And what about the crimes of capitalism? Barry James Mitchell, 4 February 2014 In response to Mr Jack Bloom's submission, one should be very weary of reading into individual assessments of an ideology based on generalities and subjective uninformed blurbs. Mr Bloom is a DA leader in the Gauteng Legislature, the contradictions and amateur nature of his statement as an individual representing the DA is rather disconcerting but not surprising. Initially Jack Bloom presents his epiphyte of disdain for Communism by referring to the anniversary of the death of Joe Slovo. Mr Bloom fails to mention the fact that this prominent South African Communist, whom he relishes at admonishing throughout his article, fought in the Second World War as a volunteer, was the Commander-in-Chief of MK, was a key role-player in the pre-democratic breakthrough negotiations and also served as the Minister of Housing under Nelson Mandela's presidency. Mr Bloom assists more progressive thinkers in mentioning Slovo's discussion document; "has socialism failed?", this frank assessment of the challenges of socialism and its manipulation by demagogues is a rarity in dealing with ideological matters of fact. What concerns me about Mr Blooms rant, but does not surprise me, is the narrow interpretation of facts when highlighting an ideology, especially considering the fact that Mr Bloom is a member of a pseudo-liberal organisation. Mr Bloom fails to mention the fact that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of innocent people have been murdered as a result of pursuing the ideals of a free market ideology. In the guise of protectors of democracy and global peace, western states such as the US & Britain have been relentless in their advance of the accumulation of the Middle East & surrounding areas' oil reserves, mass murdering millions of civilians. That is just in the past 10 years. What about the countless interventions and subversive intrusions in South America, South East Asia and Africa? To further illustrate Mr Blooms distorted and blinkered perception of Communism and global occurrences in general, he makes the following assertion: "The core reason is that "public ownership" inevitably means state control, which inevitably curbs individual freedom. People are unlikely to challenge authority if the state controls their livelihood." Public ownership might be misconstrued by individualist accumulators safeguarding their exploitative corporations, but public ownership in essence and in many practical examples has been exactly that; owned by the public, for public benefit. Whether public ownership is in the form of cooperatives, community owned or managed projects or in numerous other global state owned enterprises that are in reality benefiting the public and/or workers. I fail to understand Mr Bloom's logic in claiming that individual freedoms will be curbed by state or public ownership. How is this possible when the public, workers or community own the means of production? And therefore determine their individual yet collective livelihood. If Mr Bloom was not so blinded by his conservative blinkers he would understand that public/state ownership is essentially owned by a public, majoritarian state, hence the ideal of the dictatorship of the proletariat (which I'm sure makes Mr Bloom and many of his like-minded adherents quiver). Communists have indeed publicised the fact that there have been challenges, failures and manipulations of the ideology. I have yet however, to witness global free market devotees admit to the exploitative failures of rampant capitalism, its effect on the environment and the millions of global innocent citizens murdered in the advance of accumulation. Perhaps a discussion document will emanate from the conclusion of the World Economic Forum in Davos on "Has Rampant, Capitalist Exploitation Failed in our objective of Dominating Sovereign States?", or perhaps the dignified dignitaries in attendance might be too busy carving up the globe and allocating labour to their corporations. . Barry James Mitchell is 2nd Deputy Provincial Secretary of the SACP, Western Cape From: http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=5 32452 <http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid= 532452&sn=Detail&pid=71616> &sn=Detail&pid=71616 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . 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