Global Climate for Socialism

Global climate change is obviously recognized by the vast majority of people as a fact on the ground. If Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami disasters did not convince everyone, the increasingly bizzare weather patterns affecting most if not all parts of the globe, have done so.

With increasing flooding not just in the hurricane affected zones but also south Texas and England, the question of whether capitalism has what it takes to handle this crisis becomes all the more pressing.

An interview with Marc Brodine in Political Affairs calls for a concerted, socialistic world effort united to combat world climate change before it is too late:

[...]

Capitalism is a significant part of the cause of the environmental problems that we are facing. Because we can’t separate out how we produce things and how we finance things, and how we distribute things, and how we sell things, from our interactions with the natural world. That is why we are burning all this carbon to produce lots and lots of commodities that capitalists think they can sell profitably, whether that’s actual goods like plastic bags or little toys, or the gas that we put in our car, or use for chemical processes like making plastic for example. So capitalism is part of the cause, and we have to change our economic system, because it is directly linked to why we have these problems. However, socialism does not automatically solve such problems for us. We have to unite socialism with the latest in science.

[...]

"We Can't Wish it Away": Climate Change and the Human Prospect

Real-Estate Meltdown, Just the Beginning?

Yesterday I posted on the mortgage crisis and the effect on the credit market and homeowners. The other side of the finance equation is of course real estate values. Today the Wall Street Journal reported that real-estate mutual funds (or 'REITs' in the finance world parlance) are posting huge losses with no end in sight.

From a Wall Street Journal article by Tom Lauricella:

Mutual funds specializing in real estate are getting clobbered, hit by a one-two punch of woes in the property markets and the tumult in the debt markets.

Although real-estate stocks staged a late rally yesterday, their recent troubles were highlighted this week by a 31% one-day drop in the stock of KKR Financial Holdings LLC Wednesday, a real-estate investment trust, after the company reported financing problems.

The result is that after seven years of spectacular gains, funds investing in real-estate investment trusts are posting huge losses -- some with losses topping 15% over just the past month. That is particularly bad news for investors who poured nearly $18 billion into these funds in the past year and a half.

Meeting Redemptions

As some investors sell, fund managers are forced to sell holdings to meet those redemptions.

The average real-estate fund investing primarily in the U.S. has lost 17.2% over the past three months and is down 16.5% so far this year, according to Morningstar Inc. In contrast, the average diversified U.S. stock fund is up 0.7% so far this year and down 5.9% over the past three months.

[...]

The average global real estate fund -- which will invest both in and outside the U.S. -- has shed 15.2% over the past three months and is down 10.3% since the start of 2007.

Wall Street Journal: Real-Estate Funds Are Hit Hard

Lets face it folks, we are at the beginning of a serious crisis in capital. Where will the bailout come from this time?

The end of the 90s saw the 'dot com' bubble burst which affected millions but was relatively isolated to a specific sector (information technology) and confined to specific urban markets, such as San Fransisco. This was a stage in the increasing finanicialization of capital.

Now capital needed a new outlet for reinvestment and real-estate provided the perfect opportunity. Combined with the massive boost given by investments in the war sector, the real-estate boom provided the much needed new outlet for capital investment.

It was clear from the outset, however, that with real wages decreasing and job growth static, that the real-estate investment strategy required cheap credit and lots of it. This, as we have seen, has been achieved through a combination of extremely low interest rates with increasingly aggressive (until recently) lending practices.

The current crisis is huge. Nearly every financial institution will be affected. Nearly every country will be affected. Consumer demand will be affected on a global scale. Real estate prices will deflate on a global scale.

It seems increasingly likely this very irresponsible and unsustainable run-up will lead to a global depression with dire consequences for all.

The financial capital sector must be reigned in. A socialist program for managing and regulating the financial sector is the only way to prevent such irresponsible behavior and prevent the cyclical boom and bust pattern that is inherent to capitalism, and which has (as we have seen) and will continue to, become increasingly painful with each subsequent cycle.

Give Me Mao Better Statistics

Since the 1980s the propaganda campaign to discredit the achievements of socialistic states has intensified in support of the neo-liberal TINA ("there is no alternative" to capitalism) agenda.

A recent article in the Monthly Review (September 2006) by Joseph Ball picks apart the pseudo-science of the anti-Mao revisionist history movement:

Over the last 25 years the reputation of Mao Zedong has been seriously undermined by ever more extreme estimates of the numbers of deaths he was supposedly responsible for. In his lifetime, Mao Zedong was hugely respected for the way that his socialist policies improved the welfare of the Chinese people, slashing the level of poverty and hunger in China and providing free health care and education. Mao’s theories also gave great inspiration to those fighting imperialism around the world. It is probably this factor that explains a great deal of the hostility towards him from the Right. This is a tendency that is likely to grow more acute with the apparent growth in strength of Maoist movements in India and Nepal in recent years, as well as the continuing influence of Maoist movements in other parts of the world.

[...]

[I]n 1973-5 life expectancy in China was higher than in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and many countries in Latin America. In 1981 she co-wrote an article where she described the People's Republic of China as a 'super-achiever' in terms of mortality reduction, with life expectancy increasing by approximately 1.5 years per calendar year since the start of communist rule in 1949. Life expectancy increased from 35 in 1949 to 65 in the 1970s when Mao’s rule came to an end.

[...]

Monthly Review: Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?

Subprime Capitalism

" All contradictions of bourgeois production collectively come into eruption in the general crises on the world market." (Marx, Theories on Surplus-value, Vol. II, Part II, P. 318.)

Today CountryWide Financial Corp, one of the largest mortgage lenders in the United States, announced that it is tapping a $11.5 billion loan to stay out of bankruptcy due to overextending itself in the sub-prime lending market (full story). The stock of this company slid 13% on the news, after shedding nearly 50% of its value already this year.

CountryWide is one example of many mortgage companies which are teetering close to failure because of overextending themselves with sub-prime loans which fueled the "housing bubble."

This had been widely reported as a looming disaster by progressive socialist publications, because housing prices were forcing low and middle income people out of cities, because people were being saddled with unmanageable debt, and because the cyclical nature of capitalism naturally produces crises (see below) which disproportionately affect the working and under-classes.

The Wall Street Journal ran a story today describing the plight for one couple which reflects the stark reality for tens of millions of Americans:

Nearly two years ago, Mario and Leticia Montes found a home they loved, a gray stucco bungalow with a hot tub in the backyard in a middle-class neighborhood of Orange County.

The price was a major stretch at $567,000. But the couple, who had sold a home a few years earlier to move to a better area, was tired of renting. Mr. and Mrs. Montes convened a meeting with their two teenage daughters around the kitchen table to hash out the implications. "We agreed we wanted to be homeowners again," says Mr. Montes, "even if it meant the end of vacations and not eating out as often."

[...]

With a December "reset" on their loan looming, however, the refinancing option now looks impossible. A friend who works as a loan officer called with some bad news this week: Similar homes in their area have been selling for $535,000 to $565,000 recently. That means the Monteses' loan balance may exceed the value of their home.

[...]

"We have a disaster on our hands," says Mr. Montes, a 48-year-old warehouse manager. He fears he won't be able to handle the payments after the December reset and wonders whether the family can avert foreclosure. "At this point," he says, "we really don't have a plan."

Wall Street Journal: One Family's Journey Into a Subprime Trap

The Montes annual income is $90K whereas their yearly mortgage loan payments (sans-taxes) are nearly $40K. They are in terrible shape, have no equity in their home and have very difficult decisions ahead of them. However, their plight could be considered relatively good news in the sub-prime market. Why?

A large percentage of sub-prime loans are "refis" - refinancing an existing home with a second mortgage against the "equity" in the house due to increased property values.

Alexander Gourse describes the practice in a recent In These Times article:

When the housing market began its rapid ascent in the mid-’90s, many observers waxed rhapsodic about the potential of high-interest, subprime loans to merge the financial interests of investors and low income and minority communities.

[...]

Industry representatives typically cite the poor credit histories of most subprime borrowers to explain increasing foreclosure rates. Consumer and community advocates, however, paint a darker picture. “Predatory lending is definitely a systemic problem within the subprime mortgage industry,” says Al Hofeld Jr., a litigation attorney and chair of the South Side Community Federal Credit Union in Chicago (SSCFU). “There are very few subprime lenders who will make a subprime loan where the interest rate actually reflects the risk involved.”

According to Smith, predatory lenders put borrowers into loans that they cannot afford. While blatant fraud, such as the falsification of a borrower’s income to justify a larger loan, is becoming less common, the misrepresentation of a loan’s characteristics, like the concealment of a fixed rate “teaser” period that adjusts upward after two years, is a growing problem.

Hofeld says subprime mortgage companies routinely use bait-and-switch tactics to lure in potential borrowers and maximize the amount of money loaned out. At closing, borrowers are often presented with terms that do not match those previously offered by the company, and then pressured into signing documents which they have not had time to review. Ameriquest Mortgage Company is currently facing hundreds of lawsuits which allege that they routinely baited potential customers by promising fixed interest rates, low or no fees, lower monthly payments, no prepayment penalties, or by representing to borrowers that they qualify for a particular set of terms.

[...]

As they later discovered, however, the terms of the loan were not as they expected. Not only did the loan have an adjustable rate that can go as high as 13.4 percent, but the Walkers allege that Ameriquest falsely told them that their home had doubled in value since they had bought it a few years earlier, thus qualifying them for a larger loan amount. Ameriquest didn’t give them copies of their loan documents at closing, and as a result the Walkers did not realize that the terms had been changed until well after the three-day period during which they could legally cancel the loan. They have since tried to refinance, but have been unable to find another lender willing to lend them the amount currently owed to Ameriquest; the artificially inflated appraisal value has in effect trapped them in a loan with a rising interest rate.

[...]

“The problems in the subprime mortgage industry should be framed as an affordable housing issue,” says Hofeld. “We often compartmentalize the way we think about issues, but I really think that predatory lending is something that is decreasing the supply of affordable housing. And the lack of access to mortgage credit on fair terms is something that prevents people from getting into homes.”

In These Times: The Subprime Bait and Switch

The cyclical nature of the capitalist system is designed to concentrate wealth into the hands of the few. This latest cycle is an example of that process writ large. Real estate values will rebound eventually but only after many people loose their homes as foreclosures and bankruptcies commence. Capitalist enterprises and wealthy individuals will swoop in to buy up the properties and do with them as they please.

To close, an excerpt from a political economy course:

The general possibility of crises which is inherent in the commodity form of social production, attains its further development in the expansion of credit and the functioning of money as a means of payment (i.e., goods are sold but the money for it is paid only after the lapse of a certain time, and it is then only that the business is concluded; money thus exercises the function of credit).

During the space of time which lies between the moment of inception of the credit operation and that of the actual payment of the money, the value of the commodity may change. The payment might, besides this, not be made in time. The separation between purchase and sale and the independence of one from the other then again become revealed. The [consumer] for instance buys 20 yards of linen at the price of $40. He does not, however, pay this money immediately, as he has not yet sold his wheat, the value of which is similarly $40. The weaver, on his part, buys machinery which he promises to pay after he will have received the money from the [consumer]. But if the value of the wheat changes at the time when the [consumer] can sell it and he can realize for it less than $40 or if the [consumer] cannot sell it at all, he can of course make no final settlement with the weaver. The result of this is that the weaver is also unable to pay the manufacturer of the machinery, etc.

Credit ties up in this way all commodity producers who participate in credit operations by a chain of reciprocal dependence. The consequence of the break of any link of financial obligations may result in a shock to the whole chain, i.e., a crisis might break out.

Political Economy: The Marxian Crises Theory

Clearly, not the borrowers, but the capitalist system itself is subprime, unable to meet the basic needs of housing in a fair, equitable and sustainable fashion for the vast majority of citizens who labor under its dominion. A bold new direction is needed which can guarantee fair and affordable housing standards for all people. This can only be accomplished by breaking with the capitalist profit model through adoption of a democratic socialist program.

Stupid Cuba Embargo

Yes, the Cuba Embargo, one of the most idiotic policies of the United States government. Guess what? I plan to go anyhow...

From an AP story found on MSNBC:

In a first for an online travel company, Travelocity.com has been fined by federal regulators for booking trips between the U.S. and Cuba in violation of a 45-year-old embargo.

Travelocity.com earlier this month paid $182,750 to settle a complaint brought by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which said the company violated the prohibition nearly 1,500 times between January 1998 and April 2004.

Treasury's complaint said Travelocity "provided travel-related services in which Cuba or Cuban nationals had an interest by arranging air travel and hotel reservations to, from, with or within Cuba without an OFAC license."

[...]

Elsewhere, OFAC fined one unnamed individual $999.45 and another person $510 for buying Cuban cigars for sale on the Internet.

MSNBC: Travelocity fined for Cuba trips

You can do what's right or you can do what you are told

I was inspired to post these Phil Ochs lyrics after reading of the death of Moe Fishman. Fishman was a Communist organizer in the US who volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists, while our own democratic government stood on the sidelines.

Time and again the major "democracies" of the west have stood by and tacitly supported authoritarian and fascist governments and parties, while attacking and destroying those on the left. The simple fact is that people power is feared and repressed and that western democracy is largely a sham. To this day western governments support materially many authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Africa, while oppressing the poor and disenfranchised, minorities and leftists at home.

It's time for the pattern to end, and that does NOT mean electing Democrats either! A fighting progressive socialist alternative linking students, the working class and the disenfranchised must be established at local, national and global levels to combat the neo-liberal agenda.

Phil Ochs, lyrics to "Days of Decision":

Oh, the shadows of doubt are in many a mind,
Lookin' for an answer they're never gonna find,
But they'd better decide 'cause they're runnin' out of time,
For these are the days of decision.

Oh, the games of stalling you cannot afford,
Dark is the danger that's knocking on the door,
And the far-reaching rockets say you can't wait anymore,
For these are the days of decision.

In the face of the people who know they're gonna win,
There's a strength that's greater than the power od the wind,
And you can't stand around when the ice is growing thin,
For these are the days of decision.

I've seen your heads hinding 'neath the blankets of fear,
When the paths they are plain and the choices are clear,
But with each passing day, boys, the cost is more dear
For these are the days of decision.

There's many a cross that burns in the night,
And the fingers of the fire are pointing as they bite,
Oh you can't let the smoke keep on blinding all your sight,
For these are the days of decision.

Now the mobs of anger are roamin' the street,
From the rooftops they are aimin' at the police on the beat,
And in city after city you know they will repeat,
For these are the days of decision.

There's been warnin's of fire, warnin's of flood,
Now there's the warnin' of the bullet and the blood,
From the three bodies buried in the Mississippi mud,
Sayin' these are the days of decision.

There's a change in the wind, and a split in the road,
You can do what's right or you can do what you are told,
And the prize of the victory will belong to the bold,
Yes, these are the days of decision.

Abraham Lincoln Brigade Veteran Dies at 92

A dedication to Moe Fishman posted by some new friends on the blog "An Unrepentant Communist.....":

Fishman (1915-2007) the seemingly indestructible Moe Fishman, the public face of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) for more than half a century, died of pancreatic cancer on August 6, 2007 in New York. He was 92. Born in New York on September 28, 1915, Fishman left school during the Depression and became a laundry worker and truck driver. He participated in unionizing his fellow workers and found a commitment to social justice issues as a member of the Young Communist League. When war broke out in Spain, Fishman volunteered to fight, but was rejected for lack of military experience. However, his skill as a truck driver was needed and a second application for service was accepted—with the proviso that he recruit ten other volunteers. Fishman quickly found the men, though none actually showed up. The recruiters took him anyway. He arrived in Spain in April 1937 and trained as a foot soldier in the George Washington battalion. He was wounded during the battle of Brunete, his first action. He spent a year in convalescence in Spain; the injury left him with a lifelong limp.Back home in New York, Fishman stayed in touch with humanitarian aid organizations providing assistance for the civilian refugees of the Spanish Civil War.

SALUD! to Moe Fishman (1915-2007)

Harry Potter - As Great as All That?

Although I expect little from pop-culture, the sheer mass of the Harry Potter phenomenon and the obvious attempts to link it with and sell it as true literature cause me a lot of consternation. So I have been thinking a lot about Harry Potter lately; and of course because of the media blitz and the fact that I have two kids I really have no choice. My first impressions of Harry Potter as of the first book(s) were positive.

However, after the third book the series (I would not consider the books an epic by any measure) it became clear that this was nothing more than a continual rehash over and over again. Each book has a formula that is repeated from the previous book - Harry is isolated, Harry is despondent, Harry breaks the rules and almost gets kicked out of Hogswart, Harry discovers a lurking evil and no one believes him, Harry defeats the evil (sort of) and saves his family and friends (sans-one at least, of course).

I fully accept Harry Potter for what it is - comic book quality entertainment which inspires the imaginations of children. I think it is great that kids love the books and it encourages them to read. I think it is great that they love the movies and it makes them think about magic and fantasy. I also think that J.K. Rowling does a great job of squarely contextualizing the entire series within the petit-bourgeois milieu making it very easy for the majority of the western world to identify with.

But literature it is not and it disturbs me that it disguises itself as such, because by doing so it offers us superfluous reflections on our own lives in a trite and disingenuous fashion. Basically J.K. Rowling gets to have her cake and eat it too by offering prepackaged pop-morals without actually having to put any effort into developing or exploring the meaning of, or taking any responsibility for, what she is writing.

In the end, literature is significant because of what it tells us about ourselves and the human condition. Harry Potter unfortunately has nothing significant to say.

Excerpt from an article by Lakshmi Chaudhry in The Nation:

When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the eagerly anticipated conclusion of J.K. Rowling's seven-part saga, was finally released on July 21, the critics weren't disappointed. The New York Times's Michiko Kakutani praised the "epic showdown" as "deeply rooted in traditional literature and Hollywood sagas--from the Greek myths to Dickens and Tolkien to 'Star Wars.'" But great battles in fiction, especially of the caliber name-checked by Kakutani, are epic not merely in scale but also in moral content. Whether aimed at adults or children, they speak directly to the nature of good and evil and what is at stake when we choose between them. Most critics this past week didn't seem to notice that Rowling fails entirely to meet this key requirement. What we get instead is a moral fuzziness that parades as realism, innumerable references to a post-9/11 world coupled with throwaway and often derivative insights that never add up to a coherent moral vision.

[...]

Deathly Hallows is a sad confirmation of the same. The shallowness of Rowling's enterprise is revealed in the vapid little epilogue that seems inspired less by great fiction than B-list Hollywood scripts. Where the cataclysmic showdown in The Lord of the Rings leaves the Hobbits and Middle-earth irrevocably altered even in victory, the wizarding world merely returns to business as usual, restoring its most famous citizens to a life of middle-class comfort. At the end of this overly long saga, the reader leaves with the impression that what Harry was fighting for all along was his right--and now that of his children--to play Quidditch, cast cool spells and shop for the right wand. Or what George Bush would call "our way of life."

Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Epic

US Students Visit Cuba

From an article appearing in Workers World by Abraham Mwaura and Dante Strobino:

Twelve members of the youth group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) from San Diego, Raleigh, West Virginia, Denver, Boston, Rutgers University and New York City—together with five members of Workers World Party—traveled to Cuba from July 18-28 to defy the travel ban and to witness the gains of the socialist revolution.

In Cuba, the FIST delegation observed how a planned economy and centralized government following the path of socialist revolution have provided the necessary material conditions to carry out the process of the withering away of racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of oppression, and for the building of a new human being.

U.S. activists from the Venceremos Brigade, Pastors for Peace, the U.S/Cuba Labor Exchange and FIST all traveled to the island to oppose the travel ban and participated in joint activities.

Surprising most in the FIST delegation, a Cuban representative told youth group members that FIST was the first socialist youth group from the U.S. in decades to officially travel to the island.

[...]

One of the major campaigns currently being organized by the UJC [Union of Young Communists] is the “Battle of Ideas.” Almost 80 percent of Cubans alive today have been born under socialism and many have come to expect free health care and education, while the struggles to defend these rights have begun to appear as things of the past.

The Battle of Ideas was designed in 1999 with more than 200 programs in education, health, construction and culture available to all children.

[...]

In their statement to the national and international media, the [ELAM (Latin American School of Medicine)] graduates said, “This is a dream come true: the dream of becoming doctors and helping people in need, helping those people who, like ourselves, don’t have enough money to access expensive health care service.”

Workers World: FIST youth visit Cuba

Socialism a Loaded Word

From an article by UT student Colin Pace in the Daily Texan (University of Texas):

There is no doubt that "socialism" is a loaded word in the Western world. Institutions ranging from news stations to school systems teach that socialist and nationalized programs are doomed to collapse under the weight of bureaucracy and corruption. There seems to be a general acceptance that leaders of socialist nations are aspiring despots, and that any pro-socialist ideas should be immediately dismissed, as it is understood that socialism just isn't right.

The idea exists in the West that the Cold War was the final showdown between the Communist bloc and the Western world. As the story goes, the United States trounced the Evil Empire by setting up a bulwark of capitalist states to ward off the threat of Communism. Since then, the remaining socialist nations are puttering out, drawing near their final days before privatization comes to their rescue.

Yet anti-socialist rhetoric, in a sense, is merited. It is undeniable that most of the world powers are capitalist nations, and dominant "socialist" nations - China, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam - are having difficulties. Moreover, neoliberal policies, extended through institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, are set up to help developing nations privatize and modernize their industries. These policies, in theory, will eradicate destitution. What we are taught in school and grow up believing is that capitalism not only benefits the leading nations of the world, but is also working to raise the standard of living for everyone.

Today, most Western institutional authorities claim that capitalism is indisputably superior to socialism. They nearly make it a crime to question what socialism is, how it functions and why it is "failing" around the world. From the red-baiting that Eugene V. Debs faced to the extremity of the McCarthyism era, the West continues to stigmatize socialists as "others," marginalizing their ideas and movements.

Socialism, however, should not be cast aside so easily. Socialism is not a monolithic ideology and it is not a terrible, fear-driven beast that threatens the U.S. masses. In fact, it is quite the opposite. To understand this, one need not look further than Michael Moore's recent movie, "Sicko." Though gimmicky and biased, like his other movies, the film raises an important question about why universal health care systems rank so high above the United States' privatized system in a global comparison.

But as the disparity between rich and poor grows in the United States, the same is happening around the world in situations far more significant than health care. Developing nations have received infrastructure-building loans from the World Bank to help industrialize. While this may help the upper class, the money does not usually benefit the people who need it most. The World Bank dictates the terms of loan agreements, often forcing developing nations to break up or sell nationalized industries to make way for private interests from other countries, leaving developing nations in debt. Meanwhile, massive cuts in social spending, devaluation of currency and unequal trading policies result from the policies instated by the new backers. Countries around the world, from Asia to Latin America to Africa, have been hit hard by these austerity measures.

While many U.S. citizens may be enjoying a relatively comfortable lifestyle, it is precisely because they are in the upper echelon of the economic spectrum compared to worldwide standards, and our current system caters to those at the top of society. Factory workers thousands of miles away are harshly exploited so consumer goods such as clothing and TVs can be sold at low prices to American consumers.

People should not judge the word "socialism" solely by what they know of "socialist" leaders. Leaders like Joseph Stalin and Fidel Castro may have upheld socialist aspects of their administrations, but they were not actually "socialists" - A ruling elite still oppressed people within their countries, and did so just as harshly as their capitalist rivals. The immediate knee-jerk reaction that many have to the word "socialism" stems from the connotations of atrocities carried out under those administrations. Moving beyond superficial analysis of the word will allow people to better understand what socialist arguments are about.

Socialists around the world work toward bettering working conditions, raising wages, ending the war in Iraq, halting the injustices of the prison system and combating global warming, just to name a few of their critical agendas.

Even those who are staunchly opposed to the nationalization of industry, believing that the free market is the only means for progress, should question the objectivity of the Western view of socialism. The word is loaded with connotations, but that should not stop people from asking what the system is really about.

Daily Texan: Ignoring the undertones of socialism

Businesses Advance Socialism in China

Excerpts from an article by Li Qian from China Daily:

When China opened up to the world over 20 years ago, Wei Jianhua joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) because of its social ideals. A decade later, she became an owner of a chemical manufacturing corporation – a private enterprise.

At the end of last year, more than 2.86 million party members work in privately owned enterprises, including 810,000 running their own businesses, shows figures released by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Party members going into private businesses, especially those who left state-owned enterprises and government positions once became a national hot topic starting from the early 1990s when the country deepened development towards the market-oriented economic system.

[...]

The businesswoman's conversion has led to a fresh interpretation of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The CPC's constitution states that human society should eliminate the exploitation of the labor class, and calls on party members to establish businesses that are owned by all citizens or a collective of people.

But for Wei and many other Communist entrepreneurs, serving the people and country could be practiced in other ways.

"I believe the key issue is how to properly allocate profits to benefit the society," Wei said. "My company didn't receive a single penny from the government, but provides job opportunities and products. And we're committed in shouldering social responsibilities.”

[...]

"I feel I'm not a pure businessperson. When commercial interests conflict with social duties, I'll definitely place responsibilities ahead," Wei explained. "It's not just me, actually there are a great number of private business owners who have the same philosophy as me."

[...]

In the Sixteenth National Conference of the CPC in 2002, private owners and individual entrepreneurs were labeled for the first time as "Builders of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics".

"My heart was moved when I heard the news," Wei recalled. "I immediately felt my life was fulfilled."

China Daily: Red capitalists keep socialism alive

Predatory Lending: Subprime Pt I

Excerpts from an article in Justice newspaper by Theodros Shibabaw:

You’ve heard the commercials. “Want to own your own home, want to buy a car? Bad Credit? No Credit? No problem!” The past decade has seen the immense growth of “subprime” loans made to millions of people with bad credit histories.

Mortgage loan companies and banks have made hundred of billions of dollars in profit by preying on people who would otherwise be shut out of the market. These days, it’s hard to even pay for basic necessities without going into debt, as stagnating wages fail to keep pace with the fast-rising cost of living.

[...]

In the first quarter of 2007 almost 19 percent of all subprime loans, or 1.1 million mortgages, were either delinquent by more than 30 days or in foreclosure, an increase from 16.4 percent six months earlier (Mortgage Bankers Association, 6/14/07). Dozens of companies have either quit the subprime business or gone bankrupt.

[...]

Defending ourselves against these [capitalist] attacks will take a broad mobilization of the affected working-class communities. Working-class homeowners need to organize community committees to demand an end to foreclosures and zero tolerance to throwing families out of their homes. We need to demand state and federal funding for debt relief and fight for the cancellation of debts with no payment to the super-rich predatory lenders.

[...]

In the long term, however, it’s important to see the subprime lending crisis as just one expression of what big business can get away with in the absence of a strong working-class movement. Our economy is controlled by a tiny elite that glibly chases profits without the slightest regard to the livelihoods it destroys. It’s more urgent than ever to build a mass movement that consciously aims to replace the rule of profit with a rational, democratically-planned, socialist economy.

Predatory Lending: Cheating Workers Out of House and Home

Red Cross (TM)

A heart warming story of capitalism at its best. Perhaps J&J should consider a somewhat more creative logo instead of slapping a copyright on a symbol that has been used for thousands of years. But no...

From the Wall Street Journal:

Johnson & Johnson filed suit against the American Red Cross and some of its licensing partners claiming the charity misused the cross design that is its signature emblem, which also appears on J&J's first-aid kits and bandages.

The health-care products company alleges that the Red Cross licensed the eponymous design to for-profit companies that sell medical products -- such as first-aid kits and hand sanitizers -- and infringed J&J's trademark. The suit was filed yesterday in Southern District Court in New York.

In the suit, J&J asked the court to have all licensed products with the red-cross emblem destroyed and to permanently enjoin all sales of products bearing the emblem on first-aid, safety-preparedness and related products. The New Brunswick, N.J., company also seeks punitive damages and payment of its legal fees. J&J said it tried for several months to resolve the issue with the Red Cross, but that those efforts failed.

Wall Street Journal: Red Cross Is Sued by J&J Over Signature Emblem

Its funny, but the only product I can think of which uses the red cross are Band-Aid's, which I didn't even know was a J&J brand until I read this article.

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!

Regardless on what one may think of the current state of capitalist rule in the US, I agree with the assessment of revolutionary character of, well, the American Revolution. The legacy of tyranny haunts us still, and although bourgeois democracy is in many ways a potent combatant versus reactionary traditionalism, we still have a long way to go.

From the Socialist Equality Party's 2006 candidate for the NY Senate, Bill Van Auken:

This July 4 marks the 230th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document that launched a revolution against colonialism and despotism, inspiring peoples all over the world. The creation of a new nation, founded on Enlightenment concepts of democracy, equality and the rule of law, foreshadowed the French Revolution 13 years later and had international reverberations for generations thereafter.

The document signed in 1776 had a profoundly liberating character, proclaiming the right of the people—not only in America, but everywhere—to employ revolutionary means to dislodge governments that trampled on their “unalienable rights.”

Those who led the insurrection against the British monarch were quite conscious of the international implications of their actions and the world historic significance of the Declaration. As Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams—both, in a poignant and fitting historical coincidence, were to die on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence—“The flames kindled on the Fourth of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.”

World Socialist Web Site: The 4th of July Holiday...

What Did You Say?

A friend of mine, Eljeer Hawkins of NYC and Socialist Alternative/CWI activist, had an article published recently in Justice Magazine titled "What Did You Say?":

Media personality Don Imus, Hip-Hop artist 50 cent, comic/actor Michael Richards of Seinfeld fame and the resurgence of the gore and snuff films like the Quentin Tarantino presented Hostel I and II are at the center of an important debate about racism, sexism, violence and the use of language within U.S. society. To discuss these individuals or events in isolation is to underestimate the impact of capitalism on cultural products. This is a system based on profit, divide and rule and unbridled exploitation of the working class and poor. The current discussion reflects the crisis facing the working class and youth and exposes the true nature of American “democracy”.

[...]

At the height of the collective revolutionary struggles of the past, there was self-awareness, a consciousness of social and political uplift. The words of hate were still used within the community and general society, but those sectors engaged in struggle influenced the wider society. The call for justice, dignity and freedom, terms of endearment like sister, brother or comrade replaced the terms of our mental and physical oppression during and after slavery. The greatest expression of this was the “I AM A MAN” slogan of the 1968 Black sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tennessee.

The language and actions of hate, discrimination and inferiority must be vigorously combated by the collective action of the working class and youth. The systemic culture of racism, sexism, homophobia and misogyny demands building a sustained mass movement of the working class and youth. A mass movement would be multi-ethnic, gender balanced, democratic, accountable, and politicized, learning valuable lessons from the civil rights, women’s and LGBT movement. This mass movement would also need to prioritize the construction of a political party of the working class and poor that would stand for nationalized healthcare, jobs for all at a living wage, union rights and ending police violence.

Justice: What Did You Say?...

Lenin's Tomb

I was in Russia for 10 days (May 21-31) and have many photos to share. The most profound event of my trip was visiting Lenin's Tomb. It was an amazing experience, the design of the interior heightening the anticipation and momentousness of seeing the most important revolutionary in the history of humanity.



Below is a post on Paul Smith's blog in 2005 on "burying Lenin":

There was a bit of talk a few days ago about burying Lenin or not, I've always been pretty neutral on the topic, however I've just punched in Lenin into Google News and have been surprised at the amount of Lenin bashing going on in the capitalist press. So I'm going fully over to keep Lenin where he is until the work of the people is finished.

If they can get so annoyed at an 80 year old corpse then they're obviously [...] scared of what he represents.

I read on one website a comment by Amanda somebody...

As an eighth-grader, we learned about communism in Russia. Personally, I think they should just bury Lenin because he did not do anything helpful for Russia and is certainly not a good reminder of what happened for its people.

Well thanks to Lenin women in the Russian Soviet Republic had the right to vote when they took power, you would have to [have] waited until 1928. And if we really want to get technical the soviets since they formed (1905) obviously had no objections to women being politically involved, because its just stupid - the only kind of stupidity that some backwards feudal lord or fat capitalists could ever have made!

Go and ask some people who were alive then in Russia at the time and actually find out for yourself. I suppose you'd rather have Ivan the Terrible or Nicholas the Bloody in charge, for even asking for the right to vote they would of exiled you to Siberia.

There's a reason they decided to keep Lenin on display - because millions upon millions of people came to see him, and kept on coming to see him, even today.

Zyuganov, the leader of the [...] Communist Party of the Russian Federation:

Irresponsible and provocative [...] With their filthy hands and drunken heads they are crawling into the sanctuary of the state. The desire to rake up remains of the dead is a great sin and a sign of mental pathology.

Indeed there's a reason Putin said in 2001 he had no desire to move Lenin - it could well result in civil war, only this time we wouldn't lose like in 1993.

Who's Afraid of Democracy?

From In These Times:

Behavioral economists at UC San Diego recently conducted a study in which tokens were distributed among experimental subjects, with a few getting a concentrated chunk of the wealth and a majority getting little. They offered the “poor” subjects the opportunity to pay a price to take money away from the rich. The catch was that rather than being redistributed, the money would simply disappear. Economic orthodoxy predicts that few would snap at the chance, since they’d be paying for something that would confer no direct benefit. But they did. In spades.

Though only one data point, it suggests that people have a profound sense of economic fairness, that we are all, more or less, intuitive socialists. As far back as Edmund Burke, conservatives have suspected as much and feared democracy for that very reason. Read James Madison in the Federalist Papers and it’s clear that many of the Constitution’s undemocratic elements were designed to prevent the expropriation of wealth from an outnumbered elite.

Full article

Happy May Day 2007!

Happy May Day 2007 from New York City!

Union Square was the center of a May Day rally in support of immigration rights. The square was packed and filled with workers and activists of all types. A clutch of socialist and anarchist student groups brought up the rear of the over 20,000 marchers. I don't have my transfer cable for my camera but promise to upload pictures later in the week.

In Chicago, 150,000 to 1 million protesters filled the city streets. Mayor Richard Daley gave an address to a section of the protesters in Grant Park.

In Los Angeles, over 500,000 protesters filled the downtown halting traffic for over 16 blocks.

Peaceful rallies and marches were held all over the nation and in all the major cities, primarily by immigration rights groups, institutionalizing the May Day holiday in the United States.

Meanwhile, in Istanbul Turkey, police violently cracked down on leftist activists and militant union members who flooded Taksim Square. Speaking to the press at his union’s headquarters in the afternoon, Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Unions (DİSK) President Süleyman Çelebi said his union had realized its purpose in Taksim, asserting his belief that Taksim had now become a “May Day area.” He said DİSK’s primary aim was to commemorate the 36 deaths of the bloody May Day in 1977 in a peaceful demonstration but that the police had prevented it.1

Workers and pro-democracy activists were also roughly handled by the state security services in Nigeria. Dozens of workers, activists and pro-democracy political figures were beaten and arrested. Security forces swarmed public venues across the country to suppress the possibility for rallies.2

In Korea, workers from North and South Korea held the first joint May Day celebration between those two countries since 1950.

Across Europe over one thousand rallies were held, with hundreds of thousands attending in the major cities including London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin. Hundreds of thousands protested across Russia including union workers, activists and Communist Party members. Demonstrators demanded more economic security including better pensions.3

Indian May Day traditions are particularly inspiring. Across the nation, the students of India express gratitude to the community of workers behind the scenes with day long programs involving speeches and gifts to show appreciation for the hard work of those who keep the schools running. Union workers across India held rallies with thousands attending in the major cities.4

China has had a week long May Day celebration since 1999. Millions of workers take the week off going on holiday or attending rallies and celebrations.

Meanwhile, in sunny Cuba, millions celebrated while Fidel Castro enjoyed May Day from home due to health concerns. Thousands of foreign guests joined millions of Cuban workers, students and children at the emblematic Revolution Square, where the main parade took place.5

And in Venezuela, May Day celebrations were punctuated by a 20% rise of the minimum wage and the announcement by Hugo Chavez of deals with major oil companies to nationalize control of the remaining major Venezuelan oil fields.6

Keeping Chocolate Real and Fair

Changes to the FDA's definition of chocolate will hurt cocoa growers.

Image source: Co-op Fair Trade.

As a large -- and timid -- chocolate bunny stares at me from its bed of Easter grass, waiting for the moment in which I bite its delicious little ears off, I'm thinking about a proposal put forth to the FDA.

That chocolate bunny -- tall, dark, and handsome; sweet, smooth, and decadent -- might next year have an inferior replacement. The Chocolate Manufacturers of America (CMA) in collaboration with the Grocery Manufacturers Association have petitioned the FDA to change the definition of chocolate, so that products made with milk substitutes and vegetable oil (instead of milk and cocoa butter) can be sold under the label of "chocolate." Why? So the manufacturers can save money by selling cheap crap. (Check out the specific proposed changes.)

People, GREEDY CAPITALISTS ARE ATTACKING CHOCOLATE!

Is nothing sacred?

If this petition is enacted, the result of is two fold: A) poorly made "mocklate" confections (example) will be reclassified and legitimized by the FDA and, more importantly, B) chocolatiers can avoid paying fair wages to workers in countries where cocoa is grown. From a Guittard Chocolate Company press release:

Changing the current “Gold Standard” for chocolate by allowing the substitution of hydrogenated or chemically-modified vegetable fats for cocoa butter will also have a dramatic impact on cocoa growers in Central and South America, the Caribbean Basin, Africa, and nations in Southeast Asia at a time when the global chocolate industry is working to improve working and economic conditions of these developing countries’ farmers. In fact, the plan to substitute these types of vegetable fats for cocoa butter would cause a disastrous economic impact on their livelihoods as the demand for cocoa butter would likely decrease and prices would plummet as some manufacturers switch to the cheaper substitutes. [Emphasis mine]

The result of this is that big manufacturers can start producing your favorite candies with "mocklate" short changing cocoa growers out of well deserved income. (Hershey chocolate is already on board with this and supports the Grocery Manufacturers Association efforts.*)

But this movement can be stopped. All you have to do is send a comment to the FDA telling them not to mess with chocolate by the April 25, 2007 deadline. To make it even easier, DontMessWithOurChocolate.com guides you through the process, even providing you with a letter you can cut-and-paste into the FDA's comment box (but you should feel free to write your own letter).

Really: it only takes a moment and it's as simple as pie -- a delicious slice of chocolate cream pie, made with genuine chocolate.

Read more about this issue here and here.
* Source.

Another Television is Possible

It is interesting that only socialist countries seem to have the will to control the flood of vulgar bacchalian depravity that has completely taken over media. The drive for profit led to the complete deregulation of media in the west starting in the 1980s. Now we see that we are on the brink of, if we have not already reached it, total moral breakdown.

It is sad to see in Blockbuster that 50% or more of the videos are graphic horror films (most of the rest being graphically violent "action" films). The prospects for the current generation growing up with this spectaclist schlock as the norm are grim indeed.

SYDNEY (Green Left Weekly) - “We at Telesur believe that 'Another television is possible’”, Aharonian told the Australian brigadistas. “Telesur is the first Latin American experience in mass television. We have always been seen through foreign eyes. From the North, they only see us in black and white. Black, because we only appear in the news when there is a big problem in our countries ... We are a very diverse and plural region; we need to see ourselves in our own way.

As “alternative media”, Aharonian said, “we must not be marginalised. We must be a mass-based alternative. All the documentaries and programs on Telesur come from alternative sources — independent producers, universities and national radio and TV from various countries.

“At this stage, we don’t have our own documentaries or musical programs, only the news. We try to pass on what other independent and alternative producers are doing.”

and...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has called on TV and radio stations to ignore ratings and "vulgarity" in their programming and promote socialist values instead, state media reported on Tuesday.

China keeps a tight grip on its state-owned broadcasters, but market reforms have spawned increasingly outrageous shows, including reality TV, to attract viewers and advertising revenue.

The State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) urged broadcasters to boycott bad taste, "build harmonious culture and provide noble and rich programming for the masses," Xinhua news agency said.

"They should relay on quality and innovative programming, and outstanding ideological, artistic and attractive works to draw viewers. They should not rely on vulgarity to cater to a minority's low-grade interests," SARFT was quoted as saying.

The creation of a "harmonious society" is the doctrine of President Hu Jintao as China seeks to remove the causes of social tension.