Blogg: juni 2007
Pensjonsreformen - hvor kommer den fra?
European Round Table of industrialists er en samling folk fra de største europeiske selskapene (medlemslisten ligger på www.ert.eu og omfatter blant annet Eivind Reiten - se bildet - fra Hydro og folk fra BP, ThyssenKrupp, Nokia osv.). I deres rapport Pension reform fra 2000, kom de blant annet med følgende anbefalinger til pensjonsreform for europeiske land:
To Member States, the ERT Recommends:
- Prioritise public pensions spending so that it does what the private sector cannot do, for example, guarantee a basic standard of living to the elderly.
- Aim for a proper balance between public and private pension provision with a significant funded component.
Raise the normal retirement age in line with that of some other Member States, and provide incentives for older workers to stay in the workforce beyond normal retirement age, if workers wish to do so.
Stop adding to the costs of pensions (e.g. by automatically linking benefits to nominal wages or promoting early retirement).
Open up a market for private pensions and stimulate greater competition between private pension providers.
Remove any obstacle to investing in equities in line with the “prudent man” principle. Stocks have proved to be an essential part of pension portfolios in order for pension funds to guarantee a successful performance and a good return on pension plans.
Promote social partnership with employees and industry in the provision of retirement income.
Encourage individuals to take responsibility for saving for their retirement.
Provide tax incentives for employee contributions to company-sponsored schemes.
Take away fiscal barriers to private pension investment.
Monitor more closely and more accurately the prospective costs of public pension systems.
Tron Øgrim
Tron Øgrim døde nylig. Mange har skrevet minneord, både om sine personlige opplevelser med ham og mer generelt om hans betydning for AKP(ml) og for samfunnet generelt.
Jeg kjente ikke Tron, og møtte ham bare et par ganger. Mesteparten av den erfaringen jeg har fra møter med ham, er gjennom epostlista til RV (og nå Rødt) og artikler han skrev i Røde Fane og liknende for lenge siden.
Likevel var det veldig uvirkelig da jeg fikk nyheten og jeg ble ganske trist. AKP har vært veldig viktig for meg i mange år og den ideologien og de menneskene jeg har blitt kjent med gjennom partiet, har uten tvil preget livet mitt (som enn så lenge ikke er så langt). Sånn sett var Tron viktig for meg. Ved et par anledninger utvekslet jeg noen korte eposter med ham også. Noe av det mest slående, var hvor imotekommende han var. Han var nok veldig flink til å ta folk på alvor og få folk til å føle seg verdsatt.
I forbindelse med bortgangen fant jeg talen han holdt i Studentersamfunnet i 1970 om Proletariatets demokratiske diktatur. En ypperlig innføring i dette spørsmålet, krydret med konkrete erfaringer fra arbeiderklassens kamp. Fortsatt en tekst revolusjonære kan lære mye av. Jeg fant den her http://virksommeord.uib.no/taler?id=378, men også Tjen Folket har lagt den ut på sin nettside.
Utdrag fra programmet til RCP Canada
Jeg ser med skrekk at jeg ikke har skrevet noe her på en måned. Men jeg gidder ikke nå heller. Men for at noe skal skje i det minste, legger jeg ut et lite utdrag av programmet til Revolutionary Communist Party i Canada. Enjoy.
Utdrag fra kapittel 2 om Marxisme-leninisme-maoisme:
China, where a strong revolutionary movement had emerged, refused to follow the Russian revisionists. The revolution that took place in China avoided a good deal of errors committed in Russia. For example, instead of engaging in adventurist insurrections advocated by the Third International that had led to failure in the cities of Canton and Nanchang, the Chinese Communist Party, under the leadership of Chairman Mao, took up arms to fight a protracted people’s war. They had a method and a plan. In the Thirties, Chairman Mao had already criticized the shortcomings of the Russian revolution. One of his contributions was to point out the importance of the revolutionary role of the peasantry. Stalin had misjudged this question. In China the peasants played an important role in the revolutionary struggle and in building a new type of power.
The military science of the proletariat experienced a great leap forward thanks to the struggle of the Chinese and the 1949 revolution. Protracted people’s war, which includes the participation of the masses as being the mainstay of revolutionary warfare; the creation of red bases; the use of these bases for a social transformation that leads to the development of socialism; the command of the party over the armed forces, helped re-established the importance of revolutionary violence and thus helped fight pacifist and conciliatory thesis that prevailed in the international communist movement of the time.
Mao also developed the concept of “new democratic revolution,” resolving the problem of revolutionary strategy in countries oppressed by imperialism and the relations of democratic tasks and socialist ones during revolution.
Mao and the revolutionary leaders of the Chinese CP analyzed the nature of contradiction, the relation between theory and practice. Mao taught how to use this analysis to advance revolution. He elaborated the concept of “mass line.” This concept evolves from the notion that class struggle is what impels revolution. The scientific method of investigation was another of his ground breaking findings. Synthesizing the most correct ideas of the masses and setting the political line according to this work was another of his contributions. He added that once this line was set, the communists had to return to the masses with it in order to broadcast it, explain it, and check out its pertinence in practice.
But it is mostly the analysis of socialism that made the Chinese experience most conclusive. From it came the analysis of the contradictions in socialist society, criticism of the “theory of productive forces,” analysis of the role of the party and the two-line struggle within it arising after the conquest of state power as well as the fact that the bourgeoisie nestles in the new born socialist state. Mao Zedong perceived this danger and alerted the masses with the watch word “Bombard the headquarters” which he uttered in front of the red guards and the vanguard. This cry set off the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Thanks to this initiative, for more than a decade, the proletarian masses and the peasantry developed socialist practice and stalled the seizure of power by the bourgeoisie. The fact that this effort was aborted after Mao’s death demonstrates clearly the need to unleash several of these cultural revolutions during the period of socialist construction. The masses must actively partake in the dictatorship of the proletariat and prevent capitalism from reforming.
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is the most advanced state of revolutionary science. Maoism took root in Marxism-Leninism and went beyond some of its shortcomings and historical boundaries. This science must always be improved upon since society and the revolutionary experiences of the masses continuously undergo change. Parties and organizations that rely on MLM to lead revolutionary warfare contribute to its betterment. All in all, MLM is the only thing we have to make revolution.