Barry Sheppard: United States: High stakes in Trump's attacks on Black Lives Matter protests

Barry Sheppard writes that United States: High stakes in Trump’s attacks on Black Lives Matter protests.

Trump’s threat to use the military to smash the uprising, if carried out, would have been a major step towards a military-Bonapartist dictatorship. The power of the uprising led retired generals and admirals to publicly back away from such a step, causing Trump to retreat. Mark Milley, chair of the armed forces Joint Chiefs of Staff - and an active duty general - in effect joined them.

It’s unlikely that the ruling class, reeling from the protests and the huge support for their demands, would support such a move.

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The political problem for the US Capitalist class is that there is no clear alternative to Trump: Biden is a pitiful excuse for a leader. Bernie Sanders would now be an acceptable alternative if it were not for the fact that the establishment has stopped the process of Sanders getting the Democratic Party nomination.

Jim McIlroy: Slavery endemic to Australia’s colonial history

Jim McIlroy writes that Slavery endemic to Australia’s colonial history.

Slavery, as a system of forced labour, dates back to antiquity. Slavery, Australia-style, includes the original convict system, First Nations people being forced to labour on pastoral stations, the Blackbirding of South Sea Islanders and the Stolen Wages program in Queensland and other states.

While wage theft is the capitalist system’s standard business model and the colonisers generally accepted slavery, it nevertheless sat uneasily on their conscience. This is why the ideology of “scientific” racism, the belief that one skin colour was superior to another, allowed First Nations people to be enslaved for so long. It also underpins the right’s culture wars, currently taking a hammering with the rise of the Black Lives Matter-Stop Deaths in Custody movements.

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Racism is the ideological justification for slavery. It is not the economic or political justification. The economic justification is the maximum possible extraction of labour value from workers. The political justification was to create a collaborator class of poor whites to uphold the system of slavery.

Marguerite Ward: Only 25% of Americans think capitalism is good for society

Marguerite Ward writes that Only 25% of Americans think capitalism is good for society.

In May, the Harris Poll and Just Capital, an independent research firm founded by the billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones, surveyed 1,000 people on their thoughts about capitalism amid the pandemic. Only 25% of respondents said they believed our current form of capitalism ensures the greater good of society.

For many this doesn’t come as a surprise. Prominent voices ranging from a top Harvard economist to the billionaire hedge-fund manager Ray Dalio have warned that capitalism would soon face a crisis because of the massive inequality exposed by the pandemic.

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The report on the survey concluded:

Americans overwhelmingly agree that we as a society need to use this crisis as an opportunity to fix what’s broken and find a better way of living. Americans are looking for companies to take the lead on key policy issues like paid sick leave, paid family leave, wage increases, healthcare, and increased flexibility to work from home. And the American public believes we need a more evolved form of capitalism to tackle the shift.

This more evolved capitalism must be based on our learnings from this time – that our economy has not been working for the majority of Americans, that business must play a key role in protecting the public, and that certain populations, including Black and Brown Americans, are tremendously vulnerable to both the health and economic impacts of crisis. When asked if they had been personally impacted by COVID-19, Black survey respondents identified as having been furloughed, laid off, or given a zero-hour schedule at double the rate of White respondents (Black respondents: 22%, 20%, and 21% vs. White respondents: 10%, 11%, and 5%, respectively).

We have faced unprecedented challenges over the last few months – and it’s not over yet – but we have the opportunity today to build better coming out of this pandemic, and deep social unrest. These views from the public provide a roadmap to how we can reset capitalism to truly serve all Americans, and build a more equitable society for tomorrow.

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This view is hampered by the blinkers that Capitalism is the only gmae in town. Socialism or Communism is not even considered. Fifty (50) years on neo-liberalism has led us here. What the magazine wants some form of Capitalism to survive this crisis. They are implicitly recognizing that the neo-liberal project has led to this series of crises: massive busfires; glaobal pandemic; economic depression; unrest in the streets.

People have to realize that asking Capitalists to be nice will not work. We have seen what utter bastards thry are throughout the 1980s and onwards. We need to take control of our own lives and our work. We need to work and struggle towards a more just and equitable society. Capitalism has shown that it cannot achieve that outcome.

Sam Williams: The Crisis (Pt 9)

Sam Williams describes The Crisis (Pt 9).

But the dangers of what Roubini calls “populism,” by which he essentially means fascism, are very real. The danger of fascism will grow if the current demonstrations and rebellions don’t lead to a rapid revival of the workers’ movement, not only in the trade union sense but above all in the political sense. If the workers’ movement revives, it will open the door to the resolution of the current ecological-biological, economic, and political crises in the form of the U.S. and global socialist revolution. This is not, however, an outcome that Mr. Roubini particularly relishes. Instead, he hopes for a solution that will somehow revive capitalism without fascism and war.

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The danger in the USA is that Trump loses control of his base of lumpen-proletariat and petite-bourgeoisie classes. This would open the door to a more Fascist leader. Trump is an opportunist. Some say he is a Bonapartist except that he does not unify the nation.

Already, I am seeing videos on Youtube decrying the surrender of the state to the BLM protestors with the modest reforms being proposed. These reactionaries are most affronted by footage of police kneeling with protestors. The reactionaries call this act kow-towing. They are outraged. They do not see the inherent meaninglessness of the act.

And, most dangerously of all, there are fantasists putting out videos of them saying that they have turned back busloads of Antifia activists from pillaging and burning their communities. No actual footage of this is provided. These fantasists are fuelling the propaganda on the Right.

However, no-one is blaming Trump for the failure to reign in the current insurrection. Whereas in the UK, people are blaming the Conservatives for the failure to do so. This may account for the renewed urgency on Brexit negotiations.

Will opines further:

This is why the current rebellion sweeping the United States of America, still by far the most powerful imperialist country in the world, is so important. Will this rebellion be a herald of a movement towards the socialist transformation of the United States and the world, or will it end in a new, if brief, stabilization of American and world capitalism such as Roubini is hoping for in the 2030s? If something like this were to occur, it would very likely be but a prelude to the final collapse of our civilization. And this as far as capitalism is concerned is the very best case.

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Yes, there is economic and ecological instability within Capitalism, but there is no political instability as the overwhelming majority is still in favour of Capitalism. At this stage, some minor political realignment may occur.

My main fear is with the possible rise of right-wing paramilitaries who see themselves as replacing the police in quelling the insurrection as in the case of the Freikorps.

By unknown photograther - http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3160/3053216221_576264dcf2.jpg, Public Domain, Link

Oli Mould: Seattle’s BLM Autonomous Protest Zone and the Paris Commune of 1871: Anti-Capitalist Spirit still Lives

Oli Mould worries about co-option of the Seattle’s BLM Autonomous Protest Zone and the Paris Commune of 1871: Anti-Capitalist Spirit still Lives.

With Chaz too, the lure of “protest chic” may be too much to resist – it is after all in Seattle, one of the US’s most heralded creative cities. For Chaz to resist this, it must resolutely be a space of the oppressed and the black voices of the movement. In essence, white people can help set it up and maintain it, but they must remain silent inside it and let the oppressed use the space to strategise and mobilise.

The Paris Commune didn’t end too well, and the murmurings from President Donald Trump are that the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone may not last too long either. But that the commune is still taught and talked about today is testament to its lasting positive effect within urban politics. It may have been brutally quashed, but its anti-capitalist spirit set an example for nearly 150 years of subsequent urban struggles all over the world.

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What a choice: co-option or destruction. There has to be other options such as expansion or evolution.

Fortunately, the reactionaries are ridiculing the CHAZ currently. This is good because it delays destruction. CHAZ should not be trying to win over the reactionaries, but to disarm them.

Ideally, CHAZ should last long enough to explore many models of self-governance, and to create a cadre of confident activists to go underground during the reactionary backlash.

Continuing the BLM protests reduces the pressure on CHAZ. The presence of many people on the streets makes the government wary of taking drastic action. Unfortunately, protest fatigue will doom the CHAZ.

Expansion of the autonomous zone model to other cities may quickly incur the wrath of the government in order to stop the spread of a good example. Such a spread will definitely spook the reactionaries and may invite action by right-wing paramilitaries to form and crush the BLM protests.

If the CHAZ survives long enough, it may evolve into something that can be tolerated by the state. This is entirely up to CHAZ itself.

Peter Dorman: Why Trump Is in Trouble

Peter Dorman asks Why Trump Is in Trouble.

What has collapsed for Trump, finally in 2020, is not just the economy, the health of the population or the racial order, but his ability to determine what the issues are: he has lost control of the narrative. This is not because the Democrats have beat him at his own game. On the contrary, they are as clueless about these things as they’ve always been. His problem is that we are facing real crises that demand our attention whether we want them to or not. Trump has almost no influence over what politics are about in an election year; the pandemic, the economy and the revulsion against racism and police violence define the political moment on their own. This is why he seems to be flailing: his entire career has been based on his projection of his needs onto the world, and he has hardly any capacity to respond to the demands of others.

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Trump has aligned himeself with the lumpen-proletariat and petite-bourgeoisie classes. This alignment hinders any softening of attitudes to defuse the political crises going on. These classes only know that force solves all problems.

The liberals are trying to defuse the situation by:

• Having police kneel or march with protestors
• Having police chiefs resign
• Firing or suspending police officers
• Permitting the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone to exist
• Conducting a year-long review of police departments
• Not showing large peaceful on-going protests throughout the country
• Ban the use and display of the Confederate Flag at NASCAR events and on NASCAR property
• Removal of statues
• Having the brass of the US military say "Listen"
• Proposing to ban the use or display of the Confederate flag by members of the US military
• Renaming of US military bases

All of these measures by liberals are to buy time so that fatigue can set in while giving the impression that progress has been made. Liberals know how to make the minimal concessions necessary to defuse a situation while leaving the essential elements of Capitalism intact. Reactionaries do not—they want to fight and defend everywhere.

Liberals trade space for time. This is especially effective when the space conceded is not vital to the survival of Capitalism. Reactionaries are afraid of the fragility of Capitalism and so fight desperately for every centimeter of ground. They rival the fanaticism of the Japanese in the defense of Iwo Jima.

Searching for examples of systemic racism

A prominent commentator has been asking for current examples of systemic racism.

That someone, who professes to possess the intellect and knowledge to propound on current events, should be asking for examples of systemic racism is a fine example of such. Implicit in the question is the assessment that the person is unable to discern any examples by themselves, and that any reports by others of such are discredited.

To posit such a question means that the questioner has neither first hand experience nor credible sources reporting such. This stance entails privilege. What is happening to others is not happening to them. Since the commentator is white, and those reporting systemic racism are non-white, this privilege entails racism.

This racism is also evident in the treatment of reports by non-whites about their experiences. Non-whites are disbelieved because they are non-white. That the question is posed means the questioner is either ignorant of the plethora of experiences, or classes all of these reports as lies because of the origin.

Ignorance is also a manisification of privilege. Such ignorance has no meaningful impact on the commentator's life. They are not more likely to die because of their ignorance. They are able to enjoy the fruits of their labour in wilful ignorance.

Maybe the commentator is relying on semantics to deflect from admitting systemic racism exists now. They could posit that there are examples of individuals being racists. But this ignores the evidence that non-whites fare poorly when they encounter the system—whether the system is the police, courts, prison, health care, employment, or the environment. That the commentator does not have to consider any of these means that the commentator benefits from systemic racism. By not crediting reports of systemic racism, the commentator has become part of the systemic racism.