC. They do all these things and then they fund crap like this on TruthOut "We have the power, we can be better" Oh f#$k you!

We are not all equally at fault. However, almost all US citizens eligible to vote have not voted for real change. That would require a movement to destroy the Republican and Democratic parties.

You must be a middle classer. But yeah, major change starts with people becoming aware of their own role in worsening conditions.

Why would you use a picture of a former leader of a corrupt, failed and ironically OPEC state that crushes opposition by shutting down the free press, jailing opposition leaders and funding narcoguerrilla organizations in neighboring states while their people go hungry with empty shelves in stores and the gov't appropriates private properties and businesses by force? I'm a diehard liberal but Hugo Chavez is a screwed up piece of sh*t and his scumbag moron successor Maduro is even worse.

Almost by definition, you may be a liberal but you're not a progressive.

"Oh, love me, love me, love me. I'm a liberal"

You obviously only know what the MSM tells you, typical of "diehard liberals". My condolences.

a diehard liberal..

is not a leftist.

True, and the left has been virtually "disappeared" in the US, drown out by a boisterous pep rally for the middle class.

Psst! Hugo Chavez has been dead for a while now...

The USAmerican Empire and the Plutocrat Class in Venezuela is now on top again...

Hey, there's no picture of Barack Obama on this page!!!

We could take lessons from Hugo ... master planner of the empty shelf.

The US is a leader in the empty shelf movement. Did you know that we have a poverty crisis -- something very different from the low wage problem? Yep, in real life, not everyone can work, and there aren't jobs for all. Turns out, our deregulated corporate state doesn't function as well as promised. Not everyone can work, and there simply aren't jobs for all. The US shipped out a huge share of our jobs since the 1980s, ended actual welfare in the 1990s, and pretends there are no consequences. What we actually did was build a massive surplus of job-ready people who are absolutely desperate for any job at any wage -- grateful for the chance to do you job for half the pay. How do you think this will all turn out?

If we vote in a Socialist or a Progressive we can expect things to worsen quickly as the policies will simply be extended ... Putting a normal person in the White House, someone with common sense policies, can anticipate an economic boom due to a CHANGE IN POLICIES.

A "normal" person? Oh do tell.

at least venezuela is not $19 trillion in debt.

wars, MIC, policies and laws passed that favored the wealthy along with decades old "starve the beast" politics by both parties (bailout) resulted in the $19 trillion $$$$$$$$ illusion. TAKE THE PLEDGE.

Thank the Hillary for Zelaya's over throw ousting. She's probably washed the blood from her hands already.

Yet.

never will be.

the world is moving away from the western imperialist capitalist ponzi scheme started in 1607..

https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

vaya con dios pendejos..

You do realize that the Venezuelan economy shrank by 10% last year, right? And that inflation there is running well over 200%? And that Venezuela had to start selling its gold reserves to pay its debts this year? And that the odds are good the country will default on its debts before 2016 is out?

Sea pendejo o no sea pendejo, Maduro no va a sobrevivir mas que diez meses como presidente de Venezuela. Creame.

You do realise that the USKKK Empire has NO GOLD?!

Leaving America
"by a modest estimate at least 3 million U.S. citizens a year are venturing abroad"
http://www.dailykos.com/sto...

HOW LOW CAN IT GO? MILLIONS OF AMERICANS LIVE ON LESS THAN $2 A DAY ACCORDING TO ALARMING NEW STUDY
http://dangerousminds.net/c...

10 Signs We Live In A False Economy
http://www.activistpost.com...

Jah know you Yankkks are dumb..
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

"President Zelaya advocated a 60 percent increase in the minimum wage, and this infuriated two US companies..."

"In addition, President Zelaya introduced many liberal policies in Honduras during the three and a half years of his presidency. These included subsidies for small farmers, free education and meals for poor children, a reduction in interest rates on bank loans to homeowners and local businesses, and free electricity for people who could not afford to pay for it, as well as the increase in the minimum wage."

These are exactly the kinds of reforms Bernie Sanders is calling for. I think some billionaire is going to arrange an assassination or an "accident" if Bernie becomes president. But they can't assassinate a movement.

My advice is, don't ever ride in a helicopter or small plane.

And yes, they cannot assassinate a Movement and tgat is why Bernie keeps daying it is not about him it us about the Movement.

Our own 20th century history shows what would be necessary to rebuild a functioning economy. From FDR to Reagan, the US implemented policies and programs (with a focus on poverty) that actually took the US to its height of wealth and productivity -- far from perfect, a work in progress, but much better. Everyone at least had a chance, no one was denied the most basic human rights (per the UN's UDHR) of food and shelter. Then we changed our minds, ended the programs, reversed the policies, and the US has been slowly sinking into the ocean.

Sen. Sanders, when elected, can't do anything about it because there is no public will to change anything -- or even public recognition of the critical issues causing our decline. When it comes to addressing our poverty crisis, Democrats and liberals remain convinced that the solution is "trickle down economics," even after decades of failure. In the meantime, ignore that elephant in the living room, our poverty crisis.

Your comment suggests a static stagnant situation. Yes, movement is slow. Fighting inertia is hard. Yes, things will change on fits and starts. But there is plenty happening all over the US and globally that are causes for encouragement.

There IS public will and recognition, which is why Sanders is so popular.

If Bernie Sanders gets elected, there will be public will.

Our poverty crisis is not the elephant in the room. You are thinking about the fascist global corporate elite sociopaths who control both corporate parties of the duopoly.

And the kind of reforms that Obama and The Hillary(tm) couldn't allow to come about...

The issues are complex, and the rift between Obama and the Clintonites was evident from the start. By contrast, note that the media marketed to liberals went all-out through 2015 to sell Hillary Clinton for president, with her record of support for the right wing agenda going back to her Goldwater days -- pro-war, anti-poor, pro-corporate empowerment, anti-New Deal.

One thing Obama was able to do was to reverse Bill Clinton's deep cuts to the disabled. This matters. Beyond that, those who kept tabs watched as Obama presented one progressive proposal after another to Congress, only to have Congress toss them in the trash can.

As a candidate, Obama repeatedly stressed that the only way we could get the changes we said we wanted was to figure out what we want, organize, get to our feet, and DEMAND it from Congress. Turns out, we don't agree on an agenda. Liberals spent the years of this administration maintaining a pointless pep rally for the better-off, the middle class, with an occasional "BLM! thrown in to maintain their liberal creds.

So, what can Sanders possibly change?

Obama did plenty, but mostly in the direction of not only continuing, but expanding Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush policies.

The slim possibility is that after building a Movement to get Sanders elected he would NOT lay back and kiss corporate a** like Obama and the dems in Congress did but rather continue "rallying the troops", using the bully pulpit to FORCE a dem Congress to pass the People's Program -- including REAL help for those who are the most marginalized and oppressed by global corporate capitalism...

I have to get his new book now. i read his other ones.

Love these articles about John Perkins, as it is always best to hear from a reformed insider. One thread that runs through so many stories about economic and social injustice, is the invisible fact that many of us are employed as mere functionaries to complete the objectives of the ruling autocratic economic ideology. As Perkins demonstrates, it is only when people reflect and take stock of what they actually do with their work lives, and consequently with their actual 'lives', that they may come to realize
their roles, their participation, and their responsibilities for the monstrous things perpetrated daily as "our jobs". There is no wall which separates work from our lives - but people continue to pretend that they are not responsible for what they do at work. It is most disturbing, to say the least, to reflect on our roles as functionaries, as mere obedient servants, paid little or much, to perform functions obediently without resistance or dissent. This is how our system works. The heart of progressivism includes the necessity of unmasking and emasculating this corrupted system. Whistleblowing should be the new law with handsome rewards and promotions that help create a system of justice and accountability. Voting based on your wallet and portfolio is just part of the corruption.

When you say "voting based on your wallet," I gather you mean by your class based on income level.

Voting with your purchases is another matter, and when done at farmers markets and decent food co-ops and natural food stores, can be very much part of the solution.

Americans won't do anything because they can't risk losing their jobs. The last I heard, there are 7 jobs for every 10 people struggling to find one, and there is nothing to fall back on. We already have a huge surplus of job-ready people who are desperate for any job at any wage. And I think most people know how we treat our truly poor today. How many can schedule enough vacation time simultaneously to wage a revolution?

People will wage the revolution w/ whatever free time they have, some more than others as able.

Nicely done. Problem - solution. The rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela shined a kind of miraculous light in the era following the Cold War, obscured of course by corporate media. The rise of renewable energy in Europe as a citizen's movement is another movement worth learning from. Moreover, much has already been done since the founding of the co-operative business model by workers in the UK in the 1840s, and a visionary mayor and farmers in Germany in the 1850s. Social movements in the US and around the world have made all kinds of efforts, with the World Social Forum and UN Global People's Forums serving to inspire movements like Solidarity Economics. Fair Trade and organic food certification are two of my favorite movements, although organics can be differentiated into those by corporations and smaller farmer efforts like Organic Valley in the US.

All of which is utterly irrelevant to the masses of jobless poor in the US today. I do know that the liberal bourgeoisie are intrigued by the romanticism of co-ops, etc., and that's nice, but hardly relevant to the masses.

check out Win-Co, a worker collective grocery chain that is spreading, thriving, hiring.

Nice. And that reminds me of Publix Supermarkets, employee-owned and with an organic division.....the largest employee-owned business in the US, I recall, more than 200,000

Better ask the key masses first. And please inform any that aren't informed about Green Worker Co-ops South Bronx based green social entrepreneurship training, affiliated with the upstart US Federation of Worker Co-ops. That coincidentally rose at the same time as Solidarity Economics in the World Social Forum.

My long-standing food co-op in Brooklyn, NY supported two efforts in lower income neighborhoods that ultimately failed. Additional co-ops have been founded in other neighborhoods of different income levels more recently. Given that lower income neighborhoods are chock full of upstart churches, saying something is "hardly relevant" is not a simple subject. Sufficient orientation to overcome problems of literacy, indoctrination, and practical considerations is more like it.

And how would that have sat with Chicago's New Era Windows Co-op introduced in Moore's Capitalism? By all rights, they should be defunct. They are now worker-owned, in no small part to Avi Lewis's Workers World co-op financing.

The Jackson Rising co-op movement might have a problem with that as well there in Mississippi. Hey, but maybe I misunderstood you.

Then there's the Arizmendi Bakery Co-ops that have multiplied and organized an association in the Bay area there in Cal. There's a video out and I saw some participants that were distinctly not whitebread Americans.

I'm sorry, I almost left out the Evergreen co-op project in Cleveland that Gar Alperovitz talks about so much. That would have been ridiculous. And that People's Grocery thing in Oakland. But now I'm just gloating.

Too bad Hugo Chavez became just another failed socialist wannabe dictator, and his pathetic moron of a successor Maduro is even worse.

Oh, c'mon. The Venezuelan economy shrank by "only" 10% last year, inflation was not a great deal more than 200 or 300%, and street crime, while it was far worse than ever, still provide a means of securing the diapers and toilet paper you couldn't find on store shelves. It's a socialist nirvana!

And that would be your revisionist history, as if funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, which sounds less offensive than the other covert op services. Yeah, boy, and look at the US, just a real gem of democracy that will never be taken over by oligarchies. Right.

Fortunately, we don't all toe the NY Times line. Funny how the UN reports indicated that Chavez reduced poverty more than any country. Moreover, Bart Jones book was not CIA funded, and reveals clearly how an astute and humane activist like Chavez could and should have incentivized co-ops to replace other strategic sectors of the oligarchic economy. Maduro may not be as astute as Chavez was, but is certainly not facing less of an onslaught.

no one is buying your peddling of the msm wmds(weapons of mass distraction) propaganda.