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.”)

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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.

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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.”

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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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Be Calm, Robots Aren’t About to Take Your Job

Mark Thoma comments on Be Calm, Robots Aren’t About to Take Your Job, MIT Economist Says..

I've been arguing for a long time that in coming decades the major question will be about distribution, not production. I'm not very worried about stagnation, etc. — we'll have plenty of stuff to go around. I'm worried about, to quote the title of a political science textbook I used many, many, many years ago as an undergraduate, "who gets the cookies?" not how many cookies we're able to produce So I agree with Autor on this point:

Mr. Autor … added, “If we automate all the jobs, we’ll be rich—which means we’ll have a distribution problem, not an income problem.”

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Karl Marx made the same point in discussing Capitalism. The main problem has always been one of distribution.

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ALBA after ten years

John Riddell looks at ALBA after ten years.

During a visit to the Penobscot indigenous nation in Maine a few years ago, I found they were receiving material aid from Venezuela, in a program that also assisted Black communities in the United States. The Bolivarians thus confirmed the vision of Malcolm X, murdered 50 years ago today, who saw the freedom struggle in the global South as a beacon of hope for his people. ALBA has set an example for such mutual assistance, in a spirit of solidarity, among its members and also with non-member countries in the region.

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Nothing marks the moral poverty of the USA than this: poor countries are assisting the poor in the USA.

This is building the solidarity among the international proletariat. Workers, by helping each other, develop their political consciousness about the operations and morality of the Capitalist system.

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No, SYRIZA has not surrendered

Tom Walker writes that No, SYRIZA has not surrendered.

Insofar as the Syriza government is having to compromise — and clearly it is making compromises short of surrender — that represents not so much their failure as our own. Syriza has always been clear that we cannot expect Greece to defeat austerity alone.

The various European ministers on the other end of the continuing negotiation with the Greek government need to be feeling the pressure. We need a huge movement across Europe in solidarity with Greece, and we need to be throwing ourselves into building that movement, not reclining in our armchairs ready to say "I told you so".

We must put everything we can muster into shifting the political balance of forces across Europe. We now have four months of space in which to do so: we need to make them count.

There is clearly a division among the elite now over the issue of austerity, with the US government, the Adam Smith Institute and various prominent economists not usually associated with the left backing Greece's proposals. That crack is waiting to be forced open.

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SYRIZA has the difficult task of keeping the Greek economy functioning in a Capitalist world. Its political support is deeply dependent on its ability to deliver key election promises—some of which it has done so already.

That SYRIZA has survived a month in government, in itself, is a miracle.

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Farmers Walk Away From Leases Due to Plunging Grain Prices

Mike Shedlock writes that Farmers Walk Away From Leases Due to Plunging Grain Prices.

The price of corn is at a price seen in late 2006, wheat late 2005, and soybeans 2004. Land prices, lease prices, equipment prices, and fertilizer are much higher.

This has put the squeeze on many farmers, especially those who lease land. The result is best described as "walking away farmer style".

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This is a clash between the farmer and the rentiers. By refusing to reduce the rents, the landlords are committing economic suicide as farmers decamp.

This is an example of how class interests override class survival.

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Wal-Mart's Minimum Wage Breakdown

Barry Ritholtz writes that Wal-Mart's Minimum Wage Breakdown is a self-inflicted wound.

There is also the issue of the negative PR generated by Wal-Mart’s low, low wages. As we discussed back in 2013, many of its full-time employees receive a full array of federal and state welfare. Wal-Mart has become the nation’s largest private-sector beneficiary of taxpayer-supported public assistance (see "How McDonald's and Wal-Mart Became Welfare Queens"). Indeed, the U.S. taxpayer has been subsidizing the wages of this publicly traded, private-sector company to the tune of $2.66 billion in government largess a year.

Although many factors contributed to the move, the simple reason for the increase is because Wal-Mart has stopped growing. Same-store sales have been little changed or declining for some time now. When we look at the underlying causes, the company’s workforce, and how it is managed, are the prime suspects.

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Cutting welfare means cutting Wal-Mart's profits!

If you treat your employees like shit, they will treat your customers like shit. Then you wonder why no-one shops here anymore.

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Knowledge Isn't Power

Mark Thoma excerpts from Paul Krugman's commentary that Knowledge Isn't Power.

So what is really going on? Corporate profits have soared as a share of national income, but there is no sign of a rise in the rate of return on investment…, it’s what you would expect if rising profits reflect monopoly power rather than returns to capital… — all the big gains are going to a tiny group of individuals holding strategic positions in corporate suites or astride the crossroads of finance. Rising inequality isn’t about who has the knowledge; it’s about who has the power.

Now, there’s a lot we could do to redress this inequality of power. We could levy higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and invest the proceeds in programs that help working families. We could raise the minimum wage and make it easier for workers to organize. It’s not hard to imagine a truly serious effort to make America less unequal.

But given the determination of one major party to move policy in exactly the opposite direction, advocating such an effort makes you sound partisan. Hence the desire to see the whole thing as an education problem instead. But we should recognize that popular evasion for what it is: a deeply unserious fantasy.

Emphasis Mine

Krugman is wrong to think that only one party is thrall of Wall Street: it is both parties.

As Michael Moore once said:

The Capitalists have two (2) political parties. It is time for the rest of us to get own political party.

Maybe after the success of SYRIZA in Greece, this could be a possibility.

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Free Palestinian political prisoner Lina Khattab!

Free Palestinian political prisoner Lina Khattab!.

Khattab’s mother, Samira Shaladeh told the Electronic Intifada: “Lina was brought into court, surrounded by a large troop of soldiers, her hands and feet cuffed. The court would not allow me to touch her and talk to her. I said that I am Lina’s mother, and it is my right to touch her and hug her, but the judge refused and told me that it is forbidden.

“I am a mother, my daughter was in front of me and I was forbidden from expressing my feelings. My baby was shackled hand and foot and I can do nothing. This occupation and the silence of the world are killing our children.

“Lina represents an entire people uprooted from their land by force of arms. Every day the occupation strikes and kills and demolishes, arrests, desecrates holy places, takes away farmers’ land and builds settlements. It forces Palestinians out while seeking to bring Jews from around the world to support its claims to a fake democracy.

“The truth is that the Palestinian people want to recover their homeland and achieve freedom for their people, and Lina is a part of this truth, rejecting steadfastly all of this violence against our people.

“Lina is still holding strong in the prison and her morale is high. Imprisonment does not worry her. Lina rejects the fabricated charges against her.

“I urge the solidarity organizations, those around the world who defend the rights of the Palestinian people, to raise the slogan of freedom for the student Lina Khattab and all imprisoned Palestinian students. She has the right to study media, like every other student at Birzeit University. We are struggling for Lina’s right to her freedom, to re-enter school and live her life like youth around the world.

“Lina dreams of a free Palestine, free from all forms of violence and oppression. She is a voice of truth and dignity in this unjust world.”

Emphasis Mine

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People Aren’t Androids

Paul Krugman writes that People Aren’t Androids.

Branko says that the essential difference between skills and physical capital is that the former aren’t worth anything unless you work, and that is certainly an essential difference. I would, however, also emphasize the flip side: if you think of capital as something that rentiers can own, which is surely one of the important things we connote when we use the c-word, then labor force skills are not capital in that sense. Children of the wealthy can inherit or buy factories and buildings; absent indentured servitude or the coming of androids, they can’t buy worker skills.

Emphasis Mine

I agree with Krugman in that Human Capital is a bogus concept by Capitalist economists that tries to fit human development into the Capitalist economic and political model.

The development of workers has seen productivity attached to labour power, instead of Capital. The worker is more productive because of their skills and experience rather than by applying unskilled labour to Capital investments in machines.

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Cranking Up for 2016

Mark Thoma excerpts from Paul Krugman's article about Cranking Up for 2016.

The … modern American right seems to have abandoned the idea that there is an objective reality out there… What are you going to believe, right-wing doctrine or your own lying eyes? These days, the doctrine wins.

Look at another issue, health reform. … Then there’s foreign policy. … And don’t get me started on climate change.

Along with this denial of reality comes an absence of personal accountability. If anything, alleged experts seem to get points by showing that they’re willing to keep saying the same things no matter how embarrassingly wrong they’ve been in the past.

But let’s go back to those economic charlatans and cranks: Clearly, failure has only made them stronger, and now they are political kingmakers. Be very, very afraid.

Emphasis Mine

A decadent political and economic system, such as American Capitalism, is clearly more concerned with retaining power than with dealing with reality. These sychophants from the think tanks are simply telling the decaying elite fairy tales in order to make the alleged reality more palatable.

Facing reality means admitting the failure of Capitalism. Lies are so more comfortable.

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Muffed Answer Leads to Rethink

Tom Peters writes that a Muffed Answer Leads to Rethink.

So the idea, then, in an oversimplified nutshell, is to avoid organizational and professional extinction—and in fact pursue growth—by vaulting up the value added chain. In my shorthand: Become a remarkable "brand you" performing 100% value-added "wow projects" in an organizational unit transformed into an innovative "professional service firm"—e.g., devoted to applying intellectual capital to the organization's products and services. (The overall "home" organization, per my model, seeks differentiation by becoming a de facto "collection of integrated professional service firms.")

Emphasis Mine

Peters seems to saying that workers are being forced to develop themselves as active determiners of their own destiny by the forces of Capitalism. Workers have to become more than passive followers of the firm's management, if they are to survive in the emerging business environment.

Firms that cede power to the workers will have a greater rate of survival than those where the managers reatin control.

Capitalism is forcing socialist development upon the workers by having differential rates of survival. In other words, firms with greater Socialist consciousness will survive better in Capitalist business because greater profits are generated through greater worker productivity and lower cost of managerial supervision.

We may be seeing the synthesis being generated through the dialectical materialism of worker development and desire for profit growth.

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Thoughts on reform, revolution, social change and elections in light of SYRIZA's win

Mike Treen writes about his Thoughts on reform, revolution, social change and elections in light of SYRIZA's win.

Tens of thousands of working people in the barrios of Caracas and Laz Pas and other modern urban cities are actually small business people by definition but have been enthusiastic supporters of the revolutionary process. Industrial workers in large factories and farms are only a small percentage of the working population and while they can play a leading role through their unions and communities, they need allies among the “petty-bourgois” layers, especially among the small farmers. The desire of the revolutionary governments to minimise economic disruption and protect the jobs and living standards of their supporters is a smart tactic. It is also necessary to train a whole new layer of revolutionary minded professionals to provide some of the technical expertise needed.

Emphasis Mine

A modern state needs the petite-bourgeoise and labour aristocracy. In order for a state to make the transition to Socialism. these layers need to be radicalised, and drawn into the revolutionary process.

The officer corps in Venezuela had been somewhat unique in that it hadn't sent its people to the US military schools but instead to local universities where many were affected by the deep-seated radicalisation of youth that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. Chavez himself was an instructor at the national military academy. This allowed revolutionary-minded young officers to get significant influence early in the revolutionary process and use that to defend the government and people.

Emphasis Mine

The revolutionary orientation of the Venezuelan Military Forces has been a vital feature of the survival of the Bolivarian Revolution.

As Maurice Bishop, the assassinated leader of revolutionary Grenada, commented, it is wrong to think that “a revolution is like instant coffee; you just throw it in a cup and it comes out presto”. Bishop himself was overthrown by a secret faction strongly influenced by Stalinist administrative and bureaucratic methods. This faction claimed to want to push the revolution forward but had no understanding of the need to patiently organise and educate working people to take on tasks that matched the level of consciousness and the objective class relations and material conditions and level of development. The end result of their seizure of power was to disarm and demoralise the workers and farmers of Grenada and open the door to invasion by the US under President Reagan in 1983.

Emphasis Mine

A revolutionary movement can not advance too far ahead of the workers. It must not despise the workers for their ignorance and lack of vision. These things take time. The movement must work with the people in order to gain their respect and trust.

Often it is true that organs of popular power have emerged in revolutionary situations and were not able to develop because the parties of the parliamentary left were opposed to that happening. That was certainly true for Spain from 1936-39 and at least partly true for Chile in 1970-73. But it could have been radically different if the party that had a parliamentary majority supported the growth of organs of popular power while pursuing a program of social measures that was able to win majority support in the country.

Emphasis Mine

It is foolish to expect soviets to appear out of thin air. The process of developing direct democracy is fraught with danger from subversion by the careerist and the secret policeman. Yet, we must continually seek opportunities to develop and nuture such flowerings of direct democracy.

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Spinning terror to fuel racism

Tony Iltis writes that governments, with the connivance of the main-stream media, are Spinning terror to fuel racism.

The endless summits held by Western leaders to counter “extremism”, such as the February 18 Washington summit, not only target Islamist extremism and ignore its Islamophobic counterpart, they deal with it only as a security issue in an Islamophobic framework.

Understandably, given their own role in fuelling it, the Western media generally ignores Islamophobic violence, such as the epidemic of vandalism and arson attacks on mosques throughout the Western world. When Islamophobic violence is on a scale that cannot be ignored, its ideological content is generally denied.

Even the 2011 killings of 77 people in Norway — the worst terrorist attack in post-war Europe — was treated as the act of a deranged individual despite the perpetrator, Anders Breivik, releasing a long Islamophobic manifesto that referenced several mainstream media commentators and politicians, including then-Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Of course, the increasingly pervasive Islamophobia in the West legitimises Islamist extremism. The two have a symbiotic relationship. The perpetrators of the January 17 attacks in Paris (who, unlike El-Hussein, were linked to wider terrorist networks) understood this. The Islamophobic response, including several arrests for and criminal investigations of thought crimes (including that of an eight-year-old child), will serve their cause.

Danish PM Thorning-Schmidt has acknowledged that there is “no indication [El-Hussein] was part of a cell,” the December 16 New York Times said.

Islamophobia is part of a broader system of racism against Third World migrants in the West. The NYT reported that before being imprisoned in 2013 for assault, El-Hussein had been involved in urban gang culture and his affiliations were not political or religious. “This was a loser man from the ghetto who is very, very angry at Danish society,” Aydin Soei, a sociologist who knew him told the NYT.

El-Hussein was won to Islamist extremism in jail, as were the perpetrators of the Paris attacks. After the latter, there has been discussion in France about Muslim youth being exposed to extremism in jail. Muslims make up less than 10% of the French population but 70% of prisoners.

The solutions discussed focused on security, such as keeping “known extremists” in isolation. The over-representation of Muslims in French jails (like the over-representation of African-Americans in US jails and Aboriginal people in Australian jails) resulting from discrimination in education, employment and systematic racism by the police and courts, was ignored.

The Western establishment's promotion of Islamaphobia is partly to provide justification for imperial wars. But it also serves domestic agendas. One of these is justifying increasing state powers at the expense of civil liberties.

Another is a way to provide a diversion for governments implementing unpopular policies. This could not have been clearer when Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott released a YouTube video on February 15 drumming up anti-Muslim paranoia and foreshadowing new “tough” measures against Muslims and asylum seekers.

Abbott's attacks on social services and ordinary people's living standards have made his government the most unpopular in Australian history. A week after surviving a leadership spill and promising the beginning of “good government”, his popularity has continued to plummet.

Emphasis Mine

Racism is being manufactured on a daily basis in order to keep the people's anger focussed on anyone but the rich and the governments that serve them.

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Exploitation in the lab

Chris Dillow finds experimental evidence for Exploitation in the lab.

Experimental evidence suggests that Marx was right.

In Capital, Marx describes the selling of labour power thus:

He, who before was the money-owner, now strides in front as capitalist; the possessor of labour-power follows as his labourer. The one with an air of importance, smirking, intent on business; the other, timid and holding back, like one who is bringing his own hide to market and has nothing to expect but — a hiding.

And here's a recent paper by Nikos Nikiforakis, Jorg Oechssler and Anwar Shah:

We have designed a game in which exploitation can result from the hierarchical relationship between players and, in particular, from the fact that the senior worker has the power to coerce a junior worker into exerting high levels of effort. Using a laboratory experiment, we find that senior workers often attempt to exploit junior workers.

This is not an isolated finding: it's consistent with an earlier paper by Ernst Fehr and colleagues.

Emphasis Mine

Exploitation is built into the hierarchy. To remove the exploitation requires removal of the hierarchy, or to make the hierarchy accountable to everyone.

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Grandmothers say ‘Bring our babies home’

Grandmothers say ‘Bring our babies home’.

We march to mark seven years since then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an “apology” to the Stolen Generations of the 20th century, an apology loaded with the worst hypocrisy, given the crescendo of forced child removals that took place under the watch of his government.

There are currently more than 15,000 Aboriginal children in so-called “out of home care”. The majority of these removals are for alleged “neglect” — the exact rationale provided for tens of thousands of 20th century removals. It is a term used to denigrate Aboriginal culture and the love and care provided by Aboriginal families and communities. It is a term that masks the systematic neglect of governments that enforce conditions of extreme poverty and social trauma on our communities. It is a term used to justify a continuing project of forced assimilation.

We march to demand recognition of the continuing sovereignty of our nations and our fundamental right to determine our own future — we have been camping with the National Freedom Movement at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy for the last three weeks and support their manifesto.

We demand Aboriginal control of Aboriginal child welfare and a massive transfer of resources into Aboriginal hands to deal with unacceptable social conditions. We demand an end to the removals and a moratorium on the use of police armed with guns, batons and pepper spray to take children.

…

We demand the full domestic implementation of the 1948 Genocide Convention into Australian law by repealing section 268.121 and 268.122 of the International Criminal Court (Consequential Amendments) Act 2002, in order to enable a challenge to the destruction of our religion, culture, bloodlines and communities by forced child removal and creating conditions of life set to destroy the group in whole or in part.

Emphasis Mine

The invisible genocide. We trained to avert our eyes. We are educated to see the Aborigines as less than human. In this miasma of racism, we refuse to see this geonocide because the press keeps telling us that white people are civilised, and that the non-whites are the barbarians with their strange religions, beliefs, and cultures.

How can one stop absorbing this racism through what we read, listen to, and warch? The first step is to admit that it is happening. Denial of racism is its strongest support.

It is always easy to see racism in others. It is extremely painful to reflect upon our own prejudices and practices, for we consider ourselves to be good people.

But, we must do this daily. From that reflection comes a plan of action. The plan will be flawed as will be shown by experience, and mistakes will be made. Then further reflection is needed. But we will have learned as we hobble along the rocky path out of racism.

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Aboriginal people driven from their land

Emma Murphy writes that Aboriginal people driven from their land.

Driving Aboriginal people off their land will rob them of their areas of wealth and expertise: their connection to, and knowledge of, country, maintenance of their languages, cultures and oral histories.

Aboriginal people living on their homelands are also often at the forefront of struggles to protect country from extractive industries: this is the case around the world. In the NT, Indigenous leaders are focusing on environmental struggles, as the NT government seems intent on digging up and selling some of the most ecologically significant parts of the continent.

Clans at Borroloola and across the Roper region are gearing up for a fight against fracking on their country. And leaders of the Muckaty campaign, with their supporters across the country, had a big win last year when the federal government withdrew plans to store radioactive waste on their country.

The strong grandmothers leading the current fight against Aboriginal child removals need our respect and support, as do the many Aboriginal activists around the country who have taken the baton, rekindled the fires of resistance and kicked off 2015 by taking the fight to Canberra.

While there are many issues being raised by these activists, there are also many ideological threads that join them together. They are struggling for the right to assert and control that which is theirs, and that which white Australia has tried so long to take from them, whether it is their children, their land, their language or their identity.

While Tony Abbott’s “Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs” title becomes more of a joke as his inaction continues, Aboriginal people themselves are increasingly taking matters into their own hands and setting the agenda.

Emphasis Mine

Here racism is being used in the service of the mining and fracking industries. With Aborigines out of the way, the miners and frackers have free reign.

It doesn't matter that people's lives are devastated as along the All Ordinaries stock index continues to rise and the profits keep rolling in.

In supporting the Aborigines to live in dignity and with respect, we become more human. We need to learn to see beyond the myopia of Capitalism, and see the human community within the ecosystem.

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Respect for Religion

Ted Rall questions why there is Respect for Religion, but not for political beliefs or tastes.

Cultural norms are that religion must be respected while other beliefs, cultural and political, receive no such deference.

Emphasis Mine

The answer is that religion can be seen as “opiate of the people”, while political beliefs and tastes show independent thinking which are dangerous to the control exerted by the ruling class.

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Watching the Same Movie About American War for 75 Year

Peter Van Buren writes that we have been Watching the Same Movie About American War for 75 Years.

In propaganda terms, think of this as controlling the narrative. One version of events dominates all others and creates a reality others can only scramble to refute. The exceptions do, however, reveal much about what we don’t normally see of the true nature of American war. They are uncomfortable for any of us to watch, as well as for military recruiters, parents sending a child off to war, and politicians trolling for public support for the next crusade.

War is not a two-hour-and-12-minute hard-on. War is what happens when the rules break down and, as fear displaces reason, nothing too terrible is a surprise. The real secret of war for those who experience it isn't the visceral knowledge that people can be filthy and horrible, but that you, too, can be filthy and horrible. You don't see much of that on the big screen.

The Long Con

Of course, there are elements of “nothing new” here. The Romans undoubtedly had their version of war porn that involved mocking the Gauls as sub-humans. Yet in twenty-first-century America, where wars are undeclared and Washington dependent on volunteers for its new foreign legion, the need to keep the public engaged and filled with fear over our enemies is perhaps more acute than ever.

So here’s a question: if the core propaganda messages the U.S. government promoted during World War II are nearly identical to those pushed out today about the Islamic State, and if Hollywood’s war films, themselves a particularly high-class form of propaganda, have promoted the same false images of Americans in conflict from 1941 to the present day, what does that tell us? Is it that our varied enemies across nearly three-quarters of a century of conflict are always unbelievably alike, or is it that when America needs a villain, it always goes to the same script?

Emphasis Mine

The propaganda for racism follows a similar script. No matter who is being persecuted: Jews, Arabs, Irish, Poles, Africans, Aborigines, etc.

Power needs an enemy—either within the state or without. The ruling class does not want the anger of the oppressed directed against them. This is why the rulers always deflect the anger elsewhere.

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NSA Hacks Into SIM Card Makers Giving US and UK Criminals Access to Millions of Cell Phones

Mike Shedlock writes that NSA Hacks Into SIM Card Makers Giving US and UK Criminals Access to Millions of Cell Phones.

I have a simple question: Why is it a crime for someone to hack into Sony, Target, weather stations, etc., but not a crime for the NSA to hack into phone SIM card producers then steal every master key?

In my opinion, all of these hacks are illegal, and the NSA officials who authorized the hack I describe below belong in prison.

…

The only way to stop this sh*t is to press charges, find the NSA guilty and send those responsible to prison.

Since Obama is unwilling to do what's necessary, and given Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton won't either, if you are outraged by this, I suggest voting for Rand Paul, the one person who has taken a stand on these issues.

In the meantime, act as if someone is listening to every conversation you make.

I go one step further given my outspoken nature on these issues. I act as if my entire house is bugged and the NSA is monitoring everything I do.

Emphasis Mine

Why is anyone surprised at the blatant criminality of the premier Capitalist state? Illegal wars, invasions, murders, coups, kidnappings, drug dealing, torture, spying, eavesdropping, etc.

And who gets prosecuted? The people who expose these abuses: Snowden, Assange, Manning, etc.

We are supposed to be outraged by the lies told by Brian Williams, but not by the continual lying from our governments on their crimes.

How much longer can this sick society survive?

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The US hates Venezuela's independence

John Pilger writes that The US hates Venezuela's independence.

The remarkable change in fortunes for millions of people in Latin America is at the heart of U.S. hostility. The U.S. has been the undeclared enemy of social progress in Latin America for two centuries. It doesn't matter who has been in the White House: Barack Obama or Teddy Roosevelt; the U.S. will not tolerate countries with governments and cultures that put the needs of their own people first and refuse to promote or succumb to U.S. demands and pressures.

A reformist social democracy with a capitalist base — such as Venezuela — is not excused by the rulers of the world. What is inexcusable is Venezuela's political independence; only complete deference is acceptable. The 'survival' of Chavista Venezuela is a testament to the support of ordinary Venezuelans for their elected government — that was clear to me when I was last there.

Venezuela's weakness is that the political 'opposition' — those I would call the 'East Caracas Mob' — represent powerful interests who have been allowed to retain critical economic power. Only when that power is diminished will Venezuela shake off the constant menace of foreign-backed, often criminal subversion. No society should have to deal with that, year in, year out.

Emphasis Mine

This is the core problem of dual power. Until the Venezuelan people take control of the economy, the threat of a counter-revolution is always present.

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Radical objects: MaThoko’s post box and the LGBT movement in South Africa

John Marnell writes about Radical objects: MaThoko’s post box and the LGBT movement in South Africa.

For some young comrades, the liberation struggle was inseparable from the fight for sexual rights, and a new push for sexual equality began to emerge from within the anti-apartheid struggle. Before the late 1980s, the "gay lib" movement was white, male dominated and largely middle class. It also attempted to position itself as apolitical, as separate from the fight against institutionalised racism. This shifted with the imprisonment of Simon Nkoli, one of 22 activists detained in September 1984 after a protest in Sebokeng. Accused of treason, a charge that carried the death penalty, Nkoli and his comrades found themselves at the centre of one of the longest trials in South Africa’s history.

Nkoli had been involved in the 1976 Soweto uprising and over the next few years had become increasingly involved with the Congress of South African Students (an anti-apartheid student organisation established in the wake of the uprising). Although Nkoli’s sexuality had been known to some in the student movement, few of his co-accused in the treason trial were aware. In jail he refused to remain silent and took the bold step of coming out, a move that sparked heated debate among the group. Despite initial calls for Nkoli to be tried separately, the comrades eventually accepted his argument that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is as morally unjust as racism.

For many of Nkoli’s co-accused — and indeed most people in the struggle — this was their first time being confronted with the question of homosexuality. Nkoli was steadfast in his position, and his self-affirmation as a proud black gay man helped bring the issue of sexuality to the attention of the liberation movements. It was a turning point for LGBT activism, not only because it placed sexuality on the agenda but also because it explicitly linked homophobia to other forms of injustice.

Emphasis Mine

It is humbling for revolutionaries to learn that they can be oppressors in other areas of their lives: anti-racists can be sexist and homophobic.

The important lesson is to mindful and attentive of other people's experiences.

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Walking Back the American Twenty-First Century?

Tom Engelhardt wonders if the USA is Walking Back the American Twenty-First Century?.

Since 2013, the Pentagon has transferred for free more than 600 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPs, worth at least half a million dollars each and previously used in U.S. war zones, to various “qualified law enforcement agencies.” Police departments in rural areas like Walsh County, North Dakota (pop. 11,000) now have their own MRAPs, as does the campus police department at Ohio State University.  It hardly matters that these monster vehicles have few uses in a country where neither ambushes nor roadside bombs are a part of everyday life.

Post-Ferguson, a few scattered departments have actually moved to turn these useless vehicles back in.  It's clear, however, that police forces “kitted out with Marine-issue camouflage and military-grade body armor, toting short-barreled assault rifles, and rolling around in armored vehicles” — that is, almost indistinguishable from soldiers — are now the future of American policing and there’s no walking that back.  Since Ferguson, President Obama has essentially refused to do so and Congress certainly won’t.  Despite a small uproar over the pile of military equipment being transferred to the police, there is no indication that the flow will be stanched.

When it comes to all this militarized equipment, as the president has emphasized (and the task force he appointed to look into these matters will undoubtedly reemphasize), “reform” is mainly going to be focused on “better training” in how to use it.  In other words, reform will prove to be a code word for further militarization.  And don’t count on anyone returning those 94,000 machine guns either in a country that seems to be in some kind of domesticarms race and in which toddlers now regularly find their parents’ loaded guns and wound or kill them.

Emphasis Mine

Back in 2005, I made an observation in 4GW and Police Work, that:

I have come to the conclusion that Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) is simply police work. Third Generation Warfare (3GW) aimed to convince people who owned assets to obey your orders. 4GW aims to do the same with people who have no assets. In other words, normal everyday police work.

Maybe the police are worried about what nearly happened on Palm Island back in November 2005.

So Lex was organising a protest against the inadequate Coroner's report. There was anger at the blatant lies and cover-up of violence against Aborigines.

As the protest got out of control with the Police station and Sergeant's residence being burnt down, the police were barricaded inside their barracks, the green zone of Palm Island. They thought they were about to be massacred by the islanders. At point, a truce is negotiated (p.68):

But Lex Wotton, who had been trying to jemmy open the gate's padlock, now ordered the crowd to stop throwing rocks. They did so. 'You've won! You've won! [Senior Sergeant Roger] Whyte called. He negotiated for sixty minutes' grace, sixty minutes to get off the island. The Torres Strait Islander cop, Bert Tabaui, heard Wotton yell, 'We'll give you an hour to get off the island, then we'll kill you!'

The police managed to retreat to the hospital (p.69)

Lex faced the police. He was still angry, but the anger was now controlled. 'Time's up! he called to the cops. 'All I wanted was for you to get off the island!'

Emphasis Mine

However, the women objected to this demand. They wanted police protection against the men. (p.69) The police said they could not leave because [t]hey had no transportation Lex arranged for two cars to made available for their escape, but the police were fearful of an ambush on the way to the airport. (p.70)

The confrontation ends with the timely arrival of the airborne (p.71):

The thunder of helicopters filled the smoke-clouded sky. Extra police had now arrived and still more were coming. Inspector Richardson came outside and told Lex. 'We are not leaving this island. We are the police. You are the ones causing the problem...we are not going anywhere! No way in Australia!'

Lex Wotton froze. He turned around and faced the crowd. The revolution had failed. His idea that the police would leave the island had been biblical in ambition and naivete, a declaration of war that he had no chance of winning. His actions would draw national attention to Cameron Doomadgee's death, but at that moment he knew he would soon be the one inside a jail cell.

'The party's over,' he called, 'we'll all go home!' Then he turned around to the police. 'You can come around later and pick me up.'

Emphasis Mine

The occupier is not easily dislodged from his conquests. No dissent is allowed.

However, in case, the resolve of the occupier is weakened by the crackdown and the relative leniency of Lex's sentence. Future oppression is assured but it could be one foot on the throat too many.

Chloe Hooper: The Tall Man (3)
Page references are to The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper

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Coup plot thwarted in Venezuela

Coup plot thwarted in Venezuela.

Maduro explained that a video of masked military officials speaking out against the government had been recorded, which was set to be released after the planned assassination was carried out.

Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino Lopez stated via his Twitter account that the armed forces remain loyal to the constitutional government.

“The Bolivarian National Armed Forces remain resolute in their democratic beliefs and reject coup schemes that threaten the peace of the republic,” said Padrino.

According to Maduro, one of the suspects was already under surveillance and had been suspected of plotting against the government during last year's violent demonstrations, but was not charged. Nevertheless, he continued plotting against the democratically-elected government.

The four-stage plan involved creating an economic assault on the country, creating an international debate around a supposed humanitarian crisis, a political coup involving officials who would turn on the government, and finally a military coup that would lead to the installation of the transitional program.

Emphasis Mine

The continued support of the Venezuelan Armed Forces is vital for the survival of the Bolivarian Revolution. Despite American money and influence, they remain loyal to their ideals.

This also shows that the Capitalists are eagar to use military power to overthrow a democracy when they see their policies being thwarted. This is often cast as ‘What we really need is a benign dictatorship’.

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State governments share blame for (Not) Closing the Gap

Sharlene Leroy-Dyer writes that State governments share blame for (Not) Closing the Gap.

Impending state government plans to cut essential services to remote Aboriginal communities will, on the contrary, widen the gap.

This is one of the richest countries in the world and yet many of my people, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this land, live in worse than Third World conditions with an average life expectancy gap of more than 10 years.

Liberal-National and Labor governments alike have chronically failed to deliver real land rights and the urgently needed strong measures to redress more than two centuries of violent racism and dispossession.

The latest Closing The Gap Report is a huge fail as it shows little progress in closing the shameful gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Australia on health, literacy and education and Aboriginal unemployment and underemployment has steadily got worse since 2008. Yet the few programs to create jobs for Aboriginal people have been cut back.

Emphasis Mine

Destroying a person's self-identity through racism, state violence, cultural annihlation, and learned helplessness destroys their ability to live a healthy life no matter how much money is thrown at a problem.

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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IMF actions worsen Ebola crisis

Jerome Duval writes that IMF actions worsen Ebola crisis.

Obviously, this claim should be extended to all poor countries, misnamed as “developing”, where 85% of the world’s population lives. Their public debt (about $1.8 trillion) represents only 1% of global debt. Relief will not affect the global economic balance; the only thing needed is the political will.

It is good to raise the fiscal deficit when the health and lives of people are in danger.

It is not we who say this, but contradicting the usual conservative ideology of the IMF, its director Christine Lagarde said it and acknowledged that the IMF does not say it often.

But we should not have to wait for great humanitarian crises such as that caused by Ebola for people to see the clear need to increase the deficit in order to fund social services. Also, international law requires that compliance with basic human need is a priority compared to the bleeding of resources to pay the debt.

The IMF, which inhumanely ignores serious human needs, must disappear; those responsible for its decisions should be brought to justice for their actions. The devastating IMF policies have damaged too many people through neoliberal debt programs to be allowed to continue with impunity.

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The IMF is not the problem. It is merely an institution that implements the policies of the Capitalists.

Abolishing the IMF will not solve the problem: but its abolition will weaken the Capitalists’ ability to implement their policies.

At this time is history, blunting the harshness of Capitalism as SYRIZA is doing in Greece is the best we can hope for. At least, until the working class awakens to its historic mission to bury Capitalism once and for all.

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‘What we really need is a benign dictatorship’

Viv Miley writes that Tom Elliott said that ‘What we really need is a benign dictatorship’.

Elliott is not your ordinary right-wing mouthpiece with a Herald Sun column — he has ruling class pedigree. As well as being a columnist and radio presenter on 3AW, Elliot was a former investment banker and is the son of (in)famous Australian businessman and former Liberal Party president John Elliott.

Elliott's comments should be met with alarm, because they reflect an attitude among the ruling class that if parliamentary democracy isn't working — meaning parliament is not making decisions that benefit them — then democracy can be easily removed.

There is an element of truth in what Elliott is saying. There is a fundamental problem with our political system. But things won't be any better under a Labor government because it is beholden to the same corporate interests as the Liberal party. It may not be as vicious as Tony Abbott’s government in carrying out cuts, but its track record shows Labor is just as willing to inflict cuts and austerity measures on those who can least afford it.

Australia does need a different political system, but not Elliott's benign dictatorship. It needs a system that increases democracy and decision making in favour of the majority of society, the 99%.

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In other words, democracy works when the Capitalists have their way. This is why the UK, USA, and Australia have two or three major parties—these parties can be trusted to implement pro-Capitalist policies.

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Israel Top Court denies justice to Family of Slain Activist Rachel Corrie

Sarah Lazare writes that Israel Top Court denies justice to Family of Slain Activist Rachel Corrie.

The family of Rachel Corrie—the 23-year-old U.S. activist crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while nonviolently protesting a home demolition in Palestine 12 years ago—was denied justice by Israel’s top court on Thursday.

The rejection is the latest stage in the family’s decade-long legal battle to hold Israel liable for Corrie’s death, on charges that the military either killed her deliberately or was negligent.

Corrie, who hailed from Olympia, Washington, had been volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement for two months in Gaza when she was run over and killed by Israeli forces near the Rafah crossing in 2003. Her death sparked international outrage at Israeli human rights abuses, as well as accolades for Corrie’s life and legacy.

Since her killing, Corrie’s parents—Cindy and Craig—have continued their daughter’s work for global justice.

However, they have so far not seen justice in Israel’s courts.

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US citizens who protest against the brutal policies of US allies, cannot expect support from the US government.

In contrast, the US military invaded Grenada when the rumour went around that the US students there were in danger.

US lives matter when US interests are at stake.

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