samedi 31 janvier 2009

More bad news

The depression has deepened and accelerated over, even, the last four weeks. Wall Street had its worse January on record (dramatic, if difficult to make sense of, but not good for the capdogs), the unrest in Greece is normalising, Eastern Europe is in open revolt, Iceland, Ireland French general strike and huge demonstration, strikes and occupation even in Britain.
One thing, the left won't have it its own way by any means. It would be tempting to think, just for a second, that economic collapse and political paralysis should automatically bring about revolution and socialism. It won't. One can be fatalist or determinist about our prospects, though. The fatalist says the bleeding man is "...going to die, let it happen, there's nothing you can do about it.", the determinist calls an ambulance and does the first aid. All life is work, so revolutions are no different. Agitate, infiltrate, organise...

The bad news is that, if reports can be believed, the US is getting close to reintroducing the draft. The new organisation is called the "Civilian Expeditionary Workforce". It's been set up to "be trained and equipped to deploy overseas in support of military missions worldwide, according to department officials.
The intent of the program “is to maximize the use of the civilian workforce to allow military personnel to be fully utilized for operational requirements,” according to a Defense Department statement."
That means the government can call up the unemployed. Is such thinking very far behind in the UK? The strike against that would be a strike to support unambiguously.