Counter-Spin on the London Bombings

The right-wing started spinning lies from the beginning.

In case you were wondering what the Left is actually saying about the bombings, consider this statement posted today by the Socialist Worker Online:

Socialist Worker statement following London bombings

Our thoughts are with all those killed and wounded in this morning’s terrible attacks in London.

London is a centre of peace, the most multiracial city in Europe and a global centre of opposition to the war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. A majority of those killed and wounded will have opposed the war in Iraq; some will have joined the huge marches for peace.

These bombings followed the biggest ever protest in Scotland’s history against world poverty. The anti-war message was everywhere on that magnificent march.

These bombings target ordinary people travelling by bus and underground to work and study; people who oppose Tony Blair’s support for George Bush and their occupation of Iraq. They are in no way a blow against imperialism or the G8 leaders, who are ensconced in a luxury hotel 450 miles north of London.

The British government cannot avoid its responsibility for these terrible attacks, which are a consequence of its support for war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The best way to ensure that there are no more such terrible attacks is for British troops to be withdrawn from there immediately.

As a mark of respect for the dead we have cancelled the opening day of our Marxism 2005 event. We call on the international anti-war movement and the global left to rally round the people of London and, in the face of these terrible attacks, to redouble their work for global peace and justice.

Chris Bambery, editor Socialist Worker
Martin Smith, National Organiser, Socialist Workers Party

In fact, my own survey of dozens of Leftist blogs showed nothing but sympathy for the victims and outrage at the perpetrators. Shame on the Right for trying to use even this tragic event for political advantage, and God bless and protect the protestors in Edinburgh, Scotland against potential retributive police violence.

Massive Protests at G8 Summit

Over 250,000 people have converged on Edinburgh, Scotland to protest the G8 Summit. This was the largest political demonstration in the history of Scotland. Over 250 international members of the CWI and International Socialist Resistance participated in various events including the large march on Saturday.

Unfortunately, police intimidation has lead to some unfortunate events. Sean at To The Barricades (one of my favorite blogs by-the-way) brings us coverage of the G8 protests in Scotland:

During the Carnival For Full Enjoyment in Scotland today police violently attacked demonstrators (oh, I'm sorry, "clashed with" as if it is ever an even struggle) leaving 21 injured. Several fainted. Scores were arrested.

More...

Miller Up the River

Persecution of journalists is anti-Democratic.

The persecution of Miller is aimed at silencing any critical media coverage of the government—whether it relates to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the practice of torture, kidnapping and illegal detention, the massive expansion of domestic spying, or official cover-ups of corporate criminality. - Patrick Martin, World Socialist Web Site

Cross post from Mediaocrity by Editrix:

New York Times reporter Judith Miller was sentenced to jail today for refusing to name sources to a grand jury investigating the revelation of a
covert CIA operative's name (Valerie Plame). Matthew Cooper, who was similarly prosecuted, has now agreed to testify, saying that his source has waived his/her confidentiality.

Miller will be jailed until she agrees to testify or the grand jury's term expires in about four months.

"If journalists cannot be trusted to keep confidences," said Miller, "then journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press.

[Full post here...]

Court Enforces Justice for Sweatshop Workers

Gavin Warnock has some good news to report on his blog:

A United States court in Hawaii has sentenced the [owner] of a sweatshop factory to 40 years in jail, the most severe punishment ever imposed in a human trafficking case.

Prosecutors called it the biggest case ever of "modern day slavery" and said that the tough sentence was justified. "Justice was served, and we're glad the victims are safe," said prosecutor Robert Moossy.

The U.S. Justice Department said Lee Soo-Kil held more than 300 victims from China and Vietnam as forced labourers in involuntary servitude at his garment factory in American Samoa.

He's accused of using arrests, forced deportations and brutal physical beatings to keep workers under control.

More...

Che's Ride

"Let the world change you... and you can change the world"

The tagline to Diarios de motorcicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries) is a message across the decades perhaps more critically received today than ever.

The Motorcycle Diaries is an amazing film, set in the early 1950's, and chronicling a cross-continental journey by a pair of young Argentine men, one of whom was Ernesto Guevara.

Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado are young medical students and decide to take a road trip from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Caracas, Venezuela. Ernesto is shown to be a very empathetic man who cares deeply for others. He had decided to become a doctor in order to find a cure for leprosy. At the beginning of the journey, Ernesto and Alberto are full of moxy and gusto, looking forward to their last great adventure before buckling down for their final medical exams.

Alberto has an old motorcycle the two friends cavalierly decide to use as their means of transportation for the over 13,000 kilometer trip. In a bit of foreshadowing, the bike spits black smoke and spins out of control as they leave their families behind in urban Buenos Aires. The two friends are undaunted, however, having both led rather charmed lives up to that point, with loving, stable families and bright futures, they felt invincible and very high spirited.

Their journey quickly teaches them that charm is not enough. As they ride but more often push their motorcycle across the Andes, they learn firsthand how fragile their social status is. They go from being treated as up-and-coming young doctors to being treated as vagabonds. Being put into this position allows them to see, for the first time, the world from the perspective of all the other people who have been displaced and forced to live at the edge of society.

Along this journey is when Che meets a displaced Indio couple who are forced to be migratory workers because their land was taken from them, due to their being Communists. As they travel together Che sees how these people and others like them are degraded and treated worse than animals.

This is probably the most political moment of the entire movie. In fact, if a viewer watching this film didn't know who Che Guevara was, she would not likely suspect this to be a film about a political figure.

The central character, Che, does not seem revolutionary at all. He is simply a compassionate young man who has dedicated his life to helping others in an open, loving and honest way (he is going to medical school to treat and find a cure for leprosy). I find a personal analogy in this story insofar as compassion for my fellow man and woman is what has led me to become a Socialist. The fundamental principles of the socialist international are all about compassion and striving to create a world in which all people have a place and can live as free members of a society of equals, without hatred or guns or borders.

Many critics of Che say he is a blood soaked murder. But in fact we continue to see that the true killers are the servants of Capital, who find, or more often create, their enemies as efficiently as they produce commodities. First the aristocracy, then the Church, then the Communists and now the Muslims (not to leave out the myriad other minority groups oppressed and murdered by Capital).

My point is simply that Che like many martyred comrades before him, had to fight for his ideals. He was constantly under attack by reactionaries. This is not an excuse for the battles he fought, it is a justification. He fought and killed for what he believed in, a right held sacred by all people in struggle, but one that Power reserves for itself. I reject the notion that Capital has a monopoly over this right and reject the definition of Che as a murderer. Miguel Ramirez, Cuban Ambassador to New Zealand made some clarifying comments about Che earlier this year, as follows:

[Che] was always very strict with discipline but he never tortured anyone, nor has he killed anyone except in military combat, and he was always a very humane leader. He just followed the ideals of the Cuban Revolution that was so humane with the Batista soldiers that they easily surrendered because they were sure what to expect, and that was an accelerating factor in the victory.

At the beginning of the revolution he was in charge of the prisons where the murderers and torturers of the Batista dictatorship were detained until they were tried by the Cuban people through legitimate trials and found guilty and executed. They were not dissenters, as Calder* would want us believe, but murderers.

Full New Zealand Herald article here...

*: The article was written in response to another article by Peter Calder

In a world where Right-wing fundamentalists quote Stalin's most murderous phrases when discussing their political opponents, we on the radical Left do not have to apologize for the legitimate actions of our heroes.

Also of interest is how Ernesto got the monkier Che. The word "Che" is used in several South American countries, noteably Argentina, in the same way as "dude" or "mate" is used in the US and England. It is probably derived from use in native South American languages where the word variably means "man" or "people." Also, in many South American countries, Che is used as slang for someone from Argentina. Finally, throughout Latin America Che is known as "le Che", basically, "the Dude."

Old Glory

The cult of Old Glory came about at a time when plutocrats were terrified of losing power.

The excellent history presented below, was posted on Flag Day over at the Mutualist Blog, but is equally relevant on the eve of the 4th of July.

Mutulaist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism

Since this is the High Holy Day of American Fatherland-worship, I thought I'd say something about how utterly unAmerican the Pledge of Allegiance is.

Not only is America one of a very few countries in the world where swearing a loyalty oath to the State is a regular quasi-religious ceremony in the government schools, but the Pledge is a radical departure from America's previous political culture.

Read more...

Change To Win Coalition

June 15, 2005 marks a momentous day in labor history.

The Change To Win Coalition was formed on June 15, 2005, and is an embryonic formation initially made up of the five largest unions within the AFL-CIO, including the SEIU, Teamsters, UFCW, UNITE-HERE, and the Laborers. As of June 27 the Carpenters union has also joined.

The goal is to "...to promote coordination, cooperation and collective action on organizing, bargaining and political action on a local, national and global scale. This organization, currently named the Change to Win Coalition, would also be open to other unions, including the Carpenters, who share our goals. It will enable this group of unions to carry out innovative strategies to advance workers’ interests."

The combined unions now represent over 6 million American workers.

The coalition has put together a 43-page document outlining a series of resolutions to be presented during the upcoming AFL-CIO (of which all these unions are members) convention on July 25th. A summary of the resolutions can be found at Working Life where Johnathan Tasini (JT) has posted The Insurgent Convention Agenda.

In fact, most of this post is summarized from the Working Life blog, which is an excellent insider blog about American labor in general, and JT is a contributing writer for TomPaine.com and the Utne Reader, as well as the author of several books.

A Real Speach About Freedom

'How does man live in denial in vain/by giving rules that prohibit and condemn?'

I am cross posting this from the blog All Spin Zone. Spainish Socialists are doing great things to advance freedom for all people and are pointing the way to a better future.

All Spin Zone said: If you haven't yet read Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's speech yet, you should. It was delivered to the Spanish parliament on the occasion of the historic passsage of Spain's gay rights legislation.

We are not legislating, honorable members, for people far away and not known by us. We are enlarging the opportunity for happiness to our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends and, our families: at the same time we are making a more decent society, because a decent society is one that does not humiliate its members.

In the poem 'The Family,' our [gay] poet Luis Cernuda was sorry because, 'How does man live in denial in vain/by giving rules that prohibit and condemn?' Today, the Spanish society answers to a group of people who, during many years have, been humiliated, whose rights have been ignored, whose dignity has been offended, their identity denied, and their liberty oppressed. Today the Spanish society grants them the respect they deserve, recognizes their rights, restores their dignity, affirms their identity, and restores their liberty.

It is true that they are only a minority, but their triumph is everyone's triumph. It is also the triumph of those who oppose this law, even though they do not know this yet: because it is the triumph of Liberty. Their victory makes all of us (even those who oppose the law) better people, it makes our society better. Honorable members, There is no damage to marriage or to the concept of family in allowing two people of the same sex to get married. To the contrary, what happens is this class of Spanish citizens get the potential to organize their lives with the rights and privileges of marriage and family. There is no danger to the institution of marriage, but precisely the opposite: this law enhances and respects marriage.

Today, conscious that some people and institutions are in a profound disagreement with this change in our civil law, I wish to express that, like other reforms to the marriage code that preceded this one, this law will generate no evil, that its only consequence will be the avoiding of senseless suffering of decent human beings. A society that avoids senseless suffering of decent human beings is a better society.

With the approval of this Bill, our country takes another step in the path of liberty and tolerance that was begun by the democratic change of government. Our children will look at us incredulously if we tell them that many years ago, our mothers had less rights than our fathers, or if we tell them that people had to stay married against their will even though they were unable to share their lives. Today we can offer them a beautiful lesson: every right gained, each access to liberty has been the result of the struggle and sacrifice of many people that deserve our recognition and praise.

Today we demonstrate with this Bill that societies can better themselves and can cross barriers and create tolerance by putting a stop to the unhappiness and humiliation of some of our citizens. Today, for many of our countrymen, comes the day predicted by Kavafis [the great Greek gay poet] one century ago: 'Later 'twas said of the most perfect society/someone else, made like me/certainly will come out and act freely.'

[translated by the journalist Rex Wockner]

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident...

"...that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..."

The Civil Rights Movement is perhaps one of the proudest moments not just of the United States, but also of the entire industrialised world. A country created with a declaration that enshrined the rights of man, and a constitution that protected slavery, America has always been a paradox: a land of the free where nothing, not even the most basic goods or services, are free; the richest country on earth where millions live in abject poverty to sustain a privileged few; the vanguard of "democracy" where one man rules supreme. The Civil Rights Movement is memorable, then, because it symbolized the oppressed and the downtrodden, having decided enough was enough, rising up against a corrupt, rotten system which allowed no opposition to its racist foundations.

Nowadays, media moguls and politicians try and write off the significance of the black struggle against the United States, its repression and discrimination. Not once in any history book is the true nature of the Civil Rights Movement related to the global wave of national liberation movements that swept the world and brought imperialism and racism to its knees, for to do so would be to highlight just how far the reactionary political elite is willing to go to maintain its privileges and its authority. Instead, the struggle is simplified, and no attempt is made to relate the issue of American racism to the more general economic and political discrimination of the capitalist system, which to this day continues to exploit the vulnerable.

I have heard people sincerely argue that there is no longer any issue of racism in America, that the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act solved everything. This is pure fantasy. While much has been achieved, racist attitudes remain. More important, however, is that the economic and class divisions within the United States have not changed. In a society ruled by the dollar, politicians are not likely to reform the "free market", or even to substantially redistribute wealth, because this undermines their political authority, which is based upon their material wealth. This aspect of the Civil Rights Movement, the abolition of the socio-economic causes of oppression, has been forgotten, replaced by a fairy-tale where everyone goes home happy

The simplification of the Civil Rights battle has gone so far as to portray the non-violent groups, Martin Luther King and so on, as benevolent prophets of change, and those unwilling to turn their head in the face of repression, Malcolm X and the other so-called militants, as thugs and intolerant black terrorists. King, good, Malcolm, bad - this is how the bosses want the Civil Rights Movement to be remembered, how they want children to grow up and learn it. They want, no they need people to never consider even the most basic type of direct action or self-defence - they want people to march, holding hands and making speeches, in hope that the bosses will compromise with the masses. They never want to see another Black Panther Party!

Ah, the Black Panthers. Even Martin Luther King was attacked for condemning the capitalist exploitation of the developing world majority , and yet the Black Panthers never flinched and never stood down from their total opposition to the American government and, eventually, American capitalism. Following in the footsteps of Malcolm X, they recognised that remaining passive and "respectable" wasn't going to get them anywhere, and that they had to stand up for themselves. Understanding that true equality, true freedom, comes not from laws and governments but from the streets, they stood up and took direct control of their own communities, hoping to finally achieve their goal of "All Power to the People".



Established at first to defend black and minority communities from the racist politicians and their lackeys, the police, the Black Panthers built a grassroots revolutionary movement, aiming for international working-class unity and popular emancipation from capitalism, racism and all other inherently discriminatory systems. Working with white revolutionary Parties, the Panthers established themselves as the vanguard of a true revolutionary movement, unafraid of taking on the roles of a government that was dedicated solely to suppressing all opposition. Their empowering, "Do It Yourself" attitude towards self-organisation and black and working-class liberation should today serve as a model for downtrodden workers of all countries.

Just as we must remember the revolutionary arm of the Civil Rights Movement, which managed to convince the street gangs to turn their efforts to productive ends, fed thousands and thousands of black children a free breakfast every day, and operated a great many other similar programmes, just as we remember it, so we must remember why it was necessary. With the approval and direction of the federal government, the FBI destroyed the Black Panther Party through the illegal assassination of its leaders, ruthless police brutality, and the corruption of its members through the use of narcotics and deceit. The Panther leaders, serving as the political consciousness of the movement, were hunted down and liquidated, leaving those black Americans who sympathised with the Panthers with the same sense of alienation and social disillusion as before, but none of the political guidance. African-Americans may have won the vote, their "civil rights", but they - and workers of all colours, creeds and sexes - have still not managed to secure their inalienable human rights.

They came down on us because we had a grass-roots, real people's revolution, complete with the programs, complete with the unity, complete with the working coalitions, we were crossing racial lines. That synergetic statement of "All power to all the people," "Down with the racist pig power structure" -- we were not talking about the average white person: we were talking about the corporate money rich and the racist jive politicians and the lackeys, as we used to call them, for the government who perpetuates all this exploitation and racism."
~ Bobby Seale, co-founder and Chairman of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defence, interviewed in 1996

Sanders Steps Up

Bernie Sanders is an inspiration to us all.

In These Times has a wonderful interview with the only Socialist in the American Congress, Rep Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Sanders states:

What we really have got to do is bring about a fundamental political change in this country. We need to change political consciousness and focus on the reality that many working people are voting against their own economic interests because political leaders are not speaking to the interests of working people. My goal is to form a new relationship between grassroots America and Washington, to coordinate activities, and to create what the vast majority of people in this country want--economic justice and not a government run by the very, very wealthy. It's going to take a lot of work. It's not going to happen overnight. But that's my goal.

I couldn't agree more. Sanders is currently running for the US Senate and it looks like he is a shoe-in to win. Check out the full article here.

Subscribe to In These Times while you are at it - its a great magazine and everyone's favorite lefty political philosopher, Slavoj Žižek happens to be a frequent contributor.

Downing Street Won't Go Away

The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings on the 2002 minutes between senior British and American officials which asserted that intelligence was "being fixed" to support the case for war in Iraq.

Read the full story at Shakespeare's Sister.

There's Something About Europe

"What do you know about freedom? You think freedom means doing what you like. Well, you’re wrong. That isn’t true freedom. True freedom means doing what I tell you."
~ C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

In the past week or so, even though the French stuck two fingers up to the establishment and the Dutch packed up their toys and ran home, various members of the European political elite have all been urging member-states to continue the process of ratifying the EU constitutional treaty. That the British government has decided it won't be holding a referendum, simply because it knows now it wouldn't get the answer it wanted, is neither here nor there - while Blighty may have put on hold the veritable circus that would ensue during a referendum, this latest display of apathy towards the people highlights the major defect of the Union. Quite frankly, whatever your political beliefs, unless you're absolutely deluded, you will have realised that the careerist bureaucrats and professional politicians of the EU are absolutely insane.

Prat.

Not content with the unaccountable Rich Men's Club they've already managed to create against a background of political apathy and disillusionment amongst the European workers, they have now been exposed as having absolutely no respect for the people they supposedly represent. Their hope behind attempting to continue the ratification process is a simple one - go back to the French and the Dutch in a few years, and ask them to vote: but this time please tick the correct option. Some of these people even have the gall to utter that "Europe is not any one country", as though the European Union suddenlt stands for justice and defending the majority of honest, intelligent people (i.e. those who voted yes) from some uppity locals who are causing trouble.

Well guess what - they built the EU along national lines, now it's time to pay the price. Instead of a cooperative association of European peoples, these bastards modelled the European Union on the same undemocratic, authoritarian principles by which its members govern. Instead of promoting internationalism and solidarity, they promoted markets and an emerging super state. Of course France is Europe, or at least the European Union: when you base an organisation on the State, the biggest one wins. You can't suddenly decide that the EU is opposed to nationally orientated decisions, when the only reason your emerging technocracy exists is because you pander to national sentiments. Listen to Chirac - Europe wasn't good for the French workers, it was good for "France", that abstract collective of politicians, enforcers and profiteers.

Twenty-five different flavours,
none fit for human consumption.

I must admit, deep down I'm glad the referendum in Britain has been held off - because were it to be held next year, the opposition movement would be fought by reactionaries and xenophobes - a national solution to a supranational problem. It would set British people back even further in their view of the world - associating, say, the French or Germans with the un-elected bureaucrats who govern all of us, instead of realising they are similar victims of neo-liberalism and a "representative democracy" that is neither representative nor democratic. Even in France, the constitution was denounced as Anglo-Saxon. Europe will always suffer when nationalism, however diluted, is allowed to fester unnoticed and uncontested.

I am not against Europe, far from it. What I am against is nationalism and division, authority and unaccountability. Whether it's "Europe" or France, Germany or England - the establishment will throw abstractions at us when they need us to comply, to confuse and divide people. Internationalism is the only principle that can save Europe from collapsing into xenophobia or expanding into a monstrous bureaucratic parasite. That one noble ideal is what separates the Left from both the mainstream supporters and opponents of the constitution.

French Say No To A Neo-Liberal Europe

This is a bit of late news, but as I predicted, the French have voted "No" to the EU Constitution. This is great news as the EU is currently a tool for spreading neo-liberalist capitalism down the throats of Europeans. Hopefully this will embolden the socialist and communists of Europe to fight for a unity that does not sacrifice socialist values.

More here: The Periscope

Guerra?


L'elicottero AB 412 sul quale viaggiavano i nostri soldati

È di poche ore fa l'annuccio della presunta caduta di un elicottero italiano in Iraq a causa di una tempesta di sabbia, dove quattro nostri soldati hanno perso la vita. È uno tra i tanti scontrini da pagare per l'elezione a premier di Silvio Berlusconi, che, nel suo stile oppurtunista e profittatore, ha seguito Bush in questa immonda campagna di guerra alla stregua del suo Fido collega Blair, premier inglese recentemente confermato al governo da un popolo tenuto all'oscuro della verità.

Perchè siamo entrati in guerra?
Per la Democrazia.
Quale Democrazia?
Quella degli altri.

Una parola ormai vuota,la democrazia.Giusto per gusto citazionistico, è da ricordare una nota marca italiana di cucine il cui slogan recita "La Democrazia in cucina."

Che senso ha?

Non ne ha alcuno. La Democrazia (fin quando sarò vivo Democrazia avrà la prima lettera scritta in maiuscolo, perchè rappresenta quello in cui noi lottiamo per davvero, il governo del popolo, del Demos.),in realtà, si è trasformata in un'oligarchia mantenuta da ex fascisti e da ex socialisti vendutisi al nemico.Una cosa però è da apprezzare:essi riescono ad essere uniti.Noi no.

Quale è il motivo?

Un proverbio italiano recita:"Quando troppi galli cantano non fa mai sole". Purtroppo per noi è proprio così, sarà forse per l'enorme capacità di idee che ci appartengono, forse per i diversi slanci sociali caratteristici di ogni fazione di sinistra, non riusciamo a coalizzarci.L'Unione stessa ha fallito il suo scopo, ancora prima di entrare in gioco.

Quando metteremo la testa a posto?

Carnival of the UnCapitalists the Ninth

Hi folks! This slightly belated edition of The Carnival of the Un-Capitalists includes a plethora of excellent posts. We have 13 submissions this week, including posts from C-un-C stalwarts and also some newcomers. So without further delay, welcome to C-un-C the Ninth Edition!

First, Commie Curmudgeon reminds us to remember the victims of class war this Memorial Day. Specifically he highlights the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937, in which over 100 steel strikers where killed or injured by hired thugs.

Over at Struggle in the Land of Corn and Soybeans, Indy Doug dives into the tight relationship between big labor (AFL-CIO) and the political establishment and its role in furthering imperialism. The post is titled Labor Imperialism.

Impasto has an intriguing post titled feed your soul to the world. In the post, we are encouraged to take control of our own bodies and food by participating in organic farming, community supported agriculture (CSA) and urban farming. Impasto asks, "Why can't we all be farmers?" Indeed...

Mr. Plawiuk over at Le Revue Gauche highlights a tragic story taking place in Alberta, Canada, where a hunger-striking 86-year old woman died while protesting staff shortages in long-term care homes.

Ever wonder what happened to "the good old days" when you could get a usurous loan you were unable to pay back without a hassle? They're back! Who Hijacked Our Country uncovers the seedy practices of the rapidly growing payday loan shark racket that is quickly planting its black roots across the United States, thanks to lax government regulation.

The Dark Wraith Forums give us an analysis for this edition, exploring the seven principles of macro-economics.

C-un-C editor Charles Todd asks the question: "What happens when the IMF and the World Bank force instruct a country to give away sell off its public assets?" - visit Freiheit & Wissen for the answer.

Speaking of editors, C-un-C's other editor, Gretchen Ross of the Green Lantern, gives a review of the hilarious and timely Grocery Store Wars, an organic food industry parody of the Star Wars movies.

One of my favorite blogs, to the barricades, brings us timely coverage of the ongoing Gas War in Bolivia. The conflict has been raging since Monday of last week and shows no signs of abetting.

Kevin at Mutualist Blog gives an overview of the pathetic Newsweek debacle and the ongoing retreat of journalistic independence.

The very popular Lenin's Tomb gives us a thoughtful analysis of capitalism and the modern state.

Ashish's Niti (where I learned that niti is Sanskrit for "policy, strategy or vision") provides us with some new ideas in how to think about social security and the manufactured debate that Mr. Bush has been peddling.

And, finally, another of my favorite blogs, Agitprop, brings us this thought: "Fast food companies are constantly thinking of new ways to advertise their junk food. What better way to entice an audience but with sexy models eating sloppy burgers that drip sauce all over their scantily-clad bodies. Nothing turns me on more than the sight of Paris Hilton eating a Spicy BBQ Burger."

So, that does it for this week. As I stare out the window of the only place I could get Internet access while on vacation (Barnes & Noble cafe) I survey the concrete wasteland of suburban shopping mall "culture" and am reminded of how lucky I am to be a part of this excellent community of thinkers at the Carnival of the Uncapitalists.

I encourage all readers to look over the excellent posts for this week and reflect on the amount of work and energy that everyone is putting into communicating and spreading the truth that you won't hear in mass media.

Cheers,

ReasonInRevolt

Call for Posts

Fruits of Our Labour will be hosting the ninth edition of the Carnival of the Un-Capitalists.

Do you have a post that you would like to feature regarding issues such as socialism, income disparity, privatization and public ownership, the corporate erosion of democracy, corporate malfeasance, workers rights, unions and international solidarity movements, free trade vs. fair trade, anti-globalization perspectives and alternatives, sustainable development, healthcare policy, etc . . .

For additional information and submission topics please refer to the submission guidelines. Make sure you email your submissions to uncapitalist@gmail.com by Sunday May 29.

Nepal's Peoples War

The people are the real creators of history.

Take a Left brought to my attention that the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), or CPN(M) may be on the verge of liberating that small mountain nation from the neo-fascist rule of King Gynendra Shahi.

A recent statement made to the BBC by the US ambassador, James Moriarty states "If the government and the parties do not find ways to reconcile... There is a very good chance that the Maoists could find a way to turn all of this to their advantage and ultimately end up marching in the Singh Durbar [the central government secretariat]."

On February 1, 2005 King Gynendra staged a coup, dismissing his cabinet, suspending the parliament, and putting the country under Marshall Law. Gynendra was put into power as king during a coup in 2001 in which eight of his own family members ended up murdered, allegedly sponsored by the United States and India. Indian expansionists has long wished to annex Nepal as it has with other neighbors, having annexed Sikkim in 1975, and they are in the process of doing so in Bhutan and Sri Lanka.

Marshall Law in Nepal means that it is illegal to be on the streets, telecommunications are turned off, the airports are closed, students are oppressed and murdered, and political leaders are under house arrest. A recent incident in Katmandu had undercover agents raiding the political offices of the opposition, with no warrants, beating and threatening all inside and destroying equipment and files.

Following the coup, the workers of Nepal instituted a general strike (Nepal Bandha) from February 2nd through the 4th, sponsored in part by the CPN(M). The people of Nepal have been struggling for 10 years against feudal and autocratic monarchy that has oppressed the masses for over two centuries. The stated goal of the CPN(M) is to establish a just republican state.

The capitalist classes and their imperialist institutions prefer to role back history and support a reactionary monarch of the most anti-democratic sort, rather than see the red flag fly over Nepal. Looking at the facts on the ground, it seems obvious that the CPN(M) and their allies which shall spearhead the people of Nepal to a free and democratic future.

Protestors

The Resistance

Adam Smith and the Duff Factor

Adam Smith seems to be one of David Duff's favorite theorist.

The following is a reply to David Duff's recent comments. I believe that our conversation has been very fruitful and wanted to share a bit of it:

Hi Duff. I agree that Adam Smith did not invent capitalism, however your statement that he “described what was going on around him” is incorrect. It is well known that Smith was an apologist for the capitalist and that in many ways he was performing CYA to secure his stellar academic career while he witnessed the incredibly unjust process of primitive accumulation taking place all around him, especially in Scotland.

In fact, Marx was the person who “described what was going on around him.” Additionally, compared to Smith, Marx describes in far more detail the math behind capitalism. Marx understood that capitalism produces more evil than good and further he developed a set of tools for analyzing the mechanics of how the system works. Contrary to your previous statements, neither Marx nor Marxists invented socialism, it existed previously and independently from his body of work. The Communist Manifesto was not even written until 1848, with socialist groups having formed throughout Europe as early as 1827 (and the socialist form of organization having existed since the dawn of human history).

Marx lived and documented what he came to understand as class struggle. On the other hand, your hero Adam Smith invented political economy as a discipline and labeled it a body of natural laws when in fact it is nothing more than assemblage of speculations and doctrine.

Smith is entirely deductive. Smith generalizes the laws of wealth, not from the phenomena of wealth, but from the phenomena of selfishness. He makes men naturally selfish; he represents them as pursuing wealth for sordid objects, and for the narrowest personal pleasures.

Nevertheless Smith gives us some pertinent insights, for instance: "As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce." – and my favorite “[law], is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.”

Please read Marx’s analysis of Smith in Volume IV, Chapter III of Capital (Marx: Surplus Value) and tell me where Marx goes wrong. Marx understands Smith much better than you or I ever will and does a good job showing Smith’s errors.

Duff, the bourgeoisie revolution brought freedom to many people and changed the world for the better. I believe strongly in the positive results of the American and French Revolutions and the roles they played in bringing down the then-existing aristocracies. Your boogieman, Marx argued this very case many times. But what we see today is that capitalism is the tool of the new aristocracy. The wealth has been reaccumulated to the top, small sellers and buyers, freeholds, farmers, shop owners and common men have no control over their own destinies as we are all essentially slaves to wage labor. This is not what Smith nor Marx had in mind.

Socialism provides an alternative precisely because it offers an achievable system which fits with the demands of a complex society. Duff, if you believe that human nature is not consistent with Socialism, then you must believe that human nature is inconsistent with Christianity as well. I believe you are wrong. People are just as charitable as they are selfish. Given a system that leverages the modes of production for the common good, I believe that people will dedicate their labors to the common good as well. It is what we desire more than anything and ultimately the reason why another world will rise from the ashes of the one created by Capital.

Economic Hit Man

John Perkins wants us to wake-up and “shape-shift” our world.

When you look around, you know that this world of human societies was created by sleeping people, because awake, aware, conscious people would create a very different world. (Perkins, http://www.johnperkins.org)

Perkins is the author of the best selling Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (EHM for short), published in 2004 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. EHM purportedly chronicles Perkin’s early life and career with the Boston based engineering firm Chas. T Main, Inc. (MAIN). It tells the tale of a man who, at least in his early life, was wracked with insecurity and conflict and seemingly very little backbone.

After several years with the Peace Corps, Perkins joins MAIN as an economist. His basic role is to produce economic forecasts for less-developed countries (e.g. Third World, or LDCs) that exceed reality. The purpose of these reports is to allow the LDC to qualify for loans from the World Bank, IMF or other large international lending organization. The reason this is important for his company, MAIN, is that one of the restrictions of this money is that engineering firms from the developed countries (DCs) like the USA have to be hired to do the work.

In the case of MAIN the projects were all focused on US engineering firms and we see this type of scenario is very common as in Iraq and Afghanistan today. MAIN is a similar company to Halliburton, but where Halliburton largely focuses on logistics and oil field engineering, MAIN specialized primarily in power generation projects, like hydroelectric dams for instance.

The subject matter Perkins covers is well documented in other sources. Some reviewers have suggested that Perkins is a conspiracy theorist. One point he continued to highlight in the book separates him from the conspiracy crowd quite specifically, as shown by the following excerpts:

Some would blame our current problems on an organized conspiracy. […] Members of a conspiracy can be rooted out and brought to justice. This system […] is driven not by a small band of men, but by a concept that has been accepted as gospel: [that] economic growth benefits humankind and [produces] widespread benefits. (Perkins, EHM pp xii) […]

The corporatocracy is not a conspiracy, but its members do endorse common values and goals. [Its] function is to perpetuate and continually expand and strengthen the system. (Perkins, EHM pp xiii) […]

This [is] a close-knit fraternity […] with shared goals, and the fraternity’s members moved easily and often between corporate boards and government positions. (Perkins, EHM pp 26)

Perkins is describing something well know to us all, and although he labels it the corporatocracy it is in fact simply capitalism or the capitalist system or simply Capital. Many people confuse the idea of someone being rewarded for hard work with capitalism. If this where what capitalism was, a sort of meritocracy, it would probably not be so bad.

In a meritocracy people would be rewarded for being hard workers and developing their talents over time. Those with more talent and who work harder would rise to the top of society. However, anyone who possesses any senses at all (you most certainly don’t need all of them) can plainly detect that it is quite the opposite case under capitalism. The most talentless, banal, and corrupt people rise while many others fall. In fact, the people at the very top, who we rarely hear about, are among the most indolent, being paid for doing no work at all based on their accumulated capital through the continued exploitation of labor.

In his book, Perkins describes a portion of the mechanisms that make this possible, specifically focusing on how the Third World is exploited through a process of neo-colonialism (though he rarely if ever used this term). Over the past 50 years, the forces of Capital dominant in the US have used economics as a key tool of empire building. Perkins tells this story from a personal, albeit simplistic, viewpoint that is informative if not compelling.

Perhaps the most effective feature of the book is that, like Machiavelli’s Prince, it personalizes the experience of the players in the game of geopolitics. Perkins gives a personal glimpse into the lives of Omar Torrijos, Jamie Roldós and the Saud family of Saudi Arabia. He shows how personal desires and weaknesses are part and parcel to keeping the system running. He also shows that the basest motives are what drive and fuel the system.

Reading EHM, and knowing about Perkin's background, I found myself wondering about the veracity of the narrative. I have come to understand that that issue is irrelevant. Regardless on whether this is a non-fiction narrative, or instead a well thought-out parable, the underlying truths are right on target. Considering the amount of cultural currency the book has at this time, this is indeed a very good thing.

Confessions of An Economic Hit Man can be found at Powells.com (union friendly) or your local library.

Jesse Jackson Shootin' from the Left Hip

The Reverend is speaking out.

Jesse Jackson is taking Mexican President Vincente Fox to task in an old west style shootout that shakes the dust from the chronically tired Democratic rhetoric. In a recent speech, Fox said that Mexican immigrants perform jobs that "not even blacks want to do in the United States." Confronting Fox, Jackson stated, "Big business and greed manipulate the whole world for cheap labor."

In 2002, capitalist apologist Niall Ferguson stated in the Financial Times:

[M]any of the defects [Marx] identified in 19th century capitalism are again evident today. In the last 20 years, there has been a significant increase in inequality in the pre-eminent capitalist economy, the United States. In 1981, the top 1 percent of households owned a quarter of American wealth; by the late 1990s, that single percentage owned more than 38 percent, higher than at any time since the 1920s
[...]For there is no question that the bubble economy of the last decade has brought about a quite astonishing transfer of wealth from one class to another: not from the working class to the bourgeoisie, but from one part of the middle class to another. To be precise, from the sucker class to the CEO-cracy.

Jesse Jackson seems to have been reading his Marx! Huzzah! When the reactionary press and the Democrats are basically quoting Marx, then we have a situation where the capitalist system itself is being critiqued in the mainstream. I believe that it has been a very long time, perhaps since McCarthy and the Red Scare, since this has happened.

The race element of capitalist exploitation is obviously not lost on Jackson. Class struggle is becoming the theme of the day and I am excited to have a figure as dynamic as Jesse Jackson on the forefront of publicly defending the interest of the working classes.

Keep on shootin’ Sheriff Jesse “James” Jackson!