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Future “Who Wants a Vaccine?” Contestant

17 Jan, 6 tweets, 2 min read

January 17, 1961: Patrice Lumumba, the first democratic leader of the Congo, is murdered by the Belgian government after being deposed in a CIA-backed coup. “Without dignity there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence there are no free men.”

“The Soviet Union is the only great power whose position has reflected the will and wishes of our people. Therefore the Soviet Union proves to be the only great power that has supported the Congolese people in their struggle from the beginning.”

You can’t understand Lumumba’s importance, or the size of his legacy given that he was only Prime Minister from June to September 1960, without understanding the horrors of Belgian colonialism (particularly during direct rule by Leopold II, responsible for 15 million deaths).

“The colonialists care nothing for Africa for her own sake. They are attracted by African riches and their actions are guided by the desire to preserve their interests in Africa against the wishes of the African people.”

“A minimum of comfort is necessary for the practice of virtue.”

“The day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history which will be taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations… Africa will write its own history and in both north and south it will be a history of glory and dignity.”

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More from @babadookspinoza

Future “Who Wants a Vaccine?” Contestant

@babadookspinoza

19 Jan

Giving poor people enough money to spend on things they WANT and not just what they need would be a huge boon for the economy, and the fact that the ruling class avoids this like the plague confirms that it’s not the economy they care about but *their* economic interests.

This is the main reason the stock market is usually talked about as if it simply IS “the economy.” In reality only the very rich own a significant number of stocks. The stock market has done very well during the pandemic, as have the rich, while the rest of us are in a recession.

The continued existence of the poor as a class is more useful to the rich in the form of an exploitable underclass than they would be if they were more active consumers. Having an army of the unemployed waiting at your door allows you to better exploit your employees.

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Future “Who Wants a Vaccine?” Contestant

@babadookspinoza

18 Jan

It’s wild how many political debates are just financially comfortable people who’ve never given much thought to what it’s like to be poor shouting over poor people who are trying to tell them about it.

If you’ve never tried making it work getting paid minimum wage you really can’t imagine the stress. If you’ve never skipped meals because you had to you don’t know what that feels like. If you’ve never worked a minimum wage job you can’t imagine the physical exhaustion.

You’re literally in survival mode all the time. If you’ve been middle class your whole life it’s an epistemological blank.

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Future “Who Wants a Vaccine?” Contestant

@babadookspinoza

17 Jan

I never hear concerns about how the McDonald’s CEO making $18,012,549 per year might drive up the price of a Big Mac.

That’s $8,659.88/hour.

I make a lot less than that so if you feel like it I’d be very grateful: ko-fi.com/babadookspinoza

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Future “Who Wants a Vaccine?” Contestant

@babadookspinoza

17 Jan

The Fight for 15 has been going on so long that $15/hr is no longer a living wage anywhere in the US.

The movement started in 2012. Through inflation alone the demand should be $17/hr.

Since this blew up and I make less than $15/hr I might as well put this here. ko-fi.com/babadookspinoza

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Future “Who Wants a Vaccine?” Contestant

@babadookspinoza

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The failure to identify the growth of fascism at home with US imperialism abroad will always prevent us from addressing either problem. They are the same phenomenon.

“I haven’t seen this kind of thing since I was in Baghdad doing it myself to the locals.” “These weapons belong in the streets of Kabul, not Washington, DC!”

Fascism is the suspension of liberal-democratic rights to extract more profits from workers and oppose proletarian power, usually coupled with white supremacy. That’s the essence of US imperialism as well: white supremacist violence to solidify a system of hyper-exploitation.

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