Re: the Kaiser

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Jim says:

> [was: Re: [PEN-L:9662] Re: Re: US Consumer Confidence index surges]
>
> Louis says:
> >  Luxemburg argued that the rising standard of living and democratic
> > openings were largely
> connected to the rise of imperialism which allowed the class
> struggle to be co-opted in
> countries like England and Germany. While the Kaiser was instituting
> the first social
> security system in modern times, he was at the same time turning the
> territory now called
> Namibia into a concentration camp, which served as a model for
> Hitler's camps years
> later.<
>
> two notes: (1) it's important to remember that at the same time the
> Kaiser stole the
> Social Democratic program -- and adapted it to his purposes -- he
> also banned the Social
> Democratic Party. Though this is hardly as bad as what he did in
> Namibia, it indicates
> that a simple "the Social Democrats were bought off" story is
> exactly that -- too simple.
> The Kaiser -- or rather, Bismarck, who was acting as the Kaiser's
> Dick Cheney -- used not
> only the carrot but the stick.

The most generous social democracy has not been found in the belly of
the beast -- once England, now the USA -- but in Scandinavia.
Imperialism has been costly to the working class of imperial hegemons.

Yoshie