Rache,

I think you misunderstand socialism. The Labour Party reforms including pensions, working hours and unemployment benefits are social democratic in nature, not socialist.

Social democrats aim to reform capitalism democratically through state regulation and the creation of programs and organizations that work to ameliorate or remove injustices they see in the capitalist market system

Socialism in the traditional sense, aims to end the predominance of the capitalist system, or in the Marxist sense, aims to replace it entirely. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy
Posted by Paul.L, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 4:36:44 PM
Tut Tut Paul I it is you that that fails to understand SOCIAISM.
Labor is and should be Democratic Socialism not Social Democrat.
Stalinism was not Socialism it was State Capitalism or Nazism it was a Dictatorship from the top. Democratic Socialism is dictatorship from the bottom through committees the tail wagging the dog. The Community should decide, not those placed on a pedestal. Trade Unionism is Democratic Socialism which should be membership driven. The Labor Party should be membership driven whereby motions from committees set out the platform and the manifesto. Nationalised Industries our Utilities are there to serve the people not for profit but as a service. Utilities such as Electric, Gas, Railways, Minerals, Communications Hospitals, Schools should never be privatised once privatised the country is then on a slippery slope to disaster as there is never any accountabilty when greed and profit overides the needs of the consumer.

Socialism;
Government of the duds , By the duds , For the duds .

Polly: "Fraccy... your definition of 'Socialist' would make me one.

But it's not what I read in the Socialist Alternative web site."

A) It is not MY PERSONAL VERSION OF SOCIALSIM - it is one of the many and varied permutations that is actually in use by countries such as Holland, Sweden and other people friendly countries. Did you not read CJ's post? Also, Jesus has far more social tendencies you girl-smacking, dog-kicking, homophobic old man.

B) What part of the word ALTERNATIVE are you missing from the S.A. website? Just as there are extreme right wing groups like, Ku Klux Clan, the ironically titled National Socialists Party (Nazi Party), BTW is that the type of socialist you identify with? Well sit down and hold onto your socks there are extreme left wing socialist groups. And the one you have selected for this rant is not nearly as extreme as you are trying to prove.

http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=138&Itemid=126

I thought I'd print out their general principles behind your "terrorist" socialists:

"As Marx wrote:

"We are not among those communists who are out to destroy personal liberty, who wish to turn the world into one huge barrack...we have no desire to exchange freedom for equality. We are convinced that in no social order will freedom be so assured as in a society based upon communal ownership."

Now I am not for total government control over every human endeavour, anymore than I support total private monopolies - both are totalitarian.

To those of an open mind and relaxed disposition, check out the following:

Political conservatives more jumpy: study

At:http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/09/19/2368908.htm?site=science&topic=latest

Continued from above:

"Calm people tend to lean to the left side of politics, while those who react strongly to sudden noises and threatening images are more likely to support political conservatives, according to a US study.

"Individuals with measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism, and gun control," say the authors of the study.

The study which included researchers from Rice University in Texas, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Illinois, and the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, appears in the latest issue of Science.

Scary stimuli

Participants in the study were selected randomly by phone and screened to determine if they held strong political beliefs, regardless of which way they leaned.

Forty-six people who were retained for the study were then asked to fill out a questionnaire asking them, among other things, about their political beliefs.

Later, two common physiological reactions to a perceived danger, blinking and skin moisture levels, were measured after the participants had heard a sudden noise and seen threatening images - a large spider on a frightened person's face, a person with a bloody face, and a maggot-infested wound.

Those who supported conservative policies such as military spending, school prayer, and the death penalty reacted strongly to the stimuli, while people who backed liberal policies such as foreign aid, pacifism, gay marriage and abortion rights were calmer.

The researchers were unable to say whether political attitude causes the physiological reaction or vice versa.

But the link that the study suggests exists between the two traits "provides one possible explanation for both the lack of malleability in the beliefs of individuals with strong political convictions and for the ubiquity of political conflict," they say."

Far from being "seditious" lefties are cool.

Therefore, conservatives are simply a bunch of nervous nellies.

Who have already demonstrated on the OLO pages that they fear:

Dogs
Homosexuals
Assertive Women
Magpies
Having a good time
Alternative Rock 'n Roll

To all the way-cool lefties out there please feel free to add to the list of "what conservatives fear"....

Emissions trading
Multiculturalism
Social justice
MUSLIMS
SIKHS
Science
Aborigines

For starters...