George Orwell: The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9628
Lenin: Marxist tactics consist in combining the different forms of struggle, in the skilful transition from one form to another, in steadily enhancing the consciousness of the masses and extending the area of their collective actions, each of which, taken separately, may be aggressive or defensive, and all of which, taken together, lead to a more intense and decisive conflict. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9634
Kim Jong Un: We recognize that the American police is one of many tactics used in a quest to control Black people that has been ongoing since before the founding of the United States. We express our solidarity with those in the black community who have been affected by police brutality. As a Nation, we are committed to working to dismantle systems of oppression and state-sponsored violence, especially when it is based on factors such as race and ethnicity. After 245 years of slavery, the African Americans deserve better treatment... https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9635
Nehru: Looking back at these 35 years or so, many figures stand out; but perhaps no single figure has moulded and affected and influenced the history of these years more than Marshal Stalin. He became gradually almost a legendary figure, sometimes a man of mystery, at other times a person who had a rather intimate bond not for a few but with a vast number of persons.He proved himself great in peace and in war. He showed an indomitable will and courage which few possess. Perhaps when history comes to be written about him, many things will be said and we do not know what varying opinions may be recorded in subsequent generations. But everyone will agree that here was a man of giant stature, a man who, such as few do, moulded the destinies of his age and although he succeeded greatly in war, a man who ultimately will be remembered by the way he built up his great country. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9636
Muammar Gaddafi: The West sees liberation movements as terrorist movements and that is why I am accused of supporting terrorism, because I support liberation movements. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9640
Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx: Without a conscious participation of the women in the class struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie you will never see, comrade Belfort Bax, the realisation of Socialism. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9641
R. Palme Dutt: Fascism is thus a form of dictatorship of monopoly capital. It is a form appearing at a late stage in monopoly capitalist development, during the general crisis of capitalism, after the international working-class revolution has opened, when all the economic, social and political contradictions of capitalism have become extremely acute. It is a form characteristic of a high degree of monopoly capitalist concentration, and greatly accelerates further concentration. It is a form characteristic of an advanced stage of the class struggle, when the old Liberal (or, in the post-war form, Social Democratic) methods of deception of the workers and attempted conciliation of the class struggle no longer prove adequate for the maintenance of capitalist supremacy, and it becomes necessary for the capitalist dictatorship to proceed to open repressive measures and terrorist methods. Fascism promotes in the economic field the close fusion of the State machine with the banks and trusts. Corresponding to this narrowed economic dictatorship, Fascism re-moulds the forms of the State to reflect the open political domination of the ruling oligarchy, restricts the sphere of Parliament, and seeks to subject all forms of political expression and organisation to unified governmental control. To curb the class struggle, Fascism abolishes the right to strike, establishes state regulation of wages, prices and labour conditions, and replaces independent working-class organisation by the " corporate system" or "labour front," the joint organisation of the workers, employers and state representatives under the control of the dictatorship of monopoly capital. For propaganda purposes all these measures are covered up under social demagogy about the " new type of (German, British, French, etc.) socialism, social security," community of interests, national unity," " abolition of capitalist exploitation," restriction of profits," " replacement of the profit motive by social service," recognition of the rights of labour," etc.-all which is contrasted with the sinister disruptive aims of " Marxism " or " Communism," which is presented as the enemy underlying every form of opposition or independent expression. Corresponding to the expansionist imperialist aims of the dominant sections of monopoly capital, Fascism organises the entire society for war, and freely uses the mask of " national patriotism " (alongside " religion " and " spiritual regeneration") to conceal its aims, together with denunciations of ' 'treachery' against all opposing forces. All these characteristics of Fascism are characteristics of the open, violent dictatorship of the most powerful, reactionary, chauvinist sections of monopoly capital. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9642
Lenin: The opportunists are bourgeois enemies of the proletarian revolution, who in peaceful times carry on their bourgeois work in secret, concealing themselves within the workers’ parties, while in times of crisis they immediately prove to be open allies of the entire united bourgeoisie, from the conservative to the most radical and democratic part of the latter, from the free thinkers, to the religious and clerical sections. Anyone who has failed to understand this truth after the events we have gone through is hopelessly deceiving both himself and the workers. Individual desertions are inevitable under the present conditions, but their significance, it should be remembered, is determined by the existence of a section and current of petty-bourgeois opportunists. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9643
Kim Il Sung: As the forces of capital are international, so the liberation struggle of the peoples is an international movement. The revolutionary movements in individual countries are national movements, and constitute part of the world revolution at the same time. The revolutionary struggles of the peoples in all countries have the relationship of supporting and complementing each other and join together in one stream of world revolution. The revolution which has emerged victorious should assist the revolutions of those countries which are not yet triumphant with its experiences and examples and render active support to the liberation struggle of the world's peoples with its political, economic and military power, while the peoples in the countries which have not yet won the revolutions should struggle more actively to defend the victorious revolutions of other countries against the imperialist policy of strangulation and hasten victory for their own revolutions. This is the law of the development of the world revolutionary movement and the excellent tradition already formed in the course of the people's liberation struggle. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9644
Kim Il Sung: Imperialism is a moribund force whose days are numbered, whereas the liberation struggle of the peoples is a new force which aspires for the progress of mankind. There may be uncountable difficulties and obstacles and various turns and twists on the way of the liberation struggle of the peoples, but it is the inevitable law of the development of history that imperialism is doomed to ruin and the liberation struggle of the peoples is sure to be crowned with victory. Though the imperialists headed by U.S. imperialism are running amuck in an attempt to check the surging liberation struggle of the peoples, it is nothing but the death-bed tremor of those who are condemned to destruction. The more frenziedly the U.S. imperialists act, the more difficult their position becomes. U.S. imperialism is going downhill and confronted with the fate of a setting sun. The U.S. imperialists will definitely be forced out of Asia, Africa and Latin America by the liberation struggle of the peoples. The great anti-imperialist revolutionary cause of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples is invincible. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9645
David Rockefeller: Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure--one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9646
David Rockefeller: We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a World Government.The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9647
Adam Smith: The rich...are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species. When Providence divided the earth among a few lordly masters, it neither forgot nor abandoned those who seemed to have been left out in the partition. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9650
Lenin: “Freedom” is a grand word, but under the banner of freedom for industry the most predatory wars were waged, under the banner of freedom of labour, the working people were robbed. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9651
Lenin: Socialism is not a ready-made system that will be mankind's benefactor. Socialism is the class struggle of the present-day proletariat as it advances from one objective today to another objective tomorrow for the sake of its basic objective, to which it is coming nearer every day. In this country called Russia, socialism is today passing through the stage in which the politically conscious workers are themselves completing the organisation of a working-class party despite the attempts of the liberal intelligentsia and the "Duma Social-Democratic intelligentsia" to prevent that work of organisation. The liquidators are out to prevent the workers from building up their own working-class party-that is the meaning and significance of the struggle between "the six and the seven". They cannot, however, prevent it. The struggle is a hard one, but the workers' success is assured. Let the weak and the frightened waver on account of the "extremes" of the struggle-tomorrow they will see for themselves that not a step further could have been taken without going through this struggle. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9652
Stalin: Petty ideas about a reconciliation of classes among the petty bourgeois do exist and are widespread. These ideas have acquired a special meaning with the fascists. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9653
Karl Marx: Only in community (with others has each) individual the means of cultivating his gifts in all directions; only in the community, therefore, is personal freedom possible. In the previous substitutes for the community, in the State, etc. personal freedom has existed only for the individuals who developed within the relationships of the ruling class, and only insofar as they were individuals of this class. The illusory community, in which individuals have up till now combined, always took on an independent existence in relation to them, and was at the same time, since it was the combination of one class over against another, not only a completely illusory community, but a new fetter as well. In a real community the individuals obtain their freedom in and through their association. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9654
Gaius Sallustius Crispus: But when sloth has introduced itself in the place of industry, and covetousness and pride in that of moderation and equity, the condition of a state is altered together with its morals; and thus authority is always transferred from the less to the more deserving. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9656
Lenin: Imperialism is the epoch of finance capital and of monopolies, which introduce everywhere the striving for domination, not for freedom. Whatever the political system, the result of these tendencies is everywhere reaction and an extreme intensification of antagonisms in this field. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9657
Eduardo Galeano: More than half a century after (V. I.) Lenin wrote his book (Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism) monopoly capitalism has shown that it has more than the proverbial nine lives; and imperialism, its logical extension, has survived with unsuspected vigor, centered now around a single great power. But the instruments of this universal system of exploitation are no longer simply the ones Lenin described. Imperialism has evolved and has become more effective, both in robbing as well as in killing. It has polished its methods, extended into new areas, and constructed new models of domination that were unknown on the eve of the Russian Revolution. In this era of electronic computers, the "multinational" corporations do not count their profits on their fingers, to put it mildly The new type of imperialism does not make its colonies more prosperous, even though it enriches its "enclaves"; it does not alleviate social tensions, but on the contrary sharpens them; it extends poverty and concentrates wealth; it takes over the internal market and key parts of the productive apparatus; it appropriates progress for itself, determines its direction, and fixes its limits; it absorbs credit and directs foreign trade as it pleases; it does not provide capital for development but instead removes it; it encourages waste by sending the greatest part of the economic surplus abroad; it denationalizes our industry and also the profits that our industry produces. Today in Latin America the system has our veins open as it did in those distant times when our blood first served the needs of primary accumulation for European capitalist development. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9658
Harpal Brar: These are the only two paths – capitalism or socialism. There is no third alternative. All hopes of a third alternative, which will guarantee the realisation of peaceful and harmonious development without class struggle, through the forms of capitalist ‘democracy’, ‘planned capitalism’, etc. are nothing but pipe dreams. These dreams of peaceful development are merely the echo of past conceptions, belonging to the era of liberal free-competition capitalism, an era which disappeared a whole hundred years ago, never to return. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9659
Stalin: Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division; and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote9660
My apologies if this is inconvenient, I opted to do it on shorter notice without a set hour because (a) there's not a lot of activity on the server and (b) I'm really impatient.
I'm doing a hardware upgrade that requires rebooting the network storage backend which will bring down everything for a short time. It should take well under 30 minutes to do the hardware swap and most of the downtime is just going to be the database starting back up (which often takes in the range of another 30 minutes).
As part of this I'll also be deploying some software updates that require a reboot to take effect.
