Syria, Yemen Conflicts only seem to be about Sunni-Shiite from 30,000 Feet

Juan Cole writes that Syria, Yemen Conflicts only seem to be about Sunni-Shiite from 30,000 Feet.

JUAN COLE: I see evidence of al-Qaeda thinkers, like Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was the number-two man for a long time, before bin Laden was killed, being influenced by Marxist thought, and radical Marxism. This is very clear in the technical terms that the Muslim far-right uses. They talk about a vanguard. This was a Leninist term. In some radical forms of Marxism, activists were impatient with the working class, which seemed not to want to fulfill its historical duty by rising up against the business classes, and so it engaged in sabotage—not everywhere all the time, but there were some groups that did that kind of thing in hopes of provoking a class war, because they knew the business classes would call upon their agents, the police, to crack down hard on sabotage and workers’ activism and so forth.

I think that al-Qaeda picked up this kind of thinking from the Marxist fringe in places like Egypt and so forth. I think that it is a deliberate strategy on their part, the sharpening of contradictions, or the heightening of contradictions, as it’s called. I think it explains everything that happened in Iraq.

I remember reading a New York Times piece in 2005 or so that al-Qaeda in Iraq had blown up a pet shop. There were pieces of rabbits and snakes wiggling on the ground. This author in The New York Times expressed himself with amazement. He said, “We should get out of Iraq now, because we can’t understand why you would do that. And if you don’t understand what your enemy is doing, then you should not be there.”

I understood exactly what they were doing. They were hitting soft targets. They were hitting businesses. It was a Shiite-owned pet shop. What they were trying to do was to get the Shiites’ goat in Iraq. They were trying to provoke a civil war, because they hoped that the Shiite clans who were being hit would go and attack Sunnis, and if they went and attacked the Sunnis, then al-Qaeda could go to the Sunnis and say, “Gee, you seem to be being attacked. We could protect you.”

So by provoking attacks on their own community, they actually could parlay that into power.

At the time, I was skeptical that they could succeed in this, but you come to last June, and they took over Mosul, the second-largest city in the country, in exactly this way—by continually provoking the Shia, getting reprisals going, and then going to the Sunnis against whom the reprisals were waged and saying, “You need protection.” By that time, the Mosulites said, “Yes, we do. Would you please come in,” even though Mosulites are cosmopolitan, secular-minded people. But they were willing to bring in this radical fundamentalist group just because they were tired of being targeted by the Shiite government.

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Marxists should always be sharpening the contradictions—but only through political means. We are offering an alternative political explanation for events. We want to show that there are Communist and Capitalist narratives at play in the world around us.

Marxists have rejected the terrorist mentality. Terrorism, as shown by events over the past twenty (20) years, has strengthen the Capitlist state through greater legal power, greater reliance on force, and the ready support of such measures by the population. Support for the government is almost reflexive once the terrorism aspect is highlighted.

The Capitalist is always willing to suppress the working class whenever it feels its interests are threatened. But it can, and has, retreat before determined resistance by a significant portion of the working class.

Marxists, at this stage of the struggle, are engaged in educating and radicalising the working class through mass actions, propaganda, and agitation. We join in the daily struggle to sharpen our political awareness of how the world works.

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Protests against racist police killings sweep US

Protests against racist police killings sweep US.

Protesters demanding widespread reform of the police took the streets on April 14, as killings of unarmed black men have become all-too frequent in US headlines.

Activists from various right groups rallied in different cities throughout the country. Signs carried by the protesters in New York read: “Stop Police brutality and mass murder.” Protesters spread the message on social media websites using hashtags, including the popular #BlackLivesMatter.

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The thinking behind these protests is mistaken: the police are not there to defend society against the criminals; but to defend the rich criminals against the poor members of society. This attitude determines the direction of police violence which is against the poor.

There are the misguided police officers who believe that they serve the community. It takes some time for the real situation to penetrate their thick skulls. Then they either leave or succumb to the pervasive corruption that the police are forced to immerse themselves.

In theoretical terms, the state serves the interests of the ruling class. And the police are merely the agents of violence in the service of the state. Everything flows from that.

In order to stop the police brutality, it is necessary to change the social order into a classless society.

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Huge rallies against WA community closures

Rachel Evans and Jemma Nott write that there were Huge rallies against WA community closures in Sydney and Melbourne.

Rebel Hanlon, assistant secretary of the NSW construction division of the CFMEU denounced capitalism’s role in the oppression of Indigenous people, including mining companies' land grabs and Deicorp, the developers threatening to move Indigenous people off the Block in Redfern.

He pledged the unions support for the campaign to maintain Aboriginal housing in Redfern. A contingent of Maori construction workers gave an energetic solidarity Haka.

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Here we have an advanced worker understanding and articulating the linkage between oppression of Aborigines and the engine of Capitalism. The building unions have a long history of workers educating themselves in the workings of Capitalism. This is why the governments have been keen to quash the militancy of the building unions.

The latest attempt to quash the CFEMU was commented on in Royal Commission 'prejudiced and biased':

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.

As I wrote in State governments share blame for (Not) Closing the Gap:

To really solve this problem requires all non-indigineous Australians to confront their racist attitudes towards Aborigines, and begin to redress the wrongs inflicted on them.

This requires that we acknowledge the racist basis for Capitalism and the invasion of Australia.

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Israeli Forces Target Journalists in West Bank

Mel Frykberg writes that Israeli Forces Target Journalists in West Bank.

On another occasion, I was accompanying a Palestinian ambulance which was trying to reach Jelazon camp to help Palestinian youths injured during clashes with the IDF.

Several military jeeps blocked the roads leading to the camp and refused to move when asked by the ambulance driver.

After I got out and spoke to the soldiers, showing them my credentials yet again, the jeep moved to the side and allowed the ambulance to continue.

The Israelis still appear to be sensitive to a certain degree to how they are portrayed in the Western media.

This has become apparent to me when covering violent clashes. As soon as it has been established that I am Australian, white and a woman, the aggression of the Israeli soldiers has abated and they have tried to get me on side by asking me if I am alright and warning me to take care,

However, I know that I too could easily fall prey to Israeli ammunition if I am not exceedingly careful so, on this basis, I choose to stay well away from the frontlines of clashes.

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Here is someone using their white privilege to benefit the oppressed, but they are acutely of the limits of that privilege as Rachel Corrie found to her cost.

Given the sensitivity of the Israeli government to pressure from Westerners, we should be our relative privilege to relieve the sufferings of the Palestinians through supporting the BDS campaign.

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Spain at 70% non-Carbon Electricity: Will it be 1st Net Carbon Zero G-20 State?

Juan Cole writes that Spain at 70% non-Carbon Electricity: Will it be 1st Net Carbon Zero G-20 State?.

If Spain doubles its wind generation from 22% of its energy mix to 40% in the next five years, as it plans, then that would take it to 87% of its electricity from renewables and nuclear. The other 13% may well be supplied by solar, allowing the decommissioning of the coal plants, assuming the government reverses its decision to remove solar subsidies, which has hurt investors in that sector. Note that fossil fuel industries typically get government subsidies, which the MSM doesn’t usually talk about, and that Spain is especially at risk from climate change effects such as desertification and sea level rise, so “subsidies” for clean energy would save the country trillions of dollars over time.

Spain, a country of 47 million people, has a gross domestic product of $1.4 trillion, making it the world’s 14th largest economy and ranging it with Australia and South Korea in that regard. If it can go completely to renewables and nuclear with regard to electricity generation, then it may well be the first large, economically consequential country to go entirely green.

In contrast, Australia gets 92% of its electricity from burning coal, petroleum and natural gas, even though the continent has abundant solar and wind. Its current prime minister, Tony Abbott, is closely tied to Big Oil and is a climate change denialist. Mexico, another country with a GDP similar to that of Spain, also is a major carbon polluter. Canada’s GDP is a bit larger than Spain’s but it is also a major dirty energy polluter, endangering the earth with its irresponsible dumping of C02, a dangerous and powerful greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.

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In the Capitalist scheme of things, Australia's role is to be a reliable supply of minerals, such as iron and uranium, as well as a major coal supplier.

Despite the success of the Renewable Energy Target program of the previous government, the Abbott government is doing all it can to discourage investment in renewable energy. Unfortunately, the political climate in Australia supports such a move. Coal is seen as more manly than wind and solar.

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Rand Paul Proves That the American Political System is Broken

Ted Rall writes that Rand Paul Proves That the American Political System is Broken.

I am tempted to argue that Paul is wrong, and that he would be better off personally as well as politically sticking to his guns. After all, he has, or at least has had, these popular positions all to himself. Why follow the lead of Al Gore, who foolishly decided not to emphasize his credibility as an environmentalist in 2000?

Be that as it may, let's focus on the big takeaway: the perception among the political class that, to be electable, you have to adjust your positions to conform to the banal, the uninspired, the illegal, with total disregard for the will or the greater good of the American people.

Broken.

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What better example of the corruption of the political system under Capitalism than that fomerly principled people like Rand Paul adjust their principles so that they can get enough money from the plutocrats in order to run for elected office. This is something his father never did.

Paul's principles may be wrong in their understanding of how society work, but he and his father fought for them against a hostile media and political machine of the Republican Party.

Those principles were the legitimate expression of the petite bourgeoisie. They were libertarian in nature because they were the yearning of a class who saw Capitalism as dynamic and inclusive. With the conversion of Paul on the road to Washington, these yearnings are no longer articulated by a national political figure. The petite bourgeoisie are now silenced like the working class.

This silencing of the petite bourgeoisie is dangerous in that they are more likely to turn to fascism in order to gain political expression to their economic yearnings. Although fascism has initially been a reaction against the plutocrats, the latter have always been successful into fashioning fascism to their own ends and destroying any residual resistance by the working class.

The reason for this relatively easy subversion of fascism is that fascism has a very poor understanding of how Capitalism works. Due to the ideological blindess, fascism totally rejects the Marxist critique of Capitalism. It is without this anchor in reality that Marxism provides, fascism eventually drifts into the maws of the hated Plutocrat.

The working class are the only ones who can correctly use Marxism to understand how Capitalism works and can be overthrown. The reason is that the working class daily lives the class conflict and experiences the exploitation and alienation under Capitalism. The petite bourgeoisie are blind to these things out of necessary for them to function in a Capitalist society.

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Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance burns butcher's apron in defiance of racist 'Reclaim Australia' rally

Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance burns butcher's apron in defiance of racist 'Reclaim Australia' rally.

In more recent times, this flag also represents the malicious and racist treatment of ethnic minorities. The flag represents a white nation, a nation built by white people for white people.

Members of WAR didn't just burn the Australian flag, we set fire to an expression of Australian racism in an act of anti-colonial resistance. Burning the Australian flag is an act of defiance against the colonial state, a symbolic gesture of our continual fight for freedom and a message that is hoped to reverberate outside of the monopolised media within this country.

Our ultimate goal is to end the colonial control of our lands and lives and to restore our tribal sovereignty. We want freedom and independence and we will continue to fight to rid our people and our communities of the interfering and oppressive hands of the colonial Australian state. We call on Australian government to cease violent domination of Aboriginal lives and immediately stop all destruction of Aboriginal land and culture across this continent.

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Other symbols of Australian nationalism, such as the Southern Cross and the Eureka Stockade, are also symbols of colonial oppression and racism. The miners at the Eureka Stockade raised the Southern Cross flag and went on a pogrom against the Chinese miners and merchants in a nearby settlement.

Even in the resistance to state oppression, the oppressed found time to oppress others.

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Movie Review: Home (2015)

The movie, Home, is Anti-American propaganda.

I have decoded the movie as follows:

• The Boov are the Americans
• The Gorg are the Muslims
• Oh is Edward Snowden
• Captain Smerk is the American Government

Captain Smerk steals a valuable artifact from the Gorg, This artifact is literally the future of the Gorg. Smerk does not understand why the Gorg want this artifact so badly, but uses his possession of it as his claim to power.

In a similar way, the American government steals the future of the Muslim Arabs from them by controlling their oil reserves. It is this control of oil that allows the USA to dominate the world's economy. The US government cannot understand why the Arabs want to use their oil for their own development rather than for the maintenance of US power.

In terror, the Boov flee the Gorg. The mere mention of the Gorg sends the Boov into panic. Captain Smerk proposes the invasion of Earth as the solution to their problem. He assures them that the population of Earth would be well taken care of, and would welcome the Boov as liberators. Since Boov technology is far superior to anything on Earth, the invasion is easily accomplished.

The panic after 11 September 2001 sent the US government on a series on invasions and interventions around the world: Afghanistan, the Phillipines, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Libya, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, etc. The superiority of US weaponery made these easy for the US military. In Iraq, especially, the US troops were told that they would be welcomed as liberators.

What is striking about the movie is the Boov invade homes and snatch terrified people. The Boov round up all of the Earth's population and resettles them in refugee camps in the middle of the Australian desert. (This would infuriate any Australian government.) The population of Earth are understandably angry at the Boov for this rough treatment.

The Boov cannot understand why the population of Earth should be so angry with them. 'Tip' is especially angry at the descretion of cerished cultural artifacts by the Boov. Her main gripe is the turning the head of the Statue of Liberty into a likeness of Smerk.

Oh causes a crisis releases an e-mail to the entire universe. This causes Oh to become a furgitive.

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Anand Gopal: How to Create an Afghan Blackwater

Tom Englehardt posts an extract from Anand Gopal's book, No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War Through Afghan Eyes, in which Gopal relates How to Create an Afghan Blackwater.

Of course, even in the new Afghanistan there was no such thing as a free lunch. In return for privileged access to American dollars, Sherzai delivered the one thing U.S. forces felt they needed most: intelligence. His men became the Americans’ eyes and ears in their drive to eradicate the Taliban and al-Qaeda from Kandahar.

Yet here lay the contradiction. Following the Taliban’s collapse, al-Qaeda had fled the country, resettling in the tribal regions of Pakistan and in Iran. By April 2002, the group could no longer be found in Kandahar — or anywhere else in Afghanistan. The Taliban, meanwhile, had ceased to exist, its members having retired to their homes and surrendered their weapons. Save for a few lone wolf attacks, U.S. forces in Kandahar in 2002 faced no resistance at all. The terrorists had all decamped or abandoned the cause, yet U.S. special forces were on Afghan soil with a clear political mandate: defeat terrorism.

How do you fight a war without an adversary? Enter Gul Agha Sherzai — and men like him around the country. Eager to survive and prosper, he and his commanders followed the logic of the American presence to its obvious conclusion. They would create enemies where there were none, exploiting the perverse incentive mechanism that the Americans — without even realizing it — had put in place.

Sherzai’s enemies became America’s enemies, his battles its battles. His personal feuds and jealousies were repackaged as “counterterrorism,” his business interests as Washington’s. And where rivalries did not do the trick, the prospect of further profits did. (One American leaflet dropped by plane in the area read: “Get Wealth and Power Beyond Your Dreams. Help Anti-Taliban Forces Rid Afghanistan of Murderers and Terrorists.”)

Emphasis Mine

The Americans snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. They had defeated the Taliban and expelled Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan in 2001.

Yet, the economic logic of Capitalism requires an on-going war against somebody. Whether it is the feudal monarchs of Europe, the native peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia, or the islands of the Pacific. Capitalism must always expand or face collapse.

Through the good offices of people, like Gul Agha Sherzai, the Americans now have their endless war. US and Afghan companies can suck the US Treasury dry for their own benefit. This is not immoral under Capitalism. Companies exist to make profits in legal ways.

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Counter-rallies challenge 'Reclaim Australia'

Chris Peterson & Sarah Hathway write that Counter-rallies challenge 'Reclaim Australia'.

Indigenous activists were prominent in the counter-mobilisations against Reclaim Australia.

Burgess's efforts to disguise his anti-Aboriginal racism are in line with the “Reclaim Australia” organisers strategy of denying their racism and framing their rallies in terms of opposition to “Islamic extremism”. This has been enabled by the increasing scaremongering around a much exagerated threat of terrorism and scapegoating of Muslims and asylum seekers by mainstream political parties and media — tactics used to diverrt attention from unpoular government policies and justify anti-democratic laws.

Their demands include preventing Sharia law from being enforced in Australia, to ban Halal certification, to introduce pride in the Australian flag and the national anthem at schools, and to ban the burqa (or equivalent). All of these demands, absurd or extremist as they are, can be regularly heard in federal parliament and in the opinion pages of the Murdoch press.

Despite claims that “Reclaim Australia” was not a racist or neo-nazi event, several participants had with visible SS and swastika tattoos.

The Melbourne counter-rally built on the success of the previous week's 15,000-strong rally for refugees, which the media largely ignored. In contrast, the media heavily reported “Reclaim Australia”.

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I especially love the slogan from the Aboriginal activists in the photograph below—Not Yours to Reclaim:

One could take the charitable view that the people at the “Reclaim Australia” rallies were completely unaware that they are swimming in a sea of racism: mass media; books; movies; official history; paintings; sculptures; television shows; political discourse; place names; etc.. This racism is so prevalent that it is invisible.

It only becomes visible and audible when someone takes the logical conclusion from this prevailing racism and ends up on YouTube sprewing a racist rant. Then they are shocked to learn what thought to be a reasonable conclusion based upon they know to be true, is virulently racist. You cannot build truth from lies.

I imagine it would be an extreme shock to them to learn that they are being lied to everyone they trust and respect. These people are only repeating what is received knowledge.

To even imagine that all of these nice and respectable people are propagandists for racism is frightening for most people to contemplate. To do would undercut their own rationality. Their world would collapse into a fog of helplessness.

It is safer to deny their own racism and lose empathy for the victims of racsim. Racism corrodes one's own humanity ever so subtlely until the swatiska is just a badge of honour:

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The Empty Feeling of McDonald's Pay Raise

Barry Ritholtz writes about The Empty Feeling of McDonald's Pay Raise.

But there are other issues worth discussing: Social media’s impact on consumers and competition for employees as the economy improves.

Both of these seem to have worked to the detriment of McDonald’s — especially among the millennial generation, which has voted with its dollars to eat at places that serve fresher, healthier food such as Chipotle. McDonald's also faces stiffening competition from burger upstarts such as Shake Shack, 5 Guys and Bobby Flay's Bobby’s Burger Palace.

Don’t underestimate the competition for quality workers at fast-food restaurants. The supply of people willing to do the difficult, dirty work of grilling greasy burgers and fries or interacting with drive-through customers is finite. Wal-Mart has similar issues finding qualified minimum-wage workers. And as the economy continues to slowly improve and unemployment declines, that pool of workers gets smaller. It really was just a matter of time before wages had to rise.

That is a positive development — especially for two companies with business models that are so dependent on government aid, tax breaks and Medicaid. As Bloomberg Businessweek reported in 2013, “Fast-Food wages come with a $7 billion side of public assistance.” Indeed, a higher portion of employees of fast-food restaurants receive taxpayer aid than in any other industry.

Wal-Mart isn't much better. As we noted, Wal-Mart employees receive $2.66 billion in government aid each year. That works out to $5,815 per worker, and $420,000 per store. Why private-sector employers require public assistance for their full- or part-time employees is beyond me. But it is why I've labeled these two corporate welfare queens.

Raising the minimum wage nationally to $12 would drive more of the employment costs back to the companies, which is where they belong. Estimates vary, but it would probably take a minimum wage of about $15 to make these companies' employees independent of state and federal aid.

It is worth watching to see what the tandem of social media and basic economics does to push these companies toward a higher minimum wage. With April 15th right around the corner, it would be nice to know that your tax dollars aren't going to subsidize huge for-profit, private enterprises.

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The limits of proletarisation have been reached. Basic jobs are being automated. Any job that can be learned by rote and through an instruction manual is one that can be done by a machine. Replacable workers have been replaced by machines.

Workers who can add value to the customer interaction are now needed. These workers do things that cannot be learnt by rote or through an instruction manual. They must be self-motivated to learn and try new things, and then to evaluate their own performance in order to improve.

In other words, they have to expand their consciousness about how the world works. They must educate themselves through study and interaction with other workers.

Economic survival is driving this expansion of worker consciousness. It is no longer adequate for a worker to be told what to think or what to do by a manager. The manager is now hopelessly lost in a rapidly changing environment.

A worker with a better understanding of how the political and economic system works is in a better position to see and take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

In my opinion, a worker with a Marxist understanding of the world is the one best able to survive in these turbulent economic. The primary reason is that Marxism gives the best description of how Capitalism works.

But it does not necessarily follow that a worker with a Marxist understanding will become a Communist.

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Kurdistan: Political and cultural revolution unfolds in Rojava

Evangelos Aretaios writes about how the Political and cultural revolution unfolds in Rojava, Kurdistan.

The Rojava model is based on two main pillars which may prove very efficient in the strengthening of democracy in the region. The first pillar is direct democracy as the basis of a communalist system in which citizens participate actively in decision-making and the management of the polis, from the neighborhood to the municipality and as far as the government. The second pillar, equally revolutionary, is the denial of the nation state structure and philosophy as such. In Rojava, many different religious and ethnic groups—Christians, Yezidis, Arabs, Turkmens, Chechens, Armenians—live together with the large Kurdish majority. By officially and insistently denying the nation state and by trying to create administrative structures that incorporate these different elements, the Rojava model gives to minorities a participatory role unprecedented in the Middle East — a role as equals in the management of the polis.

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Nationalism was the driving force behind Capitialism. It gave an identity to people who had thrown off the paternal relationships of Fedualism. A person was no longer defined by whom they owed service to, but by the nation they belonged to.

The creation of a nation expands the consciounsess of its citizens beyond that of the village. But the nation creates a new boundary that now restricts the growth of consciousness of humanity. We cling onto our nationality as fiercely as we once did with our feudal identity.

We need to burst this prison of nationalism, and embrace the universal humanity.

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Alienation: the non-issue

Chris Dillow writes about Alienation: the non-issue.

This poses the question: why isn't there more demand at the political level for fulfilling work?

The question gains force from two facts. First, autonomy at work is a big factor in life-satisfation. Politicians who want to improve well-being - as Cameron once claimed to - should therefore take an interest in working conditions. Secondly, workers who are happy - less alienated - are more productive. Less alienation should therefore help to close the productivity gap between the UK and other rich nations, which in turn should raise real wages.

Despite all this, working conditions are barely on the agenda at all in this election. Politically, the workplace is, as Marx said, a "hidden abode."

One reason for this is that politics has largely ceased to be a vehicle for improving lives. It is instead a form of narcissistic tribalism and low-grade celebrity tittle-tattle: when will Cameron resign? Who'll replace him? What does Miliband's kitchen look like?

And in this way, politics serves the interests of the boss class and not workers. Capitalist power is exercised not just consciously and explicitly, but by determining what becomes a political demand and what doesn't. Here's Steven Lukes:

Is it not the supreme exercise of power to get another or others to have the desires you want them to have - that is, to secure their compliance by controlling their thoughts and desires?...Is it not the supreme and most insidious use of power to prevent people, to whatever degree, from having grievances by shaping their perceptions, cognitions and preferences in such a way that they accept their role in the existing order of things?

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Workers should be struggling to make working the supreme achievement in life. It is through labour that we create a more just and harmonious society. Workers should determine what use the fruits of our labour are put to.

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Who Is This “Together” Starbucks’ Howard Schultz Is Talking About?

Ted Rall asks Who Is This “Together” Starbucks’ Howard Schultz Is Talking About?.

He’s considered a hero, and rightly so. Still, when French General Charles de Gaulle gave his most famous speech, the Appeal of 18 June 1940, not everyone was moved. “Nothing is lost for France!” the future leader of the Free French intoned into the BBC microphone to the people of France, who had just lost their country to the Nazi invasion. “The flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished!”

“Easy for him to say!” my grandfather raged. “He’s sitting over there in London, sipping tea! Here we’ve got the krauts up our ass!”

He changed his mind later. But still: terrible first communiqué.

Communications 101: If you hope others to follow you as a leader, remember who and where and what you are.

If you don’t, others will.

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This is a very important for Communists. Ww must be workers who share the struggles and privations of other workers.

It is very easy for me, a priviliged worker, to blog about Commmunism and Capitalism. But I can really talk to other privileged workers.

But this does not mean I should keep silent. All workers are needed to build the Communist society. It behoves us all, priviliged, skilled, non-skilled, and unemployed, to remember that we are all workers.

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Intergenerational report a dishonest weapon of the 1%

Alex Bainbridge writes that Intergenerational report a dishonest weapon of the 1%.

Further, Australia's GDP per capita — a rough measure of the country's wealth — continues to grow dramatically. In fact, per capita GDP growth has massively outpaced the growth in real wages, which is something every worker should remember next time the boss says there isn't enough money for a pay rise.

It is also something we should remember when the government says it cannot afford education or pensions.

The real alternative to Abbott's budget cuts — and the subtle or not so subtle media message that we cannot afford decent pensions, education and health care — is to take the money from the super rich through a fairer taxation system. The government now pays superannuation tax concessions to the very wealthiest that are comparable to the entire cost of the age pension.

A rich country like Australia should be talking about lowering the retirement age and raising pensions at the same time as we plan increased spending on renewable energy and other measures that will truly make lives better for future generations.

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I am two minds about retirement: escape from Capitalism; and exclusion from Communism.

The escape from Capitalism means that workers are no longer alienated from their labour. Retired workers are now free to pursue meaningful and fulfilling labour if their retirement benefits permit it.

Therein lies the paradox of retirement under Capitalism. Alienated labour is replaced by grinding poverty. But that is the tyranny of Capitalism: unless one contributes to the growth in profits, one is of no use and therefore denied sustenance.

Whereas, under Communism, retirement means exclusion from the economic and political system. Workers contribute to the growth of society and the spread of benefits to all people. Retirement means turning back on society.

One may do different jobs as one ages but the contributions are still valued because they are needed. Being a worker means being a citizen.

Through labour society is built and enhanced. Withdrawal from the labour means withdrawal from society.

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End the suffering in the greyhound racing industry

Greg McFarlane wants to End the suffering in the greyhound racing industry.

Greyhounds who make it to the racecourse commonly endure injuries and all are retired by the age of three or four. The reward most dogs get is a death before their fifth birthday.

The racing industry treats animals this way because it exploits and objectifies them to make money. It uses them for entertainment and profit, placing no value on their sentience.

This multi-billion dollar industry contributes to human suffering in other ways. It encourages gambling —which can be highly destructive, ruining lives and devastating families and communities.

Greyhound racing —in its present form —is not a sport in any real way. It is big business, with big cash rewards for those prepared to gamble.

…

The Socialist Alliance opposes the greyhound racing industry.

It calls for an immediate end to government (and Labor opposition) support for the industry and enforce the ban on using live bait.

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Capitalism is the root of all evil.

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US finally agrees David Hicks is innocent

Richard Jackson writes that US finally agrees David Hicks is innocent.

Hicks’ problem with the media, he says, is that in the seven years he has been free, they continue to fixate on what he was doing in Afghanistan. Different media outlets continually tell him he has to answer this, before they will move on to other questions, such as his treatment at the hands of the US and Australia’s complicity in it.

Hicks spent five and a half years imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, after being sold by the Northern Alliance to the US military in Afghanistan in December 2001. While in US custody he was subject to an array of torture techniques, including, beatings, his right hand being fractured, being deprived of sleep through constant noise and lighting, being threatened with rape and torture, being isolated and put in solitary confinement, being shackled and put in stress positions.

He still suffers from his injuries, reeling off the problems: left knee, right elbow, wrists.

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Back in 2005 while discussing the differing treatment of Hicks, Habib, and the Danes, the following comment was made:

The different treatment can be explained by the capitalist media and Australian government's keenness to condemn a left-wing government such as Laos, while slavishly applauding the attempts of the US to run roughshod over an Australian citizens rights.

The media has to follow the government's script of who is an official enemy. Hicks has to be presumed to be guilty of something other than adolescent stupidty. By persisting in this line of questioning, the media avoids the hard questions of why the Australian government is negligent in the defence of Australian citizens' right when the US government, but will move heaven and earth when the Indonesian government.

The unspoken answer, as always, is the sacrosant American Alliance. Everything is sacrificed upon the altar for this false god.

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Pepperoni Turns Partisan

Mark Thoma asks Why are Republicans in the grips of "Big Pizza"? in response to Paul Krugman noting that Pepperoni Turns Partisan.

At a still deeper level, health experts may say that we need to change how we eat, pointing to scientific evidence, but the Republican base doesn’t much like experts, science, or evidence. Debates about nutrition policy bring out a kind of venomous anger … that is all too familiar if you’ve been following the debate over climate change.

Pizza partisanship, then, sounds like a joke, but it isn’t. It is, instead, a case study in the toxic mix of big money, blind ideology, and popular prejudices that is making America ever less governable.

Emphasis Mine

Here we have the profit motive driving pizza companies to promote a certain ideology (of individualism) that is detrimental to the health of their customers. This ideology has captured a political party through money and support. Thus, the state is bent to supporting the pizza companies.

Individualism is not the problem, but the profit motive. Individualism can be constructed to grow healthy human beings.

The laws of motion of Capitalism forbid the pizza companies from acting in any other way. Under Capitalism, they continually grow profits in order to survive. Not to do so results in destruction.

We must change how society operates in order to avoid these problems.

Change requires overcoming the perverted ideologies, and comfortable prejudices.

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How Higher Education Perpetuates Intergenerational Inequality

Mark Thoma writes that there is Bad news for those who propose education as the solution to inequality as Tim Taylor decribes How Higher Education Perpetuates Intergenerational Inequality.

The effects of these patterns on inequality of incomes in the United States are clearcut: higher income families are better able to provide financial and other kinds of support for their children, both as they grow up, and when it comes time to attend college, and when it comes time to find a job after college. In this way, higher education has become a central part part of the process by which high-income families can seek to assure that their children are more likely to have high incomes, too.

And in Australia, the idea of equal access to higher education has eroded away to a phantom. I was the beneficiary of free university education. Now, young people now longer have the same opportunities as my generation did.

The higher education sector is now seen as a major export driver as students from developing countries are stripped of their families' hard earned cash and given dubious qualifications. This is part of Australia's version of imperialism.

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The Dynamism of American Islam

Jonathan Curiel discusses The Dynamism of American Islam.

Islam’s diversity in the United States offers an inspiring vision of the religion. When Malcolm X went on the hajj to Saudi Arabia in 1964, he was shocked to witness a similar diversity, and it prompted him to abandon his beliefs in the Nation of Islam for traditional Sunni Islam. He said he’d encountered Muslims “of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans” who were “all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood.”

Emphasis Mine

Malcolm X was forced to confront his hatred of white people through the hajj. He had to throw away many of his prejudices. And in doing so, he matured considerably.

But in doing so, he incurred the fatal wrath of his former comrades in the Nation of Islam. He knew it was dangerous, but he persist because he was true to himself. Integrity can be fatal.

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