" Uncle Bernie " is nice but the Democratic Party is nasty

Folly of Britain bombing Syria

  I  am a democratic Socialist myself and a registered Democrat in Rhode Island. I am what I call a " critical supporter " of the Bernie Sanders campaign. I love the way Sanders has at least detoxified the word SOCIALISM. I am very wary of his embrace of the Democratic Party establishment. His mild mannered background as a " socialist " tells me that Bernie will indeed get out the voters in the 2016 election- but then direct them toward Harpy Hillary -the ideal presidential candidate to start World War III and end social security and welfare as we know it - with the blessing of the Ayn Rand Republican clique.
The American working class badly needs a THIRD INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY. I can't blame them when they vote for the lesser evil candidates-holding their noses.
In fact, Ralph Nader is in many ways more militant and radical in his Green Party than Bernie in the Democratic Party.
Sadly, too many left-wing parties like the American Communist Party and the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party have faded into political oblivion or personality cult weirdness. I was once a presidential elector here for both these " far-left " parties.
But the socialist DREAM will never die !
 

Radical Ron was a presidential elector for the Communist Party

Malcolm X 's 1964 comments on " terrorist type tactics " " in Algeria still relevant today

  I had no problem opposing U.S. imperialism in my younger days. I myself gloated when Vietnam fell to the Vietnamese .But " no devil ever cut off its own claws " ( Trotsky ? ) .
A connection between foreign and domestic policy was perceived by the still relevant American black leader Malcolm X back in 1965  :
Having visited Algiers in Algeria, he says : " They showed me the conditions they lived under while they were colonized by these people from Europe.And they also showed me what they had to do to get these people off their back.... oppression made them brothers, exploitation made them brothers,degradation made them brothers....humiliation made them brothers . They lived in a police state .Algeria was a police state. Any occupied territory is a police state; and this is what Harlem is...the police in Harlem,their presence is like occupation forces,like an occupying army ...... "
" These same conditions that prevailed in Algeria that forced the people ,the noble people of Algeria, to resort eventually to the terrorist type tactics.... these same conditions prevail today in every Negro community " ( " The Harlem Hate Gang Scare " , page 66, " Malcolm X Speaks " )
Malcolm X was certainly not a terrorist himself nor was he advocating  terrorism here. He was just explaining it - which the capitalist news media - even NPR - never does, never humanizes THE ENEMY.
I guess it is a lot easier to mass murder CARTOON villains.

Malcolm X visiting the Middle East-still learning !

Retired " Dancing Cop ", Tony Lepore, must know about discrimination against Italian Americans

Riots on Federal Hill 100 years ago, by Scott Molloy

• in this conversation

⬇ Drag and drop your images here to upload them.

Retired cop Tony Lepore

•   A nice enough guy and a gifted street entertainer, " The Dancing Cop ", Tony Lepore, goofed in public relations skills. He set up a dichotomy between showing ordinary respect for police officers and the feelings of working class black people expressed by the " Black Lives Matter " chant.But punitive " political correctness " will not improve race relations in this country. It is the rather privileged black bourgeoisie who keep seeing malignant racism everywhere- and then search out rather innocuous individuals -like Tony Lepore- for the pillory of public condemnation. And the black bourgeoisie are only appeased by ever more pandering to the black bourgeoisie. The Obama years have been a golden age for them - but not for working class blacks like that young woman employee at that Dunkin Donuts in Federal Hill , Providence.
• Coming from an Italian American background , retired cop Tony Lepore must know about discrimination against Italian Americans in the not so distant past. Not for nothing there were active Italian-American anarchists on Federal Hill . Recall the Sacco and Vanzetti story ? Most Italian Americans are empathetic to ALL victims of social injustice.
  The notion that it is psychologically healthy for people to repress both thoughts and feelings, never say what they really feel, never say what they really think , is truly Orwellian thought control.
  The so called Left should take the lead in supporting free speech and rejecting the undemocratic notion of THOUGHT CRIME.
  TRUTH never harmed any truly progressive cause. And yes, BLACK LIVES MATTER !

• 

  In those days there were very organized anarchists on Federal Hill

Socialists should leave Catholic Church bashing to the New Atheists

Apart from insipid and soporific internal ideological quarrels in the socialist movement the only criterion for judging any self-proclaimed SOCIALIST is where he or she stands in the everyday class struggle. I have never in my life endeared myself to any ruling class elites.
I have no intention of voting for Bernie Sanders or suggesting that serious socialists support him. I extend " critical support " to ANY human being who talks sense and tells the truth about issues critical to working class activists.
If you think the Catholic Pope or some compromised capitalist politician can never talk sense or tell the truth , how can you ever reach out to ordinary working class people ?
I think all forms of identity politics should be avoided in the socialist movement.
Is SOCIALIST a patented brand name- YOUR intellectual property ?
Should not the working class pass final judgment on its own would be voices and leaders ?
Also, I will leave Catholic Church bashing to the New Atheists. There are few " socialists " among them. They prefer Ayn Rand to Marx, Lenin, or Trotsky. Prove me mistaken here ?

Serious socialists should avoid this silly " War on God "