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A WORLD TORN APART
Reflection and Analysis from aWorld-Socialist Perspective
Stefan (Stephen D. Shenfield)
56 articles, 2006—2010
Wage slavery * Non-profit production * Patents * LootersLand * Paying for air * Working hours * Sulphur miningGlobal warming * Childen’s TV * Arctic * Moon *AsteroidsGods * Maoist China * 9/11 * Globalisation * Ghettoes The war business * Congo * Opium * Georgia * ZionismGaza * Iraq * Iran * South Africa * Utopias * Whysmile?Malawi * Afghanistan * Obama * Charity * Swine fluChristian fascism * waste and want * Russian“Communists”
 
Introduction
I greet and address you as a fellow earthling and human being!This is a crucial time for our species and for the planet that remainsour only home. New global dangers loom while old problems remainunresolved. The world continues to tear itself apart. Our survival has never  been more in question.Shall we allow a system of power and profit inherited from the barbaric past to devour what still remains of our home? Or shall we combineour efforts to replace that system by
world socialism
– the commonownership and democratic control of the means of life by the whole of theworld’s people?I present this e-book (thanks to Scribd) without charge to readersthroughout the world. In this sense, it prefigures world socialism in form aswell as content. It brings together under nine thematic headings forty articlesthat I have written over the last three years.All but three of the articles appeared in
The Socialist Standard 
, journal of the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB), which is one of thecompanion parties of the World Socialist Movement (WSM). One articleappeared in
The World Socialist Review
, published by another WSMcompanion party, the World Socialist Party of the U.S. (WSPUS). Twoarticles have not been published before.In the process of re-reading the articles I made minor changes to someof them, mostly of a stylistic nature.Let me explain that I have not been a socialist my whole life. I belonged to the SPGB in my youth and in recent years have been a member of the WSPUS. For a long time in between I was either “non-political” or 
 
involved in various sorts of reform politics. In two of the articles includedhere I criticise my own thinking during this period.Although the articles are on diverse topics, I would not claim that they provide a fully balanced picture of socialist thinking. To some extent theyreflect my academic experience in the field of international relations.However, these articles may serve as a starting point. I hope they willwhet your appetite and tempt you to explore the writing of other worldsocialists. For this purpose I recommend the WSM sitewww.worldsocialism.org, which has links to many other relevant sites and blogs in various languages, and alsowww.worldincommon.org.“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one” (John Lennon,
 Imagine
).I have provided some introductory comments on specific articlesunder section headings.You are welcome to reproduce
whole articles
for non-profit purposes, provided that you indicate the original source.I would appreciate any kind of feedback – well, almost any kind! Mye-mail address is shown below. Please inform me about any links,references, reproductions, etc. Any of this will give me encouragement.Stephen D. Shenfield (Stefan)Summer 2009sshenfield@verizon.net
Second edition (Fall 2009):
Six articles have been added to the first edition, bringing the total to 46.
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uploaded a new revision for this document (#4)

11 / 19 / 2009

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11 / 16 / 2009
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