Callaghan also became the creative source of sharp, catchy phrases for the premier to use against his political opponents. It’s a long list but includes some very effective ones: “death-adder unions – they strike first”; “when you go to the unemployment office tell ‘em Gough sent you”; “help Tom Burns fight air pollution – give […]
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Tags:conservatives·Lines·media·Politics·Queensland·Quotes·socialism
Rosa Luxemburg’s warning to Lenin that revolution can move swiftly from the dictatorship of a class to the dictatorship of a party, to be followed by the dictatorship of a committee of that party and eventually by the rule of a single man who will soon enough dispense with that committee.
Tags:communism·Democracy·Dictatorship·Politics·Process·socialism
when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.
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Tags:communism·Politics·progressive politics·socialism·Working Class
Then I’ll be all around in the dark – I’ll be ever’where—wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there… I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’—I’ll be in the way kids laugh when […]
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Tags:communism·Ideology·Politics·progressive politics·socialism
The danger of theoretical systems was something that Smith addressed with his own theory in part 6 of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. This section of the book was actually written after The Wealth of Nations. Moral Sentiments had been published in 1759 when Smith was teaching at Glasgow. But Smith revised it in 1789. […]
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Tags:communism·idealism·Ideology·means and ends·policy·Politics·pragmatism·socialism
In 1934 (Upton Sinclair) abandoned the Socialist Party and then entered the Democratic Party Primary for governor. He reasoned that a Socialist could not get elected; he had to win an election before he could enact a single policy. He based his campaign on a utopian novel he had just written, called, I, Governor of […]
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Tags:Campaigning·Politics·poverty·socialism
When World War II ended, another catastrophe struck Bombay in the form of the Bombay Rents, Hotel Rates, and lodging House Rates Control Act of 1947 – popularly known as the Rent Act. Bombay is still recovering from the legislative blast. Enacted in 1948, the act froze the rents on all buildings leased at the […]
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Tags:Ideology·markets·poverty·progressive politics·Public Choice·Regulation·Rent Seeking·socialism·The Left
In the post-Marxist age, we can no longer believe that redistribution solves anything, that making the rich poorer will make the poor richer. It is the death not just of ideology but of ideas. Nothing in the national debate has nay strong conviction. On the right, a vague belief in foreign investment; on the left, […]
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Tags:Ideology·India·poverty·progressive·progressive politics·socialism
The obsession with secrecy meant that men not directly involved in Operation Uranus had not been told about it until up to five days after the start. At first sight, the most surprising aspect of this time of triumph is the number of deserters from the Red Army who continued to cross the lines to […]
The party I loved instinctively was to betray the people who lived here, its natural supporters: ordinary people with suburban dreams who worked hard to improve their homes and their lives; to get gradually better cars, washing machines and televisions; to go on holiday in Spain rather than Bournemouth. These people wanted sensible, moderate policies […]
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Tags:Campaigning·extremism·Ideology·Labour·Nationalisation·Opposition·progressive politics·socialism