Cutting through Singer's Paradox

Seth Godin muses on Cutting through Singer's Paradox.

And this is the problem every good cause outside of your current walk to work faces. They are trying to solve a difficult problem far away. They're working to do something that is neither close nor now. And often, because the work is so hard, there's no satisfactory thank you, certainly not the thank you of, we're done, you're a hero.

The challenge for real philanthropic growth, then, is to either change the culture so our marketing psychology is to donate to things that are neither close nor now, and that offer little in the way of thanks, or to create change that hacks our current perceptions of what's important.

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This is also the challenge for Communist parties everywhere. How do we get people to see beyond their immediate economic and political concerns?

One way is to apply Lennist principles of party growth—gather all people who see the real solution together into a disciplined party to share experiences, discuss and debate ideas, and agree to a course of action.

This is not a vanguard, but a temporary aggregation of people who are somewhat advanced in their ideas and practices at a particular time. It is a group that others will want to join as their experiences and ideas advance.

The party does not lead through superiority, but draws others into it through getting the situation correct, and acting at critical moments.

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The diversity paradox

Chris Dillow writes about The diversity paradox.

What I mean is that there are (at least) three distinct meanings of the term. One is ethnic and gender diversity — ensuring that women and minorities are fairly represented in positions of power and prominence. A second is cognitive diversity — giving space to different intellectual perspectives. And a third is ecological diversity: having a variety of strategies and business models.

I would argue very strongly for diversity in the last two senses.A multiplicity of perspectives — or epistemological anarchism in Paul Feyerabend's words — can be a solution to the problems of (tightly) bounded knowledge and rationality; this is expressed mathematically in the diversity trumps ability theorem. And ecological diversity can protect economies from shocks: the 2008 crisis was so severe because there was a lack of such diversity in the financial sector because many banks were following similar strategies. In a changing environment, mixed strategies help ensure survival.

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This is something the Bolshevik Party found very hard to maintain after victory in the Russian Civil War. All other political parties were suppressed because of their alignment with the forces of reaction. Once this happened, the only means of political expression was through the Communist Party. Trotsky saw this as one of the contributing factors in the degeneration of the Communist Party.

Cuba avoids this problem to some extent by allowing independents to stand for election. Indeed, most of the deputies are independent! Because of the unrelenting economic and political blockade from the USA, any new political party would be subverted by US interests.

This is a fundamental problem with Communist revolutions—the protracted struggle leads to less diversity as less willing participants leave to join the reaction. Pushing people beyond their endurance forces them to revert to old and known ways.

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A more inclusive university

Dan Little looks foward to A more inclusive university.

This fact presents a major challenge to people who want to see universities change fundamentally with regard to race and culture. We want the twenty-first century university to be genuinely multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic. We want these “multi’s” because our country itself is multicultural, and because we have a national history that has not done a good job of creating an environment of equality and democracy across racial and cultural lines. And we want the universities to change, because they are key locations where the values and skills of our future leaders will be formed. So if universities do not succeed in transforming themselves around the realities of race and difference, we cannot expect the larger society to succeed in this difficult challenge either.

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Liitle is an elitist because he believes society cannot change without the leading institutions (like universities) doing so first. He cannot imagine such fundamental change originating from the lower social orders.

Yet, this idea of elitism is another chain that binds us to the existing social order. We are continually told to look to and petition our elites for justice nad peace. We are told not to do anything on our own initiative because we do not the complete picture that our betters do.

Yes, there has been fundamental change from our betters granting us concessions, but these were won after bitter and prolonged struggles. Even these gains are being eroded.

A new society is needed in which we are all adults rather than obedient children hoping for benevolent parents to look after own interests.

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Magical Thinking and the Paranoid Style

Mark Jamison writes about Magical Thinking and the Paranoid Style.

The conservative movement is built on two interlocking premises, Americans can be made to fear almost anything and that fear can be used to sell most anything; paranoia and magical thinking combined for profit and political power. Rick Perlstein wrote a piece for Baffler a few years ago,“The Long Con: Mail Order Conservatism” that captures the con-artist element perfectly while Richard Hofstadter’s classic, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” captures our long historical dalliance with crazy.

Over the years, the Right in the United States has been comprised of a sort of mainstream Babbitt Republicanism which, with the 1971 Powell Memo coalesced into a celebration of Friedmanism, a sort of religious celebration of self-interest that dovetails nicely with elements of conservative huckster-paranoia. The result is a Republican Party that cannot really control the forces it has manipulated to gain and retain power. In the end though the Republican Party is a fusion of high-toned grifters selling bad economics designed to further the interests of the military/financial/corporatist industrial complex and small time con artists who use direct mail and now the internet to fan the flames of fear, resentment, and division, primarily as a selling strategy.

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Divide and conquer has long been a maxim of ruling classes throughout history. As long as the subordinate classes are kept fightened and fearful of each other, they will continue to look to the rulers for safety.

yet. magical thinking and fearfulness are attributes of children. The rulers want to see themselves as adults (or parents) who protect and nuture their children.

But parents who keep their children as children without giving the room to grow into adults themselves, are abusive parents who are only interested in maintaining control.

Even Anarchists are prone to magical thinking. They believe a single general strike, or other spectactular event, will bring the whole system tumbling down.

They do not realise the road to adulthood is fraught with danger, opportunities, learning and un-learning, mistakes. That is the nature of maturation. There is no easy path. It is the very difficulty that turns children into adults.

So it is with the evolution of societies. People must learn to take on more and more responsiblity for their own lives and to grow society into a more harmonious whole. This will take the wisdom of experience and struggle.

Societies do not grow wholly through individual growth, but also through individuals learning to respect and listen to each other. The social and personal must be bound together through politics.

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Top 5 Five reasons 2014 was a game-changer for Palestine

Ramzy Baroud gives the Top 5 Five reasons 2014 was a game-changer for Palestine.

1. A different kind of Palestinian unity
2. A new resistance paradigm
3. BDS normalizes debate on Israeli crimes
4. Parliaments are [f]eeling the heat
5. Israel’s democracy exposed

Critical to the success of this change has been the resistance and self-determination of the Palestinians themselves. The Gazans were able to thwart the ambitions of the Israeli government.

Also, the part played by solidarity movements throughout the world are undermining the unconditional support given to Israel by other governments.

Certainly 2015 will bring much of the same: The PA will fight for its own existence, and try to maintain its privileges, bestowed by Israel, the US and others by using every tool available; Israel will also remain emboldened by American funds and unconditional support and military backing.

Yes, the next year will also prove frustratingly familiar in that regard. But the new, real and opposing momentum will unlikely cease, challenging and exposing the Israeli occupation, on one hand, and sidestepping the ineffectual, self-serving Palestinian Authority on the other.

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67 years of dispossession and genocide has not weakened the Palestinians. It took Panem 8 more years before starting the rebellion.

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The bloody history of Australia's race riots

Peter FitzSimons writes The bloody history of Australia's race riots.

In Sydney, the phrase "race riots" conjures up the disgraceful images of Cronulla Beach in 2005, and many have the mistaken impression that our history of such riots starts and finishes there, apart from the odd flare-up. But the truth of it — and it is the foundation stone on which the whole series rests — is that Cronulla was not an aberration, but simply the latest in a long series of race riots we have had.

…

Throughout, we Australians have shot at each other, thrown stones and insults, knifed and clubbed each other, thrown Molotov cocktails, demonised particular races and religions, and even sworn to wipe certain among us from the face of the earth.

But here is the strange and wonderful thing. After each riot, there has been an extraordinarily uniform response. That is, the broad mass of people reel in horror, get their bearings, and then use the ugliness of the riot as a clear sign of the direction we should not be heading henceforth.

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Yet, Muslim women are still harrassed for the way they dress. It is the families of Muslims that are being raided by the anti-terrorist police. It is the non-white refugees that are still being locked up in detention centres, having their boats turned around, dumped on remote islands, or left to drown at sea. It is Aborigines who are demonised and deprived of dignity and neccessities of life.

FitzSimons is part of the same ideological superstructure that they tried to convince the US that racism was dead because Barak Obama was elected president. How many more Fergusons are people going to tolerate before they wake up?

Racism is essential is the survival of Capitalism. As Malcom X said, "You cannot have Capitalism without Racism."

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The Deadly Reign of the Animate Object: Capitalism and Sociopathy

Stephanie McMillan writes on The Deadly Reign of the Animate Object: Capitalism and Sociopathy.

Capitalism is not just an economic process, but it’s the whole way our society is arranged, an ensemble or matrix of social relations. These comprise three main fields: economic, political, and ideological.

The economic field is determinate; profit is the point, and everything else is set up to solidify the relations of production that keep it coming.

Capitalist ideology, centered on competition and individualism, is designed to make the way we live seem normal and inevitable. It’s forced on us by its institutions: school, the church, the nuclear family, media, and culture. Why would we need advertising, for example, if they didn’t need to convince us to participate? Ideological domination is unrelenting conditioning and indoctrination to naturalize capitalism, to make us compliant, passive, greedy and self-centered. To make us identify with it, instead of understanding it as the enemy that it is.

Political domination, the job of the state, has two main aims. The first, performed by the government and its laws, is to regulate the relations within and between classes to keep the flow of capital smooth and free of obstacles. The second is for when ideological domination fails: when we can no longer accept living this way, the state turns to coercion through terrorism. This function is performed by the state’s armed forces, its military and police. If we don’t comply, the guns come out.

The entire purpose of this set-up is economic: the accumulation of wealth for a small minority of people, those who own the means of production, namely factories, tools and land. This ownership was not ordained by a god. Nor is it because capitalists are smarter or worked harder than anyone else and earned this right. It is because they took it. They started with trading, which many societies understood as thievery since it’s the exchange of unequal values. This is still the way that mercantile capitalists accumulate wealth. They continued with land theft, backed up by war and genocide.

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Workers have to understand how Capitalism works. That is why Karl Marx wrote Capital. It was to make the laws of motion of Capital comphresionable to ordinary people.

Then Vladimir Lenin developed the Bolshevik party into a tool for the working class to overthrow a Capitalist country.

The fundamental contradiction of capitalism, reproducing it and driving it forward, is capital vs. labor in the production of surplus value for private accumulation. This process is what produces class divisions, class domination, and class struggle. It also uses oppressive practices like racism and patriarchy, and has terrible effects like ecocide and war, which we all have to deal with. It is a global system that dominates all of social life, and all the dominated classes and social groups struggle against it in their own ways.

But the core of this is embodied in the struggle of workers against exploitation. Workers are the ones who face capital in their daily struggle for existence, in an inherently antagonistic relationship. They are the only ones able to offer an alternative to capitalism; other classes can resist but can’t break its framework. So if we are to actually destroy capitalism, the working class needs to lead all the dominated classes in a revolution, to overthrow the capitalist class.

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In order for the working class to do so, workers have to identify with the working class. They will have to surrender their aspirations of joining the Capitalist class. They will have to overcome the indoctrination of racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia, in order to see other people as human beings.

This requires intense personal and social development which is best achieved through self-education, reflection, participation in mass movements, and action on the streets. We cannot be instantly and flawlessly tranformed into the people who can overthrow this Capitalist system. We must endure the daily political struggle in our own lives, and with others.

We must accept that mistakes will be made. We must be ready to quickly identify these mistakes, own up to them, and rectify them. We must be able to forgive ourselves and others for making these mistakes.

There is no magic formula for this transformation. It requires what we workers have done all of our lives: long, hard work.

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Royal Commission 'prejudiced and biased': CFMEU leader

Chris Slee writes that Royal Commission 'prejudiced and biased': CFMEU leader.

By accusing the CFMEU of blackmail, the Royal Commission is trying to portray any industrial action (apart from the very limited forms allowed by Australia's highly restrictive laws) as a crime. Union officials (and by implication rank and file union members) who carry out such industrial action are portrayed as criminals. The royal commission is also preparing the ground for even more severe restrictions on workers' rights.

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Any defiance against the ruling class is a crime. A crime is defying the natural order of things.

And since Capitalism is currently the true natural order of things, workers who ask for and fight for decent working conditions and wages are against the natural order of things in which the Capitalists alone determine what is right and fair.

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Asking why

Seth Godin is Asking why.

If we keep asking why all the way to the beginning of the thread, we might come to understand how it is that this is the way we do things around here. And then realize that we might come out ahead if we care enough to change it.

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We should ask why a Capitalist society is so racist? Why did Malcolm X conclude that you cannot have Capitalism without racism?

We should ask why a Capitalist society is so sexist?

We should ask why a Capitalist society is so homophobic?

We should ask why a Capitalist society is so xenophobic?

We should ask why the disabled are so discriminated against in a Capitalist society?

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Underinvesting in the public good

Dan Little writes about Underinvesting in the public good.

Failure to achieve these kinds of social gains through public investment might seem like a very basic element of injustice within our society. But it also looks like strong evidence of system failure: the political and economic system fail to bring about as much public good as is possible in the circumstances. The polity is stuck somewhere on the low shoulders of the climb towards maximum public benefit for minimum overall investment. It is analogous to the situation in private economic space where there are substantial obstacles to the flow of investment, leaving substantial possible sources of gain untapped. It is s situation of massive collective inefficiency, quite the contrary of Adam Smith's view of the happy outcomes of the hidden hand and the market mechanism.

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This is not evidence of a systemic failure. The system is working fine for the Capitalists. Their wealth are at all-time high. They are garnering a greater share of the GDP through record profits.

What Little is referring to is the failure of this wealth to be properly invested for the benefit of the whole society. This does not happen in a class-based society: the ruling class looks after itself. They only need to spend enough to keep the rest of us in line through propaganda, policing, and military.

Over half of the US Government budget is spent on the military, and that spending is bigger than the next biggest 25 countries in the world combined. So much poverty and death could be avoided if that money was spent there instead on the US military. But no, the wealth and power of the rich has to be protected at all costs.

Real social investment can only occur when the working class takes control of the economy and polity in order to direct investment into areas of most social need.

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South Africa: United Front takes steps to redefine politics

Dinga Sikwebu writes South Africa: United Front takes steps to redefine politics.

First, the assembly asserted the principles of democratic plurality, diversity, political tolerance and respect for different views within the front. Participants committed themselves to politics of mutual listening and learning where participating organisations and individuals influence each other.

The adopted resolutions warn against any know-all pretences and reliance on trans-historical blueprints. Referring areas on which different organisations did not see eye to eye on back to constituencies was therefore no train smash.

The assembly agreed that the front must be a learning space where organisations travel together, discover solutions jointly and unlearn oppressive, undemocratic and sexist methods of organisation and struggle.

The second way in which the United Front hopes to inculcate different politics is to call on all those who associate with the coalition to acknowledge their own weaknesses and adopt politics of consistency that call on all, to actively reflect on and address their own racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and privilege. The personal is political and there is no room within the front for talking left and walking right.

Third, the organisations that were at the assembly committed themselves to confidence-building struggles where they fight for winnable demands while also democratically re-imagining and building their long-term vision of an egalitarian society.

Although there are no guarantees of success, the United Front hopes to build a mass movement in this country through galvanising the tributaries of ongoing struggles into a torrent.

Those who define politics as a game within the purview of parliamentarians, political parties or paid politicians will remain blind to attempts by delegates at the meeting in December to put actions of ordinary people to determine their destiny as the real politics.

Equally, for those who equate politics with contests that we hold every five years, mass campaigns involving millions of people acting directly through their movements will not easily fit into their narrow political boxes.

They will fail to appreciate the steps that ordinary are taking to reclaim mass politics and through their actions transform themselves from being political subjects into being political agents.

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Because we all have been indoctrinated into a sexist, homophobic, racist, and xenophobic society, every day becomes a struggle to consciously overcome this conditioning.

In this everyday struggle, the personal is definitely political for every action and thought we do and have builds our political future. If I want a racist future, then I behave differently to and think differently about white and non-white people. Even this division of the world into a binary of white and non-white contributes to the racism in the world.

There is so much unlearning to be done, and the journey is long and hard. As we do, we should assist others along the same journey by forgiving them and ourselves for the mistakes we make. No one is truly free of this cultural pollution.

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How the top brass undermined WWI soldiers' attempts to 'live and let live'

Barry Healy writes How the top brass undermined WWI soldiers' attempts to 'live and let live'.

In the final months of the war, half of all German reserves failed to report for duty. Deserting German soldiers commandeered trains to take them home. The Kaiser and his upper officers considered bombing them, but the lower officers refused to do it.

Finally, in November 1918 German sailors in Hamburg mutinied and established a soviet in the city. The Kaiser fled the country and the war was over.

After the November 11, 1918 armistice, desertions and mutinies spread to the British soldiers who wanted to go home immediately. That stopped then-prime minister David Lloyd George from sending troops to occupy Germany.

Lloyd George said: “Germany was like a cholera area infected with the virus of Bolshevism.”

WWI ended because millions of workers pressed into uniform refused to fight any longer. Between now and 2018, the corporate media will tell us that glorious battles were fought and stalwart Diggers won great victories. Those will be falsehoods.

We must remember and honour those brave people who were lied to and manipulated by cynical imperialists and sent to the madness of WWI.

The memorial we must build them is an anti-war movement that says that never again will we allow working-class people to be sent to the slaughter in the service of their enemies at home.

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Yet this did not stop the Imperialists sending Australian, American, Japanese, Canadian, and other troops into Russia to fight the Bolsheviks.

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Choices

Seth Godin writes about Choices.

Non-obvious actions taken in obvious moments, difficult decisions that might be easier to avoid, responses instead of reactions, and most of all, the choices we make when it doesn't even seem like we have a choice—all of these, taken together, define who we are and the impact we make.

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It would be easier for us if we didn't stand up for refugees, for Muslims, for Aborigines, for Unions. Then we would have to run into the blind prejudice when we try to get our message out.

But our message is about building an inclusive society in which everyone has a say, participates, and benefits from. If we did not have that foundation, then our message is completely worthless!

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The meritocracy trap

Seth Godin warns against The meritocracy trap.

CULTURE is something we create, and culture works against pure merit. That's because culture creates insulation and connections and histories that count at least as much as the pure horsepower of merit.

HEAD STARTS get compounded. Early success gives people the resources, confidence and connections that can be used to create later success.

LOCK IN means that organizations and ideas can succeed far longer than they would without it. You don't give up on a social network or smart phone merely because one element of it isn't the best available one. It's easier to stick than to switch.

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One of the great myths in Capitalism is that of meritocracy. It says that the Capitalists are rewarded for their efforts.

In fact, Capitalist profit through a cluture that accepts and defends the private ownership of the means of production. The Europeans had a head start in the Capitalism race through the early accumulation of Capital. And Capitalists benefit through the lock-in enforced by the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and various “free-trade agreements”.

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Challenging the Divine Right of Big Energy

Rebecca Solnit is Challenging the Divine Right of Big Energy.

How will we get to where we need to be? No one knows, but we do know that we must keep moving in the direction of reduced carbon emissions, a transformed energy economy, an escape from the tyranny of fossil fuel, and a vision of a world in which everything is connected. The story of this coming year is ours to write and it could be a story of Year One in the climate revolution, of the watershed when popular resistance changed the fundamentals as much as the people of France changed their world (and ours) more than 200 [years] ago.

Two hundred years hence, may someone somewhere hold in their hands a document from 2021, in wonder, because it was written during Year Six of the climate revolution, when all the old inevitabilities were finally being swept aside, when we seized hold of possibility and made it ours. “Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings,” says Ursula K. Le Guin. And she’s right, even if it’s the hardest work we could ever do. Now, everything depends on it.

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The primary lesson of the French Revolution was that people were willing to step into the unknown, away from the safety and comfort of the known. But it had taken the collapse of the familiar for them to attempt this. Before that, they had tried to convert an absolute monarchy into a constitutional one, and to curb the excessive privileges of the aristocracy and the clergy.

It was only when the modest reforms were rebuffed and resisted that reformism turned into revolution. Even though the radicalism of the Jacobians was crushed, and a new ruling class of bourgeoisie appeared, Napoleon Bonaparte had to acknowledge and contain the residual radicalism of the populace in a balancing act.

Even the restoration of the Bourbons was not secure against the agitation of the populace. Revolts flared up in 1830, 1848, 1870 with the latter giving rise to the first worker-led government in the world. This was the 70 day reign of the Paris Commune as the workers defended Paris against the Prussian army while the French army ran away.

We must go through the charade of carbon-taxes, cap-and-trade, RET, and other market-based instruments as Capitalism tries to assimilate environmental policies into its mechanisms. This is what Trotsky calls the old system trying to solve problems in its own way.

These are doomed to fail because they crash against the very foundation of Capitalism: the private ownership of the means of production. You cannot force an individual to dispose of their property in a way contrary to their wishes without encountering serious resistance.

Public ownership and democratic control of the means of production is the only way forward. It only remains to be seen how long it takes people to realise that this is the case.

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How U.S. Torture Led to the Rise of ISIS

Barry Ritholtz describes how How U.S. Torture Led to the Rise of ISIS.

Indeed, many of the top ISIS commanders — including Abu Ayman al-Iraqi and Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi — were high-level Iraqi officers under Saddam Hussein who were imprisoned at Camp Bucca by American forces.

There was unquestionably widespread torture at Camp Bucca …

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And let's not forget how the CIA gave rise to Al-Qaeda, and through Pakistan's ISI, the Taliban.

Mark Thoma asks What is Wrong with Us?

I find it incredibly sad that people feel they have to make "The Case Against Torture" (NY Times). What is wrong with us?

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What do the ruling class care if more terrorists are created? What do they care about the morality or efficacy of torture? The only thing they care about is their continued grip on power.

Since reason has failed as a support for their leadership, then terror and fear will have to do. The more we are frightened and terrorised, the more we need the ruling class.

And it not the rulers, ensconced in their green zones, who are at risk, but we, in the red zone. It is we who have to bear the brunt of the anger, hatred, and reprisals.

We, the workers, have to overcome our fear of the other, our dependence on the Capitalists, our inadequacies in controlling our destinies. Are we to be forever frightened children? Can we not be confident and prudent adults, instead?

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Matzpen: Revolutionary anti-Zionism in Israel

Doug Enaa Greene writes on Matzpen: Revolutionary anti-Zionism in Israel.

Before moving onto Matzpen's analysis of Zionism, I'd like to discuss its views on the Israeli working class, both Jews and Palestinians. As Marxists, Matzpen shared the very fundamental idea that the working class is the key force for revolutionary change in society. Yet that still leaves us to ask: what role, if any, did Matzpen see Jewish workers playing in the struggle? To answer this question, Matzpen posed the following questions: How did Zionist colonisation shape the consciousness and organisation of Jewish workers? What effect did imperialism play in the formation of Jewish workers?

Matzpen's views were elaborated most succinctly in a 1969 article entitled The Class Structure of Israel, by Moshe Machover and Akiva Orr. The three factors that the article sees as most decisive in shaping Israeli society and its working class are the following:

1. In the late 1960s, Israel was composed largely of Jewish immigrants or children of immigrants. Immigrants saw their arrival in Israel as a chance for upward social advancement and to better their station in life through hard work. Many immigrants to Israel were more likely to identify their social position by geographic or ethnic origin, which was a major barrier to the formation of revolutionary class consciousness.

2. Second, and probably most importantly, Israel is not just a nation of immigrants but of settlers and colonisers who dispossess, expel and occupy Palestine. Jewish labour unions, kibbutzim and land purchases (or theft) were thus predicated on the overriding objective of expelling the indigenous population and establishing a supremacy of the Jewish settlers. Israeli Jewish workers along with capitalists had very much to gain from the national oppression and expulsion of Palestinians. The struggle between indigenous Palestinians and Zionist settlers is still ongoing and it shapes all of Israeli society.

Yet in Israel, there is class differentiation between an Israeli bourgeoisie, along with a privileged European-Ashkenazi Jewish workers, and poorer Mizrahim Jews lacking union protection and social services. However, all Jews in Israel, no matter how poor, are considered citizens and receive privileges as compared to the richest Palestinian, since they are part of the Zionist “Jewish State” and support racist measures. They rally to the government during wars or other national “emergencies”.

Below the Israeli Jewish population are the Palestinians in the occupied territories and in Israel, who make up 20% of the population. In Israel's pre-1967 borders, Palestinians are a reserve army of labour, receive poor wages, lack of union protection, social benefits, health care, lack of access to land and education compared to Israeli Jews. Palestinians are also second-class citizens and considered a fifth column in Israel (until 1966 Palestinians were under military rule). They are denied both democratic and national rights as Palestinians by the Israeli state, which declares itself to be a Jewish state.

3. Privileges for Jews are maintained by way of Israel's connections with imperialism through capital investment, subsidies and billions in military aid. This aid, distributed by the state and the official trade unions, went to pay for social programs, housing, financing employment, and maintaining the standard of living for Israeli Jews. Thus Israel is a society that has a standard of living far beyond what is produced.

At the time Matzpen made its analysis, the number of immigrants in Israel had declined and more people had been born there. Second, in the early 1970s Israel's state sector controlled more than 50% of the economy. Since the 1980s, there has been a major wave of privatisation from kibbutzim to welfare, which has produced a highly unequal income distribution.

However, neoliberalism has not fundamentally altered the attitudes of Israeli Jews in regards to Zionism. For example, during 2011 protests, inspired by the Arab Spring, in favour of social justice, Palestinian demands and issues were largely absent. During the recent Gaza war nearly 90% of Israeli Jews supported the government's wanton slaughter of Palestinians.

Whatever class differences Israeli Jews may have, as part of an oppressor nationality that uses state power to enforce an apartheid system, they band together in the face of the Palestinian and Arab “threat”. The conclusion that Matzpen offered in this regard is still valid:

In the context of Israeli society it means that as long as Zionism is politically and ideologically dominant within that society, and forms the accepted framework of politics, there is no chance whatsoever of the Israeli working class becoming a revolutionary class. The experience of 50 years does not contain a single example of Israeli workers being mobilised on material or trade-union issues to challenge the Israeli regime itself; it is impossible to mobilise even a minority of the proletariat in this way. On the contrary, Israeli workers nearly always put their national loyalties before their class loyalties.

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This is true of all settler societies such Australia, USA, and Canada. Workers are comforted in their aspirational ideas of advancemnet through the Capitalist system despite the rigours of neo-liberalism.

And as recent news has shown, the workers will take the side of the oppressors when it comes to police brutality and state torture. Indeed, all workers nearly always put their national loyalties before their class loyalties.

A hundred years ago, the Second International collapsed as socialist parties rushed to support their country's entry into the First World War. All of that internationalism of the Socialists came to nought in face of the Capitalists' call to arms.

This is still true today as the Australian governments promote the ideal of ANZAC legend to foster militarism among the young. Capitalists know that this is a proven way of keeping the workers under control through the mythology of patriotism.

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The *Other* Torture Report: What the USA looks like to the World

Rebecca Gordon comments on The *Other* Torture Report: What the USA looks like to the World.

Why should an international body focused specifically on torture care about an apparently broader issue like police behavior? In fact, torture and race- or identity-based police brutality are intimately linked by the reality that lies at the foundation of institutionalized state torture.

Every nation that uses torture must first identify one or more groups of people who are torture’s “legitimate” targets. They are legitimate targets, because in the minds of the torturers and of the society that gives torture a home, these people are not entirely human. (In fact, the Chilean secret police called the people they tortured “humanoids.”) Instead, groups singled out for torture are a uniquely degraded and dangerous threat to the body politic, and therefore anything “we” must do to protect ourselves becomes licit. In the United States, with lots of encouragement from the news and entertainment media, many white people believe that African American men represent this kind of unique threat. The logic that allows police to kill unarmed Black men with impunity is not all that different from the logic that produces pogroms or underlies drone assassination programs in far-off places, or that makes it impossible to prosecute our own torturers.

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Torture is a reaction to an existental threat. It is used again the other who threatens the existence of society: be they Jew, Communist, Trade-Unionist, Catholic, Prostestant, Muslim, Non-White, Chinese, Indian, Sihk, Arab, etc.

Torture destroys what it seeks to protect: the superior civilization. For what is superior has no need of coercion, but only of reason. Torture is an admission that reason has failed.

Rather than confront why reason has failed, the torturers and their supporters seek to shore up their world through force. To question why reason has failed is question the superiority of their civilization. And questioning that is treason—an admission of failure. And superior civilizations never fail.

Torture destroys the humanity of both the tortured and the torturer through the destruction of their shared humanity. When the torturer fails to see in the pain and agony of the tortured their own suffering, they lose the empathy that is essential for humanity. When the tortured only sees the hatred and deafness to pleas of mercy of the torturers, they lose hope in a shared humanity.

Hearts of stone result from torture for the torturer and the tortured for this is the only way to survive the process. Humanity cannot be built out of hearts of stone, only buried within them.

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'Talibanisation' of Pakistan and the Afghan war blowback

Farooq Tariq writes on the 'Talibanisation' of Pakistan and the Afghan war blowback.

The rise of religious fundamentalism has emerged as the most serious challenge not only to progressive forces but also to the very foundation of a modern society. Education and health are the real targets of the fanatics.

…

Religious fanatic groups are the new version of fascism. They are fascists in the making. They have all the historic characteristics of fascism. They kill opponents en mass. They have found considerable space among the middle class, particularly educated ones. They are against trade unions and social movements. They are promoting women as inferior to men, and aim to keep them in the home. Attacking religious minorities has become a norm.

Emphasis Mine

Fascism has its roots in the disaffected petite bourgeoisie. They see Capitalism as not working for them, but they still believe wholeheartedly in Capitalism. They then concoct various conspiracy theories to explain this contradiction.

Most of the time, these conspiracy theories revolve the ideal of morality. Capitalism is supposed to be the ideal moral system in which virtue and hard work are rewarded. Yet, they see that this is not the case.

So, they believe Capitalism has succumbed to moral pollution. In order to remedy this, they enlist religion as the cleansing force. In Spain and Italy, it was the Catholic Church. In Pakistan, it is Islam. In India, it is Hinduism. In Japan, it was Shintoism.

Tariq concludes that fundamentalism must be confronted:

There is no short cut to end religious fundamentalism. There is no military solution. It has to be a political fight with dramatic reforms in education, health and working realities in most Muslim countries. Starting from nationalisation of madrassas, it must go on to provide free education, health and transport as one of most effective means to counter fundamentalism.

Right-wing ideas are promoting extreme right-wing ideology. A mass working-class alternative in the shape of trade unions and political parties linked with social movements is the most effective manner to counter religious fundamentalism.

Emphasis Mine

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Decentralised participatory planning based on experiences of Brazil, Venezuela and the state of Kerala, India

Marta Harnecker writes on Decentralised participatory planning based on experiences of Brazil, Venezuela and the state of Kerala, India.

These words are aimed at those who want to build a humanist and solidarity-based society. A society based on the complete participation of all people. A society focused on a model of sustainable development that satisfies people's genuine needs in a just manner, and not the artificial wants created by capitalism in its irrational drive to obtain more profits. A society that does all this while ensuring that humanity’s future in not put at risk. A society where the organized people are the ones who decide what and how to produce. A society we have referred to as Twenty-First Century Socialism, Good Living or Life in Plenitude.

Emphasis Mine

This is a postive statement of what we are aiming for. It is not a negative statement, like saying that we are against Capitalism. This statement also says that we cannot achieve these goals within a Capitalist system.

The key to this model of society is to have decision making done at the appropriate level—not complete centralisation as in the old USSR, nor as complete decentralisation as in Anarchism:

We advocate a more integral process in which it is the people who genuinely discuss and decide upon their prioritises, elaborate, where possible, their own projects and carry them out if they are in the condition to do so without having to depend on superior levels. We seek to fully involve citizens in the planning process, which is why we refer to it as participatory planning.

To achieve complete citizen’s participation we must take the plans of small localities as our starting point, where conditions are more favourable for peoples’ participation, and apply the principle that everything that can be done at a lower level should be decentralised to this level, and only keeping as competencies of higher up levels those tasks that cannot be carried out at a lower level. This principle is referred to as subsidiarity.

Of course, we are not talking about an anarchic decentralisation. The ideal situation would involve the existence of a strategic national plan that could integrate community, territorial/communal and municipal/canton plans with plans developed by other levels of government.

Emphasis Mine

In Venezuela, the communal council is similar to the soviet in the early history of the USSR:

Each member of the communal council elected by the community fulfils a different function, but it is the residents who, in an assembly, get to analyse, discuss, decide and elect. The citizen’s assembly is the highest decision-making body in the community. Its decisions are binding on the communal council. This is where peoples’ sovereignty and power reside.

Emphasis in Original

The success of these councils requires the development of people in all communities through education, training, and sharing of experiences.

All this means that those who participate in this process broaden out their knowledge in political, cultural, social, economic and environmental terms, and thereby become politicised in the broader sense of the term. This allows them to develop an independent mind that can no longer be manipulated by a media that remains overwhelmingly in the hand of the opposition.

Harnecker hopes to build such a society within the current system:

Although an ideal scenario would involve the central state deciding to decentralise an important part of the nation’s resources designated to development, there is no doubt that a majority of countries are a long way from finding themselves in such a situation. Nevertheless, we believe that this should not stop local authorities who want to kick start decentralised participatory planning processes in their local area from doing so, thereby contributing to training up residents, through practical experience, to become protagonists of the new society we want to build, one in which peoples’ participation is a central feature.

Emphasis Mine

Yet, I think Harnecker is wrong to think that membership of such councils should be open to everyone, even enemies. This can only lead to the destruction of the councils.

And Harnecker's desire to build a new society from within cannot succeed without a deep theoretical understanding of the Marxist critique of Capitalism. The creation of such councils is a direct attack on Capitalism, and our enemies have been responding accordingly. They are not doing so in ignorance but in the full knowledge what the success of these councils mean.

Solidarity means the elimination of classes, and the ruling class is directly opposed to this.

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This or that vs. yes or no

Seth Godin writes This or that vs. yes or no.

Encouraging someone to shift slightly, to pick this instead of that, is a totally different endeavor than working to turn a no into a yes, to change an entire pattern of behavior.

When looking to grow, start with people who already believe that they have a problem you can help them solve.

Emphasis Mine

Communists need to distinguish between three (3) types of people:

1. Those who think Capitalism is mostly working well
2. Those who think Capitalism is failing badly in one or more areas:
• Policing
• Environment
• Racism
• Social Justice
• War
• …
3. Those who think Capitalism has failed completely and needs to be replaced

The first group are the enemy because they will defend Capitalism.

The second group would like to become part of the first group once their particular problem is fixed. However, recruits for the third group can only come from the second group.

It is only when members of the second group realise the reasons why their problem cannot be fixed under Capitalism, that they start to question the system. This usually occurs after all of the reformist avenues have been tried.

Unfortunately, due to the relatively small size of the third group, we cannot follow Godin's advice for growth. We have to continually involve ourselves with the second group and assist them with their objectives because they are our objectives too.

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Huge US anti-racist protests herald new movement

Danny Katch writes that Huge US anti-racist protests herald new movement.

SATURDAY'S PROTESTS marked a further step for the emerging movement for racial justice against the police.

By bringing in larger numbers than ever before, they demonstrated that growing numbers are challenging the legitimacy of police departments as agencies in charge of administering justice. They gave people a focal point to organize classmates, co-workers, and social circles and put them in touch with future organizing—at the New York City march, there were two separate trainings for future direct actions being circulated.

There will be many challenges moving forward there will be many challenges, starting with the questions of what type of organization can be formed to carry forward the struggle and how they can give shape to the spirit of the protests that have erupted since the two grand jury decisions in Ferguson and New York City.

There will doubtless be disagreements over the way forward—the conflict on stage in Washington, D.C., showed as much. But that's a necessary part of rebuilding the struggle against racism and injustice in the U.S.

Emphasis Mine

This is how participatory democracy evolves. The genesis is chaotic and many mistakes are made. The key element to success is respect for other people. One needs to have a willingness to listen and discuss all ideas.

Unfortunately, dogma and sectarianism are poison to such movements.

This movement will eventually fizzle out as did the ant-war movement from 2003. The major roadblock to all such movement is the unwillingness of the majority of people to challenge the legitimacy of Capitalism. People are quite willing to admit that certain aspects of Capitalism are not working properly. But it is gigantic step from there to challenge the legitimacy of the system.

In this case, most young people will admit that the police do not act to protect them. They have had the continual harrassment by being moved on, stopped from having fun, being too rowdy.

But, they have not developed the political understanding of why the police act as they do. They tend to believe that better behaviour on the part of the police will solve the problem. They want to participate in the system, not overthrow it. In other words, the gates need to open wider, not tear down the castle.

The behaviour of the police and the justice system are all determined by their place in the Capitalist system. The key to the Capitalist system is the private ownership of the means of production. The police and the justice system exist to protect that.

Any threats to that are to be resisted violently and suppressed. In essence, society is divided into those who have and those who have not. The police and the justice system instinctively know to protect the former and attack the latter.

A massive police presence did everything it could to keep the protests out of the streets, and to disrupt and split up the march. At one point, police forced their way in between demonstrators, refusing to let either side cross the street to rejoin the others—even as shoppers crossed freely against the crosswalk signals. As protesters chanted, "The streets are public, let us cross!" and "Do we really need a shopping bag just to cross the street?" people on each side coordinated a plan, and eventually reunited the march.

Emphasis Mine

Such movements cannot sustain themselves until they face the question of legitimacy of Capitalism. If they accept that, then the movement will die because continuation means acceptance that the system is not working and cannot be reformed.

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Rolling Stone hangs rape victims out to dry

Caroline Hale chastises mass and social media as Rolling Stone hangs rape victims out to dry.

Rolling Stone let us all down, but most of all, they let Jackie down, by letting her become an example to all rape survivors of what will happen to you if you step out of line, if you don’t fit the impossible mold of a “good” victim but dare to speak out anyway.

It is disappointing to see so many progressive media outlets reinforcing the same victim-blaming narratives as conservative pundits. Such narratives have a wide-reaching impact and tell people it is okay to disregard sexual assault survivors who don’t tick all the right boxes.

…

And what a convenient way to silence survivors: say that we can be heard and believed, but set the bar so high that only a tiny percentage of us are deemed worthy of listening to. And that those of us not worthy of listening too are deemed worthy of attack.

…

But people who are serious about campaigning to end rape culture do owe solidarity to anyone who speaks out like Jackie did, especially someone like Jackie who had asked not to have her story published — a solidarity that includes challenging victim blaming myths that silence survivors.

Emphasis Mine

As John Pilger says, there are worthy victims and there are unworthy victims. People who are oppressed by the current system are unworthy victims. And those who fulfil a need for the system are worthy victims.

Compliance with the systems requires one to ignore the pain and suffering of the unworthy victims. For to accept and console such pain suffering is to challenge the inherent goodness of the system. And ruthless systems do not tolerate such challenges. Their legitimacy derives from the acceptance of their inherent goodness.

Brutality, such as rape and torture, delineates between the rulers and the ruled. The former can do what they like to the latter with presumed impunity.

One cannot accuse those fine, young men who will one day ascend to the highest echelons of our society in order to continue the benevolent rule of our masters. They cannot be such beasts to rape and brutalise other people. It that were true, it would call into question the inherent superiority and quality of our ruling class.

This is why all such claims must be quickly quashed and forgotten. Otherwise the system would be exposed for the rotting corpse that it is, and civilization would collapse because there is no alternative (TINA) to Capitalism.

This brutality serves to keep us in line, for we know what will happen to us if we dare to question the system.

Thus, there is a contradiction to brutality. We cannot believe the victims, nor publicly call it out. But we must silently acknowledge its existence through our continued compliance.

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South Africa: Radical NUMSA-backed United Front declares 'Enough is enough'!

South Africa: Radical NUMSA-backed United Front declares 'Enough is enough'!.

As activists of the United Front, we view our first and main task to build movements that mobilise to fight corruption, looting of public resources, failing service delivery, increasingly unaccountable governance, violence against women, children and LGBTQI people, police brutality, and anti-poor/pro-rich economic policies (“neoliberalism”). We will resist retrenchments, [service] cut-offs, evictions, the collapse of our education and health systems and the retribalisation of the countryside

Our goal is to strive for the deepening of democracy and the building of people’s power in social, economic and political spheres where collective needs and interests of the people as a whole come before profits and other elite interests.

We call on the workers, the unemployed, women and youth, shack dwellers, back yarders, farm workers, landless and the dispossessed, to organise, mobilise and build the United Front in every corner of the country.

Emphasis Mine

A united front allows people with similar objectives and worlviews to work together in a common cause without having to adopt a common political program or ideology.

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Cultural liberalism is about personal responsibility

Noah Smith writes Cultural liberalism is about personal responsibility.

Social conservatives, in my experience, often tend to argue that the lower classes of society are not smart enough to handle personal responsibility. They seem to argue, in effect, that lower-class people are stuck at Piaget's "concrete operational stage" - thinking in terms of rigid rules — while upper-class people are able to move on to the more abstract "formal operational" stage. In other words, they don't trust the masses to do the right thing if given freedom from punishment.

Now, if that sounds like a straw man, well, good, because I am not a big fan of that idea, and I hope it's more rare than it seems. But I suspect you'll find at least hints and threads of this idea throughout the arguments of many social conservatives.

Emphasis Mine

Why they need us! is the cry of ruling classes throughout history. The rulers are there to protect us from ourselves.

This is why Communism requires a much greater personal and social development of the workers. We have to be confident and experienced enough to take on the awesome responsibility of running society for everybody's benefit.

Once we achieve that, we would have achieved full adulthood in all aspects of our lives.

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Socialists warn against racial incitement after Sydney siege

Socialists warn against racial incitement after Sydney siege.

“Socialist Alliance condemns the right-wing and racist groups and individuals who used social media during the course of this tragic event to incite racial violence against the Muslim minority in this country.

“While the most overt incitement has come from the far-right 'Australian Defence League' — which has called on 'Australians' to 'converge on Lakemba' — Murdoch's News Ltd and right-wing radio shock jocks are not far behind.

“The Abbott government has also exploited this incident to promote the lie that it acts in the interest of all Australians when the truth is that it acts in the selfish interest of the corporate rich. That is plain to see in Abbott's May budget and the mini-budget delivered yesterday.

“This tragedy is a case of system failure.”

…

“If we want to end war and terror, we will have to end this gross inequality and the capitalist system which has created it.”

Emphasis Mine

Remember it is in the interests of the ruling class to stir up intense emotions based on racism and xenophobia in order the workers fighting among themselves.

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How citizens’ revolt in Burkina Faso unfolded

Ernest Harsch describes How citizens’ revolt in Burkina Faso unfolded.

Where and to what extent the sparks from Burkina Faso may ignite fires elsewhere will depend largely on the combustibility of local conditions: Are social and political elites united behind the regime, or have cracks emerged at the top? Are people sufficiently aggrieved and their rulers so impervious to change that activists see no alternative but to risk open, mass defiance? And are they organised enough, especially at the grassroots level?

…

The work of such activists did much to boost the demonstrations called by the opposition party leaders. They also contributed to an increasingly notable feature in many anti-government actions: references to the late revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara. More than a quarter century after his death, Sankara remained a hero and inspiration to many young Burkinabè, his portrait carried by marchers, voice recordings played over demonstration sound systems, and sayings quoted in slogans and speeches.

…

Whether motivated by revolutionary visions or just determined to see Compaoré gone, it was the young activists who spurred the final push to insurrection. Diabré and other senior opposition leaders had called the demonstrations, and even urged their followers to engage in civil disobedience against the amendment vote. But it was members of Balai Citoyen, the CAR, and others on the frontlines who decided to breach the security lines around the National Assembly.

Emphasis Mine

Here the experience was physical confrontation with an authoritarian regime. There was an ideology that was indigenous to Burkina Faso through the work of Thomas Sankara that combined national liberation with socialism after the fashion of John Connolly.

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Lima climate agreement fails humanity and the Earth

Lima climate agreement fails humanity and the Earth.

The Peoples’ Summit and its march through the streets of Lima demanded the defence of Mother Earth, and the guarantee of rights of all peoples, of all genders. It presented a clear vision for solutions to the climate crisis, and for alternatives to its causes.

People across the world are taking up these alternatives and fighting to transform the system. We are struggling for survival and for the safety and security of our homes and livelihoods from climate disasters.

We are fighting for a transformation of energy systems, away from fossil fuels, towards access to decentralised, renewable, safe, community controlled energy systems for all. We are defending our food sovereignty and expanding agro-ecological solutions, whilst struggling to adapt to the devastating consequences of locked in climate change. Just as community-based forestry programs work in the interest of people, particularly indigenous peoples, instead of bankers and financial capital in the North.

People are building power — at local, national and global level. We continue to put more people on the street, to block mines, ports, corporate offices — and our strength is growing, as is our power.

We will reclaim power from those who don’t act in our interests. We will resist the imposition of a ‘global climate deal’ that does nothing for the climate and even less for people.

Emphasis Mine

We have this urgency to change the system in order to save ourselves. Despite the recent ravages of the weather, people do not seem to have the necessary sense of urgency that we need to change the system.

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Enter the Dragon: China offers Iraq Aerial Strikes on ISIL/ Daesh

Juan Cole writes Enter the Dragon: China offers Iraq Aerial Strikes on ISIL/ Daesh.

The list of powers eager to see Daesh (what Arabs call ISIS or ISIL) defeated grew larger this weekend with a report in the Financial Times that Iraqi foreign minister Ibrahim Jaafari received a pledge from his counterpart Wang Yi that China would intervene against Daesh from the air. It was not clear whether China was offering to fly fighter jets or just programmed missile strikes.

…

In short, China is beginning to behave like a classic capitalist imperial country, intervening with military force to protect investments, markets and trade routes. In short, Beijing now has an interest in Iraq that seems to make it willing to deploy air power to defeat Daesh.

Emphasis Mine

Capitalists also use military power to take investments, markets and trade routes away from other Capitalists. Capitalism needs to expands continuously, and when the market becomes saturated, competitors must be destroyed or subsumed.

Ninety-seven years ago, Lenin argued that Imperialism was the highest form of Capitalism. He defined imperialism as follows:

1. ‘the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life;’
2. ‘the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this ‘finance capital’, of a financial oligarchy;’
3. ‘the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance;’
4. ‘the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves, and’
5. ‘the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed.’

Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism p.92

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James Connolly: National liberation and socialism

Doug Enaa Greene speaks about James Connolly: National liberation and socialism.

In terms of his legacy, Connolly was not just one of the first socialists in an colonial country to take up arms to overthrow the coloniser, but he tried to build the type of revolutionary movement that could link national liberation to socialist revolution. The questions, alliances, tactics, strategies and theories that Connolly had to deal with in Ireland would be faced by other socialists in different forms, in national liberation struggles throughout the colonial and semi-colonial world, such as Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Amilcar Cabral, Carlos Fonseca and many others.

In Ireland, following Connolly's death, his dream of an all-Ireland Socialist Republic was unrealised.

During the years of the Irish war for independence and civil war, his leadership was sorely missed. While the IRA's war effort get most of the credit for driving the British to the bargaining table, we should not forget that the Irish working class launched radical actions in support of the national liberation struggle — general strikes, factory seizures, sabotage of the occupation forces and even the proclamation of soviets. However, there was no revolutionary working-class party in Ireland to channel this energy and to put forward a socialist program and banner. Rather, the working-class leaders who followed Connolly subordinated the struggle of the labour movement to that of the bourgeois nationalists. As a result, Ireland was partitioned between the British-ruled North and the conservative neocolony in the south.

Emphasis Mine

In any revolutionary struggle, a revolutionary party, on the Leninist model, is vital. For this party encompasses the theoretical and practical knowledge and expertise bourne out of the long, difficult struggle. Such knowledge and experise cannot ne acquired overnight in the heat of the insurrection.

The importance of Connolly is that he linked national liberation with socialism. The true liberation of a nation required the liberation of the working-class as well, and vice verse, for the Capitalist class is internationalist in composition, but not in idealism. The Capitalists will stop fighting each other long enough to fight their true enemy: the working class.

It is time for the working class to follow suit by adopting an internationalist approach to fighting the Capitalist, but also to truly embrace the internationalist ideal in order to sustain the struggle. For always there lurks the evils of racism and xenophobia to disrupt and destroy any internationalist movements in order to get the workers to fight among theirselves.

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Far right protests as Penrith council votes to allow construction of Muslim Community Centre

Richard Jackson writes Far right protests as Penrith council votes to allow construction of Muslim Community Centre.

Protest and counter-protest descended on Penrith on December 8 as Penrith’s council voted to uphold their decision to allow the construction of an Islamic community centre in Kemps Creek.

The reasons given by the protestors reflect the lies told in the media about Muslims. So, we have a situation in which the purveyors of these falsehoods, and the believers are vilified. No wonder people are confused.

This is the sleight-of-hand pulled by modern racism. The rich and powerful can slur a minority with impunity. These slurs are blessed by the priesthood of the ideological superstructure: academics, media presenters, bloggers, commentators, etc. And yet the people who trained to listen and obey their betters, are vilified for believing and acting on this nonsense.

Yet, racism has a very long history, and is deep-rooted. People born here cannot escape its trendrils. That people are racists is an accident of birth.

To remain racist is a sign of intellectual laziness. Self-education and reflection are the best cures for this. It is a painfully slow road as one confronts the lies told by people that one respected and revered. One has to be prepared to sever ties with loved ones. No wonder it is easier to go on sprouting hatred than to confront the ugly truth of one's life.

And that ugly truth is that white live in a life of privilege immersed in lie after lie about non-whites. And these lies justify this privilege. So the implicit contract is that continuing belief and propagation of these lies is necessary for the continued enjoyment of that privilege.

I would rather be a human being than a white person. Humanity is far more important than privilege. And as I keep saying, the nourishment of humanity within oneself requires the acknowledgement and respect for the humanity in others.

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People Who Think Torture is OK Need to Die and Go Away

Ted Rall writes that People Who Think Torture is OK Need to Die and Go Away.

If you think torture is OK — under any circumstance, for any reason — you are dangerous.

Pro-torture? You should not be tolerated.

If you believe that “they” had torture coming because “they” attacked “us” on 9/11, or because “they” chop off “our” heads, you are psychotic and sociopathic and should not be free to walk the streets, much less sit on juries or vote or drive a car or hold a job that a perfectly sane unemployed person needs.

If you diminish the exquisite horror of torture — if you think sleep deprivation and blasting loud music into victims’ ears and solitary confinement and stress positions and mock executions and beatings are not “really” torture — I want you locked up, the key thrown away, never to be heard from again. You are not fit to be near children or animals.

Emphasis Mine

How desensitised the Americans have become to the pain of others? This is what prolonged exposure to neo-liberalism does to people. Only the individual matters, and the more money you have, the more you matter.

Here we have the roots of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, etc.. This inability to see the other as a human being is the root of all this evil.

And the material basis for all this is that we want to share things with people like us. The narrower we make this category, the more there is for each member.

The cult of individualism is the shackle that binds us to Capitalism. This myth is propagated the ideological superstructure as the heroic individual who defies the ignorant and brutish mob who are like so many orcs to be slaughtered for sport by the noble and wise elves.

This evil of torture rots the very soul of those who do it and those who condone it. It corrodes whatever smidgen of humanity they have left.

Our humanity is nourished by the daily exercise of practising and seeing the humanity in others, not just people like us. Every time I confront the prejudices that have burned in my soul by schooling and cultural influences, I scrape away a tiny flake of that prejudice.

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Political illiteracy

Chris Dillow blames Political illiteracy.

In this sense, therefore, the elevation of "the deficit" over the problem of low pay is not just economic illiteracy but political illiteracy too — a failure to see that is politics is (or should be) really about how to arrange affairs so as to make individuals' reasonable plans as compatible as possible.

This is one reason why economists such as me, Simon and Paul Krugman (I apologise for putting myself into such elevated company) are drawn into politics. It's because our economic problem is a fundamentally political problem — and people have forgotten what politics is.

Emphasis Mine

And the political problem is that the system is not delivering for the poor. The main reason is that the system is designed that way: the rich will get richer.

But, of course, Dillow means that the Capitalist system is becoming unplatable for the majority of people, and that challenges the legitimacy of the system. It is therefore the task of the ideological superstructure to come up with a plan that will again get people to accept the system.

This plan seems to be a minor concession of political power in order to give the illusion of control to the people.

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Support Ted Rall

Ted Rall asks for support: It's the Season…to Support Independent Political Cartooning!.

Reality is, if you like to read my writing and cartoons, and you want me to be able to keep doing it, you need to support it. Times are tough, no doubt, but the cost of one coffee a day a Starbucks means a lot to me.

There are many ways to help out:

• Make a one-off or recurring monthly donation.
• Join my annual Ted Rall Subscription Service for just [US]$30/year — and get my toons and essays sent to your email before anyone else sees them.
• Support my work on Beacon (cost $60/year), which also gives you access to a bunch of other excellent writers’ work.
• Buy one of my books
.

Emphasis Mine

Go ahead and click on those links! Ted Rall needs our support.

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Paul Krugman: Mad as Hellas

Mark Thoma posts an edited version of Paul Krugman: Mad as Hellas.

The important point here is that it’s not just the Greeks who are mad as Hellas (their own name for their country) and aren’t going to take it anymore. Look at France, where Marine Le Pen, the leader of the anti-immigrant National Front, outpolls mainstream candidates of both right and left. Look at Italy, where about half of voters support radical parties like the Northern League and the Five-Star Movement. Look at Britain, where both anti-immigrant politicians and Scottish separatists are threatening the political order.

It would be a terrible thing if any of these groups — with the exception, surprisingly, of Syriza, which seems relatively benign — were to come to power. But there’s a reason they’re on the rise. This is what happens when an elite claims the right to rule based on its supposed expertise,… then demonstrates both that it does not, in fact, know what it is doing, and that it is too ideologically rigid to learn from its mistakes.

Emphasis Mine

Krugman presents an example of the argument that the system is sound, it is only failing because there are idiotic/moronic/corrupt/greedy/evil people in charge. Change the rulers and the system will become good again.

People, like Krugman, seem to have argued that it is our fault that these people are in charge. But they ignore the whole ideological superstructure that includes the media, that works to ensure that these people stay in charge.

The system is working! But you have to ask: for whom the system is working? My answer is those same idiotic/moronic/corrupt/greedy/evil people who are in charge! They love the system because they are doing so well out of it.

As Karl Marx wrote over 160 years ago, the laws of motion for Capitalism ensure the increasing accumulation of capital in a decreasing number of Capitalists. This is a consequence of how the system works. The system is not failing when the rich get richer; it is working as intended.

It is only when Capitalism is under attack from alternatives, that this behaviour is modified. The Capitalists have found that the workers can be brought off for a period. But, then they want their money back, so a period of austerity ensues.

Unfortunately, one of the alternatives to Capitalism is seen to be some form of Fascism. Fascism arises when the petite bourgeoise (aka the middle class) sees their position in society eroding, and fight back by returning Capitalism to a purer form.

However, the Fascists see the workers as their natural enemy, and so continue the class war between the Capitalists and the workers more intensely. And in the end, the Capitalist system is strengthened through Fascism by weakening the workers.

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Pilger: War by media a triumph of propaganda

John Pilger writes that War by media a triumph of propaganda.

It’s clear to me that the main reason Assange has attracted such venom, spite and jealously is that WikiLeaks tore down the facade of a corrupt political elite held aloft by journalists. In heralding an extraordinary era of disclosure, Assange made enemies by illuminating and shaming the media’s gatekeepers, not least on the newspaper that published and appropriated his great scoop. He became not only a target, but a golden goose.

Emphasis Mine

Yet, as Pilger acknowledges, the people marched in the largest ant-war demonstration, so far, back in February 2003. But, still Iraq was invaded and the whole mess that gave rise to ISIS (or ISIL) started.

People are not willing to question the system. They still want to work within the system. Until that fundamental belief is changed, all the truth-telling and facts are not going change how events unfold.

The single, brilliant piece of Capitalist propaganda is TINA (There Is No Alternative). This is why Venezuela, Cuba, Eucador, Wikileaks, Snowden, etc. are continually vilified. It is this piece of propaganda that unlies all others.

At the end of the day, if the ruling class refuses to move on a matter, what are the people going to do about? Vote for a different faction of the ruling class?

When the system is the problem, supporting a different faction of the ruling class doees not solve the fundamental problem.

But as Trotsky wrote, the natural end of a system occurs when all avenues of using the system have been explored, and the system is still found to be wanting.

Unfortunately, the natural end of Capitalism is Barbarism. It occurs when the self-centredness triumphs as small closely-knit communities. Since Capitalism is a far more productive system than Barbarism, the consequent economic collapse will lead to a smaller population with a shorter life expectancy.

This reduction in the general health that accompanies the reversion of a superior economic system to that of an inferior one, was best demonstrated in Russia and Eastern Europe when Socialism was replaced by Capitalism.

At this stage of the revolution, we can change one person's mind at a time. It is the guerallia form of revolution-building. There are no heroic gestures at this stage.

Even with Syriza and Podemos, they are still working within the system. They want to get the system to work for the poor, rather than the rich. This is a necessary action of getting people involved to start questioning how the system operates.

However, we need people to start questioning why the system exists at all.

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Greece: 'Why we must support a SYRIZA government'

Andrew Burgin writes Greece: 'Why we must support a SYRIZA government'.

The defence of a workers’ government in Greece will not just be a test for those in SYRIZA itself but it will be a test for all who consider themselves socialists across Europe. A defeat in Greece will open the path to Golden Dawn, an openly neo-Nazi organisation and that would strengthen reaction across the continent.

It will be the responsibility of the labour and trade union movement here and elsewhere to come to the aid of this government. We will need to support the measures it takes and work to strengthen it against its enemies, to help it withstand those pressures. We will need to build international networks of support and political and material aid.

Emphasis Mine

We are at a critical juncture in history. Neoliberalism is being directly challenged by ordinary people. Yet, we must take action to prevent the fascist reaction in defense of Capitalism.

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For worker control

Chris Dillow argues For worker control.

Neal Lawson is absolutely right. Social democracy is "hopelessly prepared for the 21st century."

This is because it is yet another example of an idea that has outlived its usefulness. Social democrats used to think that they did not need to challenge the fundamental power structures of capitalism because, with a few good top-down economic and social policies, capitalism could be made to deliver increased benefits for workers and the poor in terms both of rising real wages and better public services.

Emphasis Mine

Dillow goes on to argue that the harsher economic climate means that reformism can no longer deliver for the workers. Working within the system will not garner benefits for workers. He goes onto to say:

Times have changed. So the left must change. Neal says:

Instead of pulling policy levers, the job is to create the platforms so that people can collectively change things for themselves.

There's one context in which this is especially necessary — the workplace.

Both Dillow and Lawson think that the Left only consists of Reformists. Revolutionaries have been removed from the political discourse.

Dillow lists three (3) reasons why worker control of the workplace directly benefits workers:

1. Increased power for workers directly raises their well-being.…This points to a case for workers choosing their bosses, to increase the chances of them getting good ones.
2. There's a good body of evidence to show that worker ownership and control can raise productivity.
3. A feeling of control at work might have favourable cultural effects.…This could eventually improve the quality of our democracy generally.

But Dillow ignores the greatest obstacle to worker control—private ownership of the means of production. Until a substantial proportion of the economy is under the control of workers, it can be said that we have worker control. In other words, worker control can only start to exist under Socialism, and reach it mature form under Communism.

And Dillow ignores the political implications of worker control—the loss of power by the Capitalists. No ruling class has ever voluntarially relinquished power. Such contests are always violent.

Dillow concludes that:

My point here is a simple one. The days when the leftist politics could ignore the "hidden abode of production" because lightly modified capitalism would deliver the goods have gone. Our new times require new politics. The fact that the Labour party is ignoring the question (pdf) of how to empower workers is lousy politics as well as lousy economics

Emphasis Mine

Being left-wing used to mean that there was agreement about the economy benefiting people in general. Now, left-wing, in the authorised discourse, means making neoliberalism socially acceptable.

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Inequality & productivity

Chris Dillow looks at the interaction between Inequality & productivity.

6. Inequality can prevent a shift to more productive organizational forms. There's reasonable evidence to suggest that worker coops can be at least as productive as their hierarchical counterparts. Which poses the question: why aren't there more of them? One reason lies in inequality. Poor workers lack the access to credit that would allow them to buy their firms. And even if they had such credit, they might not want to own the firm simply because doing so is risky; it entails putting all one's eggs into one basket. In a more egalitarian economy, these problems could be smaller.

Emphasis Mine

In a Communist/Socialist society, the state would acquire the firms on behalf of the workers. And the productivity of such co-ops is measured by how well they satisfy human needs of the community, not by the profit generated per worker.

Dillow list several reasons why inequality reduces productivity:

1. Inequality might demotivate poorer-paid employees because they look to star employees and bosses to help the firm rather than take the initiative themselves
2. Wage inequality reduces job satisfaction
3. Inequality reduces trust
4. Where inequality is high, the rich will invest a lot in simply protecting their privilege
5. At high levels of inequality, the rich might fear that property rights are insecure
6. Inequality can prevent a shift to more productive organizational forms.

Dillow's conclusion is:

But there's one big fact which hints that they might be significant. Productivity growth has been much lower recently than it was in the 80s. This should be puzzling to people like Ryan, because for years they've told us that Thatcherite reforms in the 80s should have boosted productivity growth. So why has it fallen? Might it be that the benefits of those reforms have been offset by the fact that the increased proportion of income going to the 1% depressed productivity through the above mechanisms?

Emphasis Mine

Dillow thinks Capitalists are interested in a productive economy. Instead Capitalists are always concerned about the accumulation of Capital by whatever means.

Workers need to take control of the economy away from the Capitalists so that the ecomony can benefit everyone, not just the rich.

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Real Independence: In 2014, Scotland used more Renewable Energy than Nuclear, Coal or Gas

Juan Cole writes Real Independence: In 2014, Scotland used more Renewable Energy than Nuclear, Coal or Gas.

Edie.net reports that in November, wind energy alone produced more than enough electricity for every home in Scotland. Over all in 2013, Scotland produced 46.6% equivalent of its gross electricity from renewables. Scotland, with a population of 4 million, is well on its way to getting 100% of its electricity from renewables by 2020, among the more ambitious goals set by anyone in the world.

Emphasis Mine

This is certainly putting Australia to shame, especially as Abbott seeks to dump the Renewable Engery Target.

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