Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Inca

2007-07-28T03:19:24Z

Pixee4: The Inca are not a 'vanished' civilization, and I thought people should know that.

The '''Inca''' civilization, which lasted from roughly 1250 to 1548 AD, was the largest empire of [[Columbian Exchange|Pre-Columbian]] [[Americas|America]] until it was destroyed by Spanish imperialists. The Inca are best known for their highly advanced road system, surprisingly accurate medical knowledge, and [[calendar]]. The capital of the empire was in [[Sacsayhuamán]], near [[Cuzco]] in modern [[Peru]]. The most recognizable Inca city, however, is [[Machu Picchu]], located high in the Peruvian [[Andes]].

The descendents of the Inca are the Kichwa(Quechua) and Aymara ethnicities. There are approximately 10 million Kichwa living in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, making them by far the largest surviving indigenous American ethnicity. (The Maya are next with just over 6 million.) Kichwa was the official language of the Inca Empire. The largest Inca minority was the Aymara, who number around 1.6 million in the same region. These two groups and several smaller ones are at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder in the Andes and are involved in frequent agitations and uprisings in the region, particularly Bolivia. These problems stem from the United States' War on Drugs, which harms traditional ''cocaleros'' (coca growers, who sell mainly non-narcotic coca leaves for energy and medicine), and failed free trade policies imposed by the World Bank and IMF. These latter produce problems such as runaway inflation on gas prices and water privatization, which in turn raise prices to unaffordable levels. Inevitably, riots and occupations follow. Earlier uprisings were targeted against Spanish rule and impressment for mining.

[[category:history]]
[[category:Peru]]

Leftist

2007-07-28T02:45:54Z

Pixee4: context

The term '''Leftist''' refers to someone on the 'left' side of the [[political spectrum]] who generally supports varying degrees of social, political, or economic change designed to promote the public welfare, variously in the guises of social democracy, liberalism, or the several strains of socialism and communism. It may also be applied to those who oppose conservative politics.

The word 'liberal' is often used in the US to mean 'leftist'. But this is inconsistent with the original meaning of the word [[liberal]].

During the [[Reign of Terror]] of the early [[Enlightenment]], the left attempted a dechristianization movement to replace the "reactionary" worship of God and replace it with the worship of national patriotism, or the ''Patrie''. Many churches were closed and converted into Temples of Reason. <ref>John Hall Stewart, ''A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution'' (Macmillan, New York, 1963). </ref>

Anarchist thinker Michael Bakunin critiqued prominent leftist theoritician [[Karl Marx]] in 1873 with these words,

:"..if the [[proletariat]] is to be the ruling class, over whom is it to rule? ...the peasant "rabble" who, as it is known, does not enjoy the sympathy of the Marxists who consider it to represent a [[Racism|lower level of culture]], will probably be ruled by the factory proletariat of the cities. Or, if this problem is to be approached [[Nationalism|nationalist]]ically, the [[Slavs]] will be placed in the same subordinate relationship to the victorious German proletariat in which the latter now stands to the German bourgeoisie." <ref>Michael Bakunin, ''Statism and Anarchy'', (1873), in Sam Dolgoff, ''Bakunin'' On Anarchy, (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1972), p. 330.</ref>

==State planning==

In the United States men such as [[Eugene Debs]], Maurice Hilquit and [[Norman Thomas]] believed they could, by a gradual series of alterations in the structure of society, create a truly democratic world in which all people would enjoy not merely freedom, but propserity. They believed this could not be achieved under the system of [[private property]] and [[profit]]. They advocated a gradual acquisition by the State of all the great utilities, transportation, communication, and basic industries such as coal, oil, and steel.

The dream of a cooperative commonwealth in which all would share equally in the propserity created by an economic system owned by the people was the vision of [[Socialist]]s. This in theory would end [[poverty]], [[ignorance]] and [[crises]]. The idea was to [[nationalize]] banks, railroads, all means of transport, mines, and a few basic industries, but leave some factories, stores, farms, entertainment industries, etc., in the hands of private owners. The government would assume responsibility for making the economy work, for the wellbeing of all the citizens, their protection from the hazards of life, poverty, sickness, and old age. To make the whole economy work continuously without occasional [[Great_Depression#Boom_or_Bust_Cycles|boom-bust]] cycles, the government would create [[economic planning]] boards which would continuously study and observe the functioning of the economic system and make plans covering production, prices, distribution, financing, profits, [[wages]], hours, etc. Thus there would be Planned Capitalism, with the State responsible for the planning and for ensuring the carrying out of its plans through great government bureaus armed with the necessary powers to enforce compliance.

In the 1920s [[Mussolini]] had adopted the Planned Capitalist State. And he gave it the name "[[fascism]]". [[Hitler]] adopted the same idea and called it [[National Socialism]]. Mussolini and Hitler both realized that a system which imposes a vast complex of decrees upon a people while subjecting them to confiscatory [[tax]]es to support the immense activities of the government cannot be operated except by an [[Absolutism|absolute]] government that has the power to enforce compliance. Prior to [[World War II]], this tpye of system had spread all over Europe. For nearly 70 years all the countries in Europe, with Germany in the lead, had been experimenting with the idea of the [[welfare state]], the State which attempts to provide its people with jobs and protection from all the hazards of life.

This system is the direct opposite of [[classical liberalism]]. It is the negation of the classical liberal philosophy which for decades has been fighting to emancipate the people from the tyranny of the all powerful State. During the [[New Deal]] this doctrine became known in America as "liberalism". Liberals did not admit that it implied the restoration to the State those very powers which had been stripped from the State as the means of giving people freedom. They called it the [[Planned Economy]]. But it was and is fascism by whatever name it is known. Incrementally the government must be made stronger, and the rights of the citizens reduced.

==Modern leftists==

Modern leftists in the United States have come under increasing criticism as advocates of thought control. <ref>[http://www.humanevents.com//article.php?id=20562 Leftist Thought Control], David Limbaugh, ''Human Events'', 05/04/2007. </ref> Author David Limbaugh cites, "Consider the subjects of [[evolution]], [[global warming]], [[gay agenda|special rights for homosexuals]] and [[abstinence]] education. Consider efforts of the left to [[Fairness Doctrine|silence conservative talk radio]]. Consider the mainstream media's arrogant denial of its transparent [[liberal bias]], pronouncing itself to be above politics and inherently objective and its critics somehow skewed....Consider the leftist refrain that [[red state]] conservatives do not merely possess a different world view, but are not part of the 'reality-based community.'"

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
* [http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/LWC20.html V. I. Lenin, ''"Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder''] (1920) V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, English edition, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 2.

[[category:politics]]

American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council

2007-07-28T00:22:30Z

Pixee4: New page: American Indian Movement is a Red Power organization. Its stated goals include fostering a sense of unity and solidarity among American Indian and First Nation groups in the United States...

American Indian Movement is a Red Power organization. Its stated goals include fostering a sense of unity and solidarity among American Indian and First Nation groups in the United States and Canada, respectively, enforcing treaty rights that up until the 1970s had been ignored, and defending Native people against further depredations by the white government and population.

AIM was founded in Minneapolis in 1968 by two urban Ojibwas, Dennis Banks and George Mitchell. It drew inspiration both from the Civil Rights movement of the previous decade and fishing rights protests in the Pacific Northwest earlier in the 1960s.

AIM is best known for its confrontational protest tactics including:

The occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969 to 1971

The occupation of a replica of the '''Mayflower''' in 1970

The occupation of Mount Rushmore in 1971

The occupation of Gordon, Nebraska in 1972

The Trail of Broken Treaties and the subsequent occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in 1972

The occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973

These protests generally had one of two goals: to enforce treaty rights, or to raise awareness of an Indian presence or contribution to history. One landmark victory that considerably raised the stature of AIM among American Indians was the occupation of Gordon, Nebraska in 1972, which eventually forced the authorities to bring the murderers of Lakota Raymond Yellow Thunder to justice.

Coinciding with the Wounded Knee occupation was a state of civil war on Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation that pitted the government of Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson and his Guardians of the Oglala Naion (GOONs) paramilitary force against a coalition of American Indian Movement members and traditional Lakotas. The conflict lasted from 1972 to 1976 and eventually drew in Wilson's allies in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the FBI under both the COINTELPRO and Operation Garden Plot programs. Wilson's election was highly disputed (he used violence to prevent voting) and eventually over 50 people were killed, mostly AIM and traditionalists but also two FBI agents who died in an FBI-instigated shootout. AIM member Leonard Peltier was convicted of the shootings in a controversial case where evidence used to acquit his two co-defendents was barred from being introduced in his defense. He has become an international cause celebré. FBI Agent David Price, who directed the operation and is accused of personally murdering Anna Mae Aquash Pictou (a Miqmaq AIM member at Wounded Knee) and cutting off her hands to intimidate AIM, has never been brought to justice.

Less dramatically, AIM is also infamously known for its opposition to the use of American Indian characters and imagery in college and professional sports. AIM has also challenged Ward Churchill's claims and accused him of being an FBI infiltrator of AIM under COINTELPRO. Less well known are its community powwows, its sponsorship of cultural events, and its crucial aid in the rebuilding of the Houma reservation in southern Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

AIM is strongest among the Lakota, Ojibwa, Navajo, and other tribes of the Plains, North Woods, and Pacific Northwest that have assimilated badly if at all and retained many aspects of traditional culture. Conversely, it is weakest among the tribes removed to Oklahoma (in particular the unfortunately named "Five Civilized Tribes"), the Pueblos, and other tribes that have either acculturated or accomodated to being surrounded by whites. The organization devolved into local autonomous groups in the late 1970s but retains international cultural exchange and solidarity across the United States and Canada. It has also reached out and created ties to indigenous people of Latin America.

Sources: American Indian Movement; Vine Deloria's ''Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence''; James Wilson's ''The Earth Shall Weep''; Leonard Peltier's ''My Life is My Sun Dance''