By Staff Writer Caleb T. Maupin
There are many places that college students go to escape from the stressful world of books, grades, and bleeding-heart socialist professors. Some will backpack through Europe, others will celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or spend their spring break highly intoxicated and “going wild.”
But the College Republicans of Baldwin-Wallace are going to a place not many college-aged youth plan on going to--at least happily, that is.
Yes, the Baldwin-Wallace College Republicans are going to Iraq.
“I’ve heard about it on TV,” said one of them. “Every time I see it, I get so much more excited about going.”
When asked what she looked forward to, she responded, “Everyone I see on the news talking about Iraq looks so happy. They are always showing smiling kids going to school for the first time. I mean, in Iraq, when you vote you get to finger paint! How cool is that!”
When asked about the reports of death and violence, she went on, “Whenever there is any bad news about Iraq, it’s just liberal propaganda. I mean, look at all these ‘explosions.’ What do we do in this country to celebrate our freedom? Hello! Fireworks! The Iraqis are so happy that George Bush liberated them they are setting off fireworks all the time. We should have a blast. Imagine the Fourth of July at least 90 times every day!”
Another leader of the College Republicans made it clear that he would be paying his own way to Iraq, and not doing any military service while there.
“If I join the military and go to Iraq, the government has to pay for it. That’s called Socialism. I’m going to enjoy this democratic tropical paradise with the money my grandfathers’ fathers’ father earned. That’s the American way!”The College Republicans plan on having a topless dance party in Fallujah, as well as a hotdog roast in one of the large Mosques in the Sunni triangle.
“We’re going to show the Iraqis some of the things they can do now that they are free. They will probably join us in our celebrations of their new freedoms. I can’t wait to see the excited looks on their faces. They have been dreaming about seeing someone do the vicious Anti-Islamic things we’ve planned on doing for years.”
When asked if they thought the Iraqis would be offended they answered, “It’s only a small minority of people in Iraq that don’t love absolutely everything about the West. I heard on the Rush Limbaugh show that they are considering renaming Iraq ‘the new America.’”
When asked if there were concerns about being hurt on their visit, they responded, “When we turn on FOX news, we never see any rotting bodies, or dead children, or hospitals being bombed, or people being tortured. So, obviously it isn’t happening. The trip should be great. Now sign up for it if you don’t hate freedom!”
The College Republicans will have a sign-up sheet for the trip, and other Republican literature, in the Union during meal times.
“M”
REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF MAELSTROM STAFF
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
The War in Iraq: What does Marx have to do with it?
By Caleb T. Maupin
Berea, Ohio
Published Sep 12, 2007 11:26 PM
Fred Goldstein, a leader of Workers World Party, spoke at a meeting at Baldwin-Wallace College on Sept. 7 on “The War in Iraq: What does Marx have to do with it?”
“Marxism is a science and a method. Some in academia see it as something interesting to study and write about. We in Workers World Party see it as a tool in the hands of the oppressed.” Goldstein, standing in front of a huge banner reading, “Stop the War,” told an audience of Cleveland Area Activists and Baldwin-Wallace Students.
The FIST (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together) club of Baldwin-Wallace College sponsored the event, with the space provided by the political science department.
Attendees of the event included people from the World Can’t Wait organization, supporters of the International Bolshevik Tendency, students from Case Western Reserve University, as well as Workers World Party and FIST members, and B-W students and faculty.
Goldstein’s talk laid out the basic reasons that Marxists are in opposition to the war in Iraq. He covered the history of bloody U.S. interventions on behalf of the bankers and capitalist class, as well as the hypocrisy of notions such as a “war on terror” and a “war for democracy.”
After the speech, several of the attendees had lengthy discussions with Goldstein over dinner at a local all-night restaurant. Some said they would step up anti-war activities during September, when there are actions planned for Washington, D.C.
Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Berea, Ohio
Published Sep 12, 2007 11:26 PM
Fred Goldstein, a leader of Workers World Party, spoke at a meeting at Baldwin-Wallace College on Sept. 7 on “The War in Iraq: What does Marx have to do with it?”
“Marxism is a science and a method. Some in academia see it as something interesting to study and write about. We in Workers World Party see it as a tool in the hands of the oppressed.” Goldstein, standing in front of a huge banner reading, “Stop the War,” told an audience of Cleveland Area Activists and Baldwin-Wallace Students.
The FIST (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together) club of Baldwin-Wallace College sponsored the event, with the space provided by the political science department.
Attendees of the event included people from the World Can’t Wait organization, supporters of the International Bolshevik Tendency, students from Case Western Reserve University, as well as Workers World Party and FIST members, and B-W students and faculty.
Goldstein’s talk laid out the basic reasons that Marxists are in opposition to the war in Iraq. He covered the history of bloody U.S. interventions on behalf of the bankers and capitalist class, as well as the hypocrisy of notions such as a “war on terror” and a “war for democracy.”
After the speech, several of the attendees had lengthy discussions with Goldstein over dinner at a local all-night restaurant. Some said they would step up anti-war activities during September, when there are actions planned for Washington, D.C.
Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Good Morning, Mao Zedong
By Contributing Writer Caleb Maupin
From Maelstrom, the Bi-Weekly Satirical Magazine of Baldwin-Wallace College
www.maelstrombw.blogspot.com
“You can’t stop a train as it goes speeding down the tracks / Yesterday is history and it’s never coming back.”
-“You Can’t Stop the Beat,” Hairspray
“However much reactionaries try to hold back the wheel of history, sooner or later revolution will take place and will inevitably triumph.”
-Mao Tse-Tung
Hairspray is refreshing in the world of cheap action movies, and patriotic war films. It is great to see a film that portrays a brave and defiant heroine, challenging the status quo and battling the powers that be. We are taught so well that things do not change. So many films, classroom recitations of the pledge allegiance, and high school social studies classes tell us that the “beat” has been stopped, and that capitalism and the current state of affairs, with all the inequality, selfishness, and greed, is “just the way things are”. But Hairspray tells a different story. The main character is Tracy, a young overweight teen who is obsessed with a Rock and Roll television program, and favors racial integration; a “chubby communist girl” as she is once described. Through a strange twist of fate, she winds up appearing on the show. She and her mother endure abuse because of their weight, in a society with unrealistic body standards and male dominance. In the end Tracy gives up the world of fame, in order to fight for her dream of blacks and whites dancing together on the program.
There is a final musical number, in which a crowd of youth, black and white, defiantly dance in front of a crowd of disapproving adults, and police officers. The message of their lyrics is simply “we are the future, and we refuse to let this oppression continue.” Defying her mother, a white girl kisses her black boyfriend on TV. Tracy’s overweight mother also gets up and dances saying “if you don’t like the way I look… I just don’t give a damn.” The message of “you can’t stop the beat” that history, like a “train” as the film’s lyrics say, is much in line with an ideology called “dialectical materialism”. This idea, coined by Karl Marx, is the belief that history is moving forward.
Marx believed the current system, in which the factories, farms, and banks are privately owned, would be overthrown, and we wouldmarch forward into future called “Socialism.” Under Socialism, the people would have control over the factories, farms, and banks, and they would strive and push for an ever brighter future.
All the revolutionaries of the past from Martin Luther King to Leon Trotsky were singing their own version of “you can’t stop the beat”.
Travolta’s acting leaves something to be desired, and the “he’s a guy in drag” humor can only be funny for a while. However the quality of the choreography adds to the films explosive power, and the liberating emotional message of teen rebellion and social progress.
It takes beautiful films, with astounding sound tracks like Hairspray to remind us that there is a better tomorrow on the horizon, and another world is possible, but as Tracy told her parents near the end of the film, “people like me have got to stand up and fight for it.”
When I heard that line, I applauded.
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE MAELSTROM STAFF
From Maelstrom, the Bi-Weekly Satirical Magazine of Baldwin-Wallace College
www.maelstrombw.blogspot.com
“You can’t stop a train as it goes speeding down the tracks / Yesterday is history and it’s never coming back.”
-“You Can’t Stop the Beat,” Hairspray
“However much reactionaries try to hold back the wheel of history, sooner or later revolution will take place and will inevitably triumph.”
-Mao Tse-Tung
Hairspray is refreshing in the world of cheap action movies, and patriotic war films. It is great to see a film that portrays a brave and defiant heroine, challenging the status quo and battling the powers that be. We are taught so well that things do not change. So many films, classroom recitations of the pledge allegiance, and high school social studies classes tell us that the “beat” has been stopped, and that capitalism and the current state of affairs, with all the inequality, selfishness, and greed, is “just the way things are”. But Hairspray tells a different story. The main character is Tracy, a young overweight teen who is obsessed with a Rock and Roll television program, and favors racial integration; a “chubby communist girl” as she is once described. Through a strange twist of fate, she winds up appearing on the show. She and her mother endure abuse because of their weight, in a society with unrealistic body standards and male dominance. In the end Tracy gives up the world of fame, in order to fight for her dream of blacks and whites dancing together on the program.
There is a final musical number, in which a crowd of youth, black and white, defiantly dance in front of a crowd of disapproving adults, and police officers. The message of their lyrics is simply “we are the future, and we refuse to let this oppression continue.” Defying her mother, a white girl kisses her black boyfriend on TV. Tracy’s overweight mother also gets up and dances saying “if you don’t like the way I look… I just don’t give a damn.” The message of “you can’t stop the beat” that history, like a “train” as the film’s lyrics say, is much in line with an ideology called “dialectical materialism”. This idea, coined by Karl Marx, is the belief that history is moving forward.
Marx believed the current system, in which the factories, farms, and banks are privately owned, would be overthrown, and we wouldmarch forward into future called “Socialism.” Under Socialism, the people would have control over the factories, farms, and banks, and they would strive and push for an ever brighter future.
All the revolutionaries of the past from Martin Luther King to Leon Trotsky were singing their own version of “you can’t stop the beat”.
Travolta’s acting leaves something to be desired, and the “he’s a guy in drag” humor can only be funny for a while. However the quality of the choreography adds to the films explosive power, and the liberating emotional message of teen rebellion and social progress.
It takes beautiful films, with astounding sound tracks like Hairspray to remind us that there is a better tomorrow on the horizon, and another world is possible, but as Tracy told her parents near the end of the film, “people like me have got to stand up and fight for it.”
When I heard that line, I applauded.
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE MAELSTROM STAFF
Friday, September 7, 2007
Battle Continues to Rage
Same-sex marriage rights won for an instant in Iowa
By Caleb T. Maupin
Published Sep 6, 2007 7:56 PM
The firmly established order represented by both the Republic and Democratic parties which says that lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people should not enjoy the same rights as others, was cracked for a brief moment in Iowa on Sept. 29.
A judge in Polk County declared same-sex marriage legal, overruling the reactionary law which the state legislature had passed, euphemistically called “in defense of marriage.”
As soon as the announcement was made, LGBT people began to pour into the county to receive marriage licenses.
Normally those licenses require a waiting period of three business days before the marriage can be performed. But Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan, students at the University of Iowa, didn’t wait. They found a loophole in which a couple can avoid the waiting period with permission from a judge.
District Judge Scott Rosenberg made it possible for the couple to become spouses in the complete legal sense. When asked if he was making a political statement by signing for the speedy matrimony, Judge Rosenberg told the Des Moines Register: “I think had I not signed it, that would be a political statement. If I’m going to grant it for couples that are male and female, then why all the sudden should I change because a couple is the same sex?”
But the powers that be soon stepped in. After 21 licenses were signed, the ruling was put on hold; more couples were turned away.
Gregory Mathis and his partner didn’t make it to Polk County quickly enough.
Mathis told the Cedar Rapid Gazette: “It’s very disappointing, but I guess it’s not new. In the 1970s I didn’t get custody of my child because I’m gay. In the 1980s I was excommunicated from my church because I’m gay. I’ve had a lot of walls thrown up at me because I’m gay, this is just one more.”
It is the movement in the streets that has won the LGBT progress that has been made, and it is in the streets that an end to state discrimination against same-sex couples will be won.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
By Caleb T. Maupin
Published Sep 6, 2007 7:56 PM
The firmly established order represented by both the Republic and Democratic parties which says that lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people should not enjoy the same rights as others, was cracked for a brief moment in Iowa on Sept. 29.
A judge in Polk County declared same-sex marriage legal, overruling the reactionary law which the state legislature had passed, euphemistically called “in defense of marriage.”
As soon as the announcement was made, LGBT people began to pour into the county to receive marriage licenses.
Normally those licenses require a waiting period of three business days before the marriage can be performed. But Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan, students at the University of Iowa, didn’t wait. They found a loophole in which a couple can avoid the waiting period with permission from a judge.
District Judge Scott Rosenberg made it possible for the couple to become spouses in the complete legal sense. When asked if he was making a political statement by signing for the speedy matrimony, Judge Rosenberg told the Des Moines Register: “I think had I not signed it, that would be a political statement. If I’m going to grant it for couples that are male and female, then why all the sudden should I change because a couple is the same sex?”
But the powers that be soon stepped in. After 21 licenses were signed, the ruling was put on hold; more couples were turned away.
Gregory Mathis and his partner didn’t make it to Polk County quickly enough.
Mathis told the Cedar Rapid Gazette: “It’s very disappointing, but I guess it’s not new. In the 1970s I didn’t get custody of my child because I’m gay. In the 1980s I was excommunicated from my church because I’m gay. I’ve had a lot of walls thrown up at me because I’m gay, this is just one more.”
It is the movement in the streets that has won the LGBT progress that has been made, and it is in the streets that an end to state discrimination against same-sex couples will be won.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Romanian villagers resist mine owners' plans
By Caleb T. Maupin
Published Aug 31, 2007 6:56 PM
Rosia Montana is a small village in the nation of Romania. At one time it had jobs for all. Healthcare was provided to all citizens free of charge. There was full employment and many in the town worked in the local mines. Life was not perfect, but the economy was planned under the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party and was not dictated by the profit motive.
This is not the case anymore. Now the people of Rosia Montana make an average of $3 a day and live in poverty. The main source of income for the people of Romania’s countryside is now tourism in the summer and what they can fish or grow for themselves in the other seasons.
In these circumstances, the Gabriel Mining Co. has decided to destroy the town of Rosia Montana and make it the site of a mile-wide gold mine.
Gabriel Mining, which is based in Toronto, Canada, is owned by Frank Timis. According to Dundee Securities, a financial securities firm, he was twice convicted of possessing heroin with intent to sell. (earthworksaction.org) But then Timis realized that, under the new capitalist system now installed in Eastern Europe, he could make more money exploiting natural resources than selling drugs. He now owns oil wells in Europe and some diamond mines in Africa—an industry known for its horrific conditions.
Timis has now turned his eyes toward the village of Rosia Montana. The soil there contains what is left of a gold vein that once went through the village. The project calls for destroying the houses, shops and schools so the mining company can use the deadly chemical cyanide to leach even little gold particles from the soil and turn it into jewelry for the wealthy of this world.
In the path of this proposed mine are not only 900 homes but also nine cemeteries and eight churches, motivating even the Catholic Church to raise its voice against this project.
The people of Romania witnessed an environmental and economic disaster in 2000 when cyanide used in mining spilled into the Danube River, killing all the fish in 250 miles of the river and its tributaries. Besides destroying an important food supply, the poisonous chemicals contaminated the drinking water of 2.5 million people.
The fish population of Romania has declined rapidly thanks to pollution caused by new privately owned industries. The Romanian government is considering banning fishing altogether, which would make it a crime to do what so many Romanians now have to do merely to survive.
The State Environmental Resource Center of Wisconsin says there is no safe way to use cyanide for mining. So what does Gabriel Mining propose to do with all the cyanide-laced waste it will produce from this operation? It will build a 1,482-acre “storage pond” in the nearby valley of Corna, where 196.4 million tons of cyanide-laced waste will be stored behind a cement dam.
In the new Eastern Europe, the ideology of communism is said to have been “refuted” and profit is now in command. There are no state committees made of workers and peasants to regulate the activities of mining companies. Those who would work in the proposed mine, if ever built, would have no say in how their workplace was run, or what actions the company would take.
Interviews with people in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are beginning to show that, while the socialized economy that once existed there may have been greatly flawed, the return of these nations to the rule of private ownership over society’s wealth has made life much worse for the majority of the people.
Now a coalition of groups seeks to make sure that Gabriel Mining’s plans for Rosia Montana are not put into practice.
“It’s been six years they’ve been terrorizing us into moving,” a resident of Rosia Montana told Businesswire. “But we didn’t go, and we won’t go.”
Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Published Aug 31, 2007 6:56 PM
Rosia Montana is a small village in the nation of Romania. At one time it had jobs for all. Healthcare was provided to all citizens free of charge. There was full employment and many in the town worked in the local mines. Life was not perfect, but the economy was planned under the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party and was not dictated by the profit motive.
This is not the case anymore. Now the people of Rosia Montana make an average of $3 a day and live in poverty. The main source of income for the people of Romania’s countryside is now tourism in the summer and what they can fish or grow for themselves in the other seasons.
In these circumstances, the Gabriel Mining Co. has decided to destroy the town of Rosia Montana and make it the site of a mile-wide gold mine.
Gabriel Mining, which is based in Toronto, Canada, is owned by Frank Timis. According to Dundee Securities, a financial securities firm, he was twice convicted of possessing heroin with intent to sell. (earthworksaction.org) But then Timis realized that, under the new capitalist system now installed in Eastern Europe, he could make more money exploiting natural resources than selling drugs. He now owns oil wells in Europe and some diamond mines in Africa—an industry known for its horrific conditions.
Timis has now turned his eyes toward the village of Rosia Montana. The soil there contains what is left of a gold vein that once went through the village. The project calls for destroying the houses, shops and schools so the mining company can use the deadly chemical cyanide to leach even little gold particles from the soil and turn it into jewelry for the wealthy of this world.
In the path of this proposed mine are not only 900 homes but also nine cemeteries and eight churches, motivating even the Catholic Church to raise its voice against this project.
The people of Romania witnessed an environmental and economic disaster in 2000 when cyanide used in mining spilled into the Danube River, killing all the fish in 250 miles of the river and its tributaries. Besides destroying an important food supply, the poisonous chemicals contaminated the drinking water of 2.5 million people.
The fish population of Romania has declined rapidly thanks to pollution caused by new privately owned industries. The Romanian government is considering banning fishing altogether, which would make it a crime to do what so many Romanians now have to do merely to survive.
The State Environmental Resource Center of Wisconsin says there is no safe way to use cyanide for mining. So what does Gabriel Mining propose to do with all the cyanide-laced waste it will produce from this operation? It will build a 1,482-acre “storage pond” in the nearby valley of Corna, where 196.4 million tons of cyanide-laced waste will be stored behind a cement dam.
In the new Eastern Europe, the ideology of communism is said to have been “refuted” and profit is now in command. There are no state committees made of workers and peasants to regulate the activities of mining companies. Those who would work in the proposed mine, if ever built, would have no say in how their workplace was run, or what actions the company would take.
Interviews with people in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are beginning to show that, while the socialized economy that once existed there may have been greatly flawed, the return of these nations to the rule of private ownership over society’s wealth has made life much worse for the majority of the people.
Now a coalition of groups seeks to make sure that Gabriel Mining’s plans for Rosia Montana are not put into practice.
“It’s been six years they’ve been terrorizing us into moving,” a resident of Rosia Montana told Businesswire. “But we didn’t go, and we won’t go.”
Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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