First proposed in 1966 and named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.
Inspired by the August 1965 riots in the black district of Watts in Los Angeles (which erupted after police had used batons to subdue an African American man suspected of drunk driving), Cloward and Piven published an article titled "The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty" in the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation. Following its publication, The Nation sold an unprecedented 30,000 reprints. Activists were abuzz over the so-called "crisis strategy" or "Cloward-Piven Strategy," as it came to be called. Many were eager to put it into effect.
In their 1966 article, Cloward and Piven charged that the ruling classes used welfare to weaken the poor; that by providing a social safety net, the rich doused the fires of rebellion. Poor people can advance only when "the rest of society is afraid of them," Cloward told The New York Times on September 27, 1970. Rather than placating the poor with government hand-outs, wrote Cloward and Piven, activists should work to sabotage and destroy the welfare system; the collapse of the welfare state would ignite a political and financial crisis that would rock the nation; poor people would rise in revolt; only then would "the rest of society" accept their demands.
The key to sparking this rebellion would be to expose the inadequacy of the welfare state. Cloward-Piven's early promoters cited radical organizer Saul Alinsky as their inspiration. "Make the enemy live up to their (sic) own book of rules," Alinsky wrote in his 1989 book Rules for Radicals. When pressed to honor every word of every law and statute, every Judaeo-Christian moral tenet, and every implicit promise of the liberal social contract, human agencies inevitably fall short. The system's failure to "live up" to its rule book can then be used to discredit it altogether, and to replace the capitalist "rule book" with a socialist one.
The authors noted that the number of Americans subsisting on welfare -- about 8 million, at the time -- probably represented less than half the number who were technically eligible for full benefits. They proposed a "massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls." Cloward and Piven calculated that persuading even a fraction of potential welfare recipients to demand their entitlements would bankrupt the system. The result, they predicted, would be "a profound financial and political crisis" that would unleash "powerful forces … for major economic reform at the national level."
Their article called for "cadres of aggressive organizers" to use "demonstrations to create a climate of militancy." Intimidated by threats of black violence, politicians would appeal to the federal government for help. Carefully orchestrated media campaigns, carried out by friendly, leftwing journalists, would float the idea of "a federal program of income redistribution," in the form of a guaranteed living income for all -- working and non-working people alike. Local officials would clutch at this idea like drowning men to a lifeline. They would apply pressure on Washington to implement it. With every major city erupting into chaos, Washington would have to act.This was an example of what are commonly called Trojan Horse movements -- mass movements whose outward purpose seems to be providing material help to the downtrodden, but whose real objective is to draft poor people into service as revolutionary foot soldiers; to mobilize poor people en masse to overwhelm government agencies with a flood of demands beyond the capacity of those agencies to meet. The flood of demands was calculated to break the budget, jam the bureaucratic gears into gridlock, and bring the system crashing down. Fear, turmoil, violence and economic collapse would accompany such a breakdown -- providing perfect conditions for fostering radical change. That was the theory.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Subverting the Welfare State
Victims of Forced Marriage
Victims of forced marriageForced Marriage Unit
Who do we help?
Our Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is a joint-initiative with the Home Office. In 2009 FMU gave advice or support to 1682 cases. 86 percent of these cases involved females and 14 percent involved males.
If you are worried you might be forced into marriage or are worried about a friend or relative see information for victims, or call us on 0207 008 0151.
Our trained professionals offer confidential advice and assistance to:
Forced marriage e-learning trainingThe FMU has designed an e-learning training package to support professionals, including education, social and health care professionals, police officers, housing officers, the voluntary sector and others dealing with forced marriage in the course of their work. Using real life case studies, the training will give professionals a basic understanding of the key issues surrounding forced marriage, how cases can present and how to respond appropriately. This tool complements the multi-agency practice guidelines for professionals and should be read alongside the training.
- those who have been forced into marriage
- those at risk of being forced into marriage
- people worried about friends or relatives
- professionals working with actual or potential victims of forced marriage.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Ground Zero Mosque Receives Funding from Dutch
One of my readers in the Netherlands filled me in on where some of the financing came from that the terror-tied Imam Rauf used to buy an historic landmark and demolish it to build an Islamic supremacist mega mosque at Ground Zero: the Christian Democrat party in Holland.
Insane.
I am sure that I can say that on behalf of the 3,75 million voters in the Netherlands for PVV (The centre-right political party from Geert Wilders) I offer you and your friends an apologies for our present christian (CDA) government.This because they granted a million Euro ( US $ 1.290.000 ) to the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) from imam Faisal Abdur Rauf who intends to build a mosque next to the grounds of the 9/11 massacre the killed over 3000 innocent people. Don't ask me why.
Geert Wilders himself demanded today in our House of Parliament from our CDA Minister of Foreign affairs:
"Do you acknowledge that it is absurd -just at Ground Zero- to build a mosque, and that this is also an insult to (the next of kin of) the victims of 9-11? If not, why not?
So the Netherlands are aware of these building plans. But we don't understand how the US-(local) government can be so ignorant about the symbolic value for muslims to build an other house of worship to Alla, right there in front of this specific location.
Many of us are also aware of the many moslim 'enclaves' that already exist in the USA and we admire your personal efforts to stop Ground Zero to become one too.
Kind regards,
Peter Rissing
NC Devout Muslim Edits Al Qaeda Magazine
Religious liberty, right? This is the violent ideology that inspires jihad, as demanded in Islamic texts and the Koran.
N. Carolina Man Appears to Be Top Editor of Al Qaeda Magazine, U.S. Officials Say FOX News
A young North Carolina man who has moved to Yemen appears to be the editor-in-chief of a flashy new Al Qaeda magazine that features bomb-making instructions and an article by Usama bin Laden, U.S. officials said Monday.
Samir Khan, a 24-year-old American citizen who left the country last October, is believed to be the top editor of Inspire, a newly launched online magazine that seeks to recruit members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – the notorious terror group's Yemeni branch that is linked to the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound U.S. flight last Christmas.
The 67-page online publication, written in colloquial English and launched last month, features flashy graphics and punchy headlines like "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,” as well an article on global warming said to be written by Bin Laden.
Anwar Al-Awlaki, an America-born cleric linked to several attacks on the U.S., including the Foot Hood massacre and the failed Times Square car bomb plot, has held a prominent role with the site and was thought to be its key proponent. Al-Awlaki, designated by the U.S. Treasury Department on Friday as a key leader in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, recently posted an article on the site titled “May Our Souls be Sacrificed for You,” in which he called for the Seattle cartoonist who launched "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" to be executed.
But intelligence sources told Fox News on Monday that they believe Khan, a web-savvy Charlotte, N.C., man who reportedly moved to Yemen to study Arabic, may be the mastermind behind the site – which some in the intelligence community are calling Al Qaeda's most ambitious terrorist recruitment tool to date.
Muslim Cleric Teaches Not to Break Bones Beating Wife
"Wife beating according to the Koran,” a video of the teachings of a Muslim cleric in Bahrain in 2005, is a making the rounds again in the Middle East. “Breaking bones is not allowed.”
The Muslim teacher, Abdullah Aal Mahmoud, in what is apparently a mark of progress for Muslim women’s rights, states that the Quran teaches the limitations “if the husband wants to use beatings to treat is wife.”
Among other restrictions, Mahmoud rules wife-beating should never be done in front of children and he “must not cause bleeding or bruises to her body.” Breaking bones also is forbidden.
“If the husband violates these rules, he violates the rules of Allah. If she has been hurt, the husband is liable for what he has done because the woman is not his merchandise. He cannot do to her whatever he wants. Even if the wife forgives the husband, it does not mean that Allah will do the same on judgment day."
Atlas Shrugs
