After Paris attacks: Less freedom, more war?

Liam Flenady writes that After Paris attacks: Less freedom, more war?.

Much of the Left inside France have been reluctant to criticise Charlie Hebdo itself, and have not sought to challenge the “Je suis Charlie” slogan.

The magazine is politically mixed and represents different things to different people. It has often been hyper-criticalof the far right, anti-immigrant National Front, but at the same time its “provocative” portrayals of Muslims and of the prophet Mohammed clearly draw upon racist tropes and seems intent on tapping into a general Islamophobic cultural milieu.

The view that Charlie Hebdo is not racist since it also satirises Christianity and French politicians fails to recognise the objective power structures that exist in our societies, which fundamentally determine how the cartoons are viewed.

The front cover of the first edition of Charlie Hebdo since the attack, released on January 14, continues the publication’s poor record, depicting a racially stereotypical image of the prophet Mohammed holding up a “Je suis Charlie” sign, with the headline reading “All is forgiven.”

Guardian journalist Joseph Harker remarked: “In depicting the prophet Muhammad it is deliberately offending the vast majority of muslims around the world.”

In the aftermath of the bloodshed, however, critiquing Charlie Hebdo is not the main task of the day. It can become a distraction from the real issue of how to respond to the attacks.

Instead, in a time when anti-war and anti-imperialist movements in the West are struggling to reassert, the response of the international left to the attacks should be to challenge the mainstream narrative of mere “tolerance” and “Western values”.

Instead, the left should point out that the ongoing imperialist wars and interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere, as well as structural injustices within Western societies, are largely to blame for the rise of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.

This must be combined with a defence of freedom of speech and democracy that both condemns the killers and Western government attempts to exploit the violence to push its own undemocratic agenda.

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Freedom of speech is a vital, political necessity for the oppressed minorities. Their voices must be heard. Their needs must be addressed.

However, freedom of speech for the oppressors is a tool of subjudgation.

This is the inherent contradiction in the ideal of freedom of speech.

Historically, freedom of speech was a privilege granted by the rulers.

In ancient Rome, the plebian tribunes had this freedom granted after bitter civil strife. Yet, this freedom was not absolute as the rulers would murder outspoken tribunes with immunity when the tribunes went too far.

At the dawn of Capitalism, this freedom became a right because the nascent capitalist class needed to draw the workers and peasants into the fight against the feudal overlords. Even then, this right was negated by murder and execution as in the fate of Camille Desmoulins, the editor and publisher of Le Vieux Cordelier.

With the victory of the capitalist class, this right was withdrawn from the workers and peasants through legal restrictions and monetary constraints. The legal attack started with the libel laws, then with the sedition laws, and finally with the ant-terrorism laws. The monetary restrictions concern the capital needed to run a press, and to maintain journalists.

Papers, such as GreenLeft Weekly, maintain themselves through subscribers, street sales, and through donations. If you are able, please support GLW here.

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Charlie Hebdo & French ‘Secularism’: Does it really just privilege White Christians?

Mayanthi Fernando reflects on Charlie Hebdo & French ‘Secularism’: Does it really just privilege White Christians?.

Rather than stemming from Muslims’ rejection of Frenchness, then, the supposed impossibility of being a Muslim and being a French citizen is largely generated by the contradictions of French secularism and French citizenship and by the majority’s inability to conceive of Muslims as French.

We should not deny the horror of January 6. But, in its aftermath, rather than uncritically reaffirm French national identity and wring our hands about Muslims’ refusal to integrate, we should use this moment of reflection to understand the various ways in which Muslims are consistently excluded from the nation, and to reassess the narrow bases of what it means to be French.

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White privilege is invisible to white people. They cannot see that their lives are based on racism. They would rather think that their position in society is based on some other atrribute: hard work, intellectual superiority, innate goodness.

Yet these other attributes reinforce racial stereotypes. They encourage to think of other races as being lazy, intellectual inferior, or innately bad. This reasoning follows from the obvious reality that white people have the good things of life while the non-whites do not.

Since white people believe that the system is fair, the fact that non-whites do not have the good things of life means that the non-whites do not deserve them.

Yet the non-white people see the system as unfair because they do work hard, study hard, and be on extremely good behaviour. And still they are denied the good things of life. They see the lies of the white people's system every day.

How, then, to get white people to see that they do live a life of privilege based on their skin colour? There is no immediate material benefit to doing so because many white people will lose out in a completely fair system.

The best solution would be for white people to voluntarily give up their privileges in the spirit of justice. But this will take an enormous amount of spiritual growth for a lot of people.

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Finance & the left

Chris Dillow writes on Finance & the left.

First, financial markets right now are corroborating two big leftist positions. Long-term real interest rates are negative and, given the shape of the yield curve, are expected to stay so for some time.

This tells us two things. One is that markets don't give a toss about government borrowing. Negative interest rates are a strong argument against austerity. The other is that low rates reflect low growth expectations - secular stagnation (pdf) if you will. This is consistent with the Marxian claim that capitalism has run out of oomph, that the relations of production have become fetters on the economy, perhaps because inequality holds back growth.

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Even though there are great unmet human needs like renewable energy, feeding the world, increased mass transport, affordable housin, etc., Capitalism is unable to meet these needs because it is not profitable to do so.

This is truly a great failing of Capitalism. Despite the myth of the invisible hand of the market, human life is not getting better despite the largest accumulation of Capital in history.

The laws of motion for Capitalism prevent it being invested in areas of greatest human need.

We need to change the laws of motion for the financial so that these needs are met.

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Explorations in plain Marxism: revolutionary theory, practical action

Paul Le Blanc writes about Explorations in plain Marxism: revolutionary theory, practical action.

It could be argued that a more useful definition of capitalism (perhaps more consistent, also, with the perspectives of Marx and Engels) might posit four fundamental elements in the capitalist economy, three of which are relatively simple: the economy (means of production combined with labour) is privately owned, more or less controlled by the owners (in the sense that they make decisions regarding economic policy), and the guiding principle of economic decision-making involves maximizing profits of the owners. The fourth element is far more complex: the economy involves generalized commodity production — a buying-and-selling economy, or market economy. Generalized commodity production means that more and more and more aspects of human needs and human life are drawn into commodity production, into the production of goods and services that are created for the purpose of selling them, in order to maximize the profits of the capitalists over and over and over again. Capitalists are driven to develop technology and the production process to create more and more profits. And more and more people in society are forced to turn their ability to work (their life-energy, their strength, their intelligence, their abilities and skills) into a commodity, selling their labour-power in order to “make a living” (to be able to buy commodities they need in order to live, and additional commodities that they want in order to make life more tolerable). This more “open” way of defining capitalism allows for considerably more diversity in the form that capitalism takes, and it captures the incredibly fluid, dynamic “all that is solid melts into air” quality of capitalism referred to in the Communist Manifesto.

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This is a much more complex definition of Capitalism to what I have been using. But as LeBlanc writes, this definition allows us to see the early development of Capitalism from the Eighteenth Century onwards. The definition I have been using reflects a mature Capitalist economy.

All of this is in contrast to the simple, more “open” definition offered by Frederick Engels in an 1888 footnote to the Communist Manifesto: “By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour. By proletariat, the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live.”

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Instead of restricting the proletariat to workers of Department II, this wider definition allows for a greater participation in the revolutionary movement. This is necessary given the shrinkage in the labour force of Department II due to automation throughout the world.

If we stuck to the traditional definition of the proletariat, a socialist revolution would have become impossible, in theory, with the disappearance of the workers in Department II through complete automation.

Yet the working class reality must be understood not simply as an abstract category but as a process, associated with the ongoing dynamics of capitalism, through which the class is formed and re-formed from a massive body of people who are shaped by a variety of identities, subject to a variety of cultural and historical influences, involving a complex network of relationships and varying elements of consciousness related to these dynamic realities. We are shaped by the simultaneous influences of race, class, gender, sexuality, and more — many of which involve, in our historical context, various distinct and intense forms of oppression. Some activist-theorists have called this complex reality “simultaneity” or “intersectionality.”

In terms of practical revolutionary strategy, the central category of working class must be understood in all of its vibrant intersectional diversity, with each struggle by its various component parts being understood as a vital and necessary element of the overall class struggle.

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This is why the party is involved in multiple struggles against racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other forms of discrimination. The primary reason is to make contact with people as they struggle against oppression. A secondary is pedagogical—someone who is oppressed in one struggle can be an oppressor in another struggle. An example would be a gay who is sexist. By being invovled in multiple struggles, one can confront and start to correct one's own prejudices.

This strategic orientation — an uncompromising struggle for thoroughgoing democracy flowing into an unstoppable upsurge toward socialist revolution — becomes effective only when it animates substantial sectors of our class, and this will not happen automatically. Those of us who share this vision must organize ourselves, and join with other like-minded forces to organize struggles through which such revolutionary class consciousness can assume mass proportions. As enough people in the diverse and multifaceted working-class majority become “conscious” workers, organized as a political force capable of bringing about a revolutionary power-shift, possibilities will open up for the flowering of a society of the free and the equal.

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This is the idea behind the Leninist model of a revolutionary party.

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How do we rule? Direct and representative democracy and revolutionary power

Doug Enaa Greene poses the question: How do we rule? Direct and representative democracy and revolutionary power.

Revolutionary change does not just happen at the factory level, but throughout all of society. If we don't have a process or a way to mediate that change, we may as well give up on communism.

So what I am ultimately saying is that we will need leadership and representation after the revolution. It will need to be accountable, encourage mass debate, input and transparency to the extent possible, create a more democratic society than capitalism but be able to make decisions that can lead the whole of society on the road to communism.

However, this does not mean that the various forms of representation be considered set in stone, but are open to development and change in order to better serve the people.

None of this is meant to say that there isn't a danger of substitutionalism, usurpation and the many varied problems of representation in general. Those problems exist. Yet that is part of the danger and opportunity of power and communist politics. We cannot simply come up with a formal solution that overcomes this danger.

Direct democracy in and of itself is not the answer, since it can be manipulated and cannot make changes to a complex society as a whole. Societal transformation by its very nature is mediated. And we can only come up with solutions in the concrete, in the living moments of struggle, which are tried and tested. These are problems we cannot walk around, but we need to struggle through.

I believe that if we are willing to do so, we can build a revolution that lasts and leads to the flourishing of communism.

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We have a complex interplay between a Leninist party and the socialist government. Party members have the intellectual training, practical experience, and confidence to lead a socialist government at all levels.

However, the great majority of the people will still have a Capitalist mind-set after a revolution. Changing a mind-set takes time and effort. People want quick and easy solutions.

Unfortunately, the creation of a Communist society requires the re-orientation of people's thinking and actions. This takes time. There is no recipe for doing this, only general directions.

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Fundamentalism for Dummies: The Paris Terrorists’ Ignorance and Poverty

Akil N. Awan decries Fundamentalism for Dummies: The Paris Terrorists’ Ignorance and Poverty.

Cherif Kouachi’s lawyer described his client in 2005 as “a confused chameleon.” This is an apt description of the identity crisis commonly experienced by many jihadists, and can be explained through a process I call dual cultural alterity—essentially a double alienation from both minority (ethnic or parental) culture, and majority (mainstream or host society) culture, as a result of being unable or unwilling to fulfill either group’s normative expectations. This can lead to the cultural schizophrenia that Cherif’s lawyer describes, and is likely to inspire feelings of uprootedness and a lack of belonging.

Consequently, in the absence of an appealing cultural paradigm from either parents or mainstream society, religion becomes, by default, the principal anchor of identity. Religion provides an emphatic rejoinder to the identity offered by Western society, which these individuals feel has already rejected them anyway, and it is easy to understand why. In France, Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons reflected a broader palpable rise in anti-Muslim and anti-immigration sentiment. Leaving aside the lampooning of religious figures, many cartoons depicted ordinary French Muslims and other minority groups in a way that was at best, tasteless, and at worst, revelatory of an underlying French racism that is implicitly tolerated. The magazine once depicted French justice minister Christiane Taubira, who is black, as a monkey (although later claiming it was mocking her detractors).

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Capitalist society reduces workers to human resources who are hired and fired at will. Unless an individual fulfils a function within society, they do not exist. Unemployment is oblivion.

This is on top of the alienation that originates in the selling of labour power by the worker: the worker does not own what they create by their labour. Their identity and self-worth is sucked dry by the Capitalist production process. The worker cannot say, “I made this”. Thus even if one were to gain employment, one is spent by the continual demand to produce.

For those who are excluded by racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, disability, etc., the quest for identity through other means than work and cultural participation becomes paramount. They may create a sub-culture like bikies, Goths, Emos, Furries, etc. which satisfies the need for identity and belonging. Or, they may gravitate to crime, or to groups that resist the dominant culture.

Instead, the answer lies in changing the Capitalist society into another that is accepting of all people. People are accepted for being human—not because they are rich, white, male, heterosexual, able-bodied, employed, etc.. This means we have to eventually move away from workers selling their labour-power to something different.

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I am not Charlie Hebdo

I am not Charlie Hebdo.

For a western magazine, like Charlie Hebdo, to attack Islam through satire is to agree with the imperial project of the West. Islam is a minority religion in the West. None of the ruling elites within the West embrace Islam. Islam is not associated with political power within the West.

It is however associated with an oppressed minority within the West. These people are vilified in the press, insulted and attacked in the streets, and are subject to police harassment. They are oppressed by power in the West.

In Islamic countries, Islam is both a tool of oppression and a means of resistance. It is tool of oppression because religious law is used to crush dissent against the government. But it is a tool of resistance against the imperial powers by giving the people the language and will to resist the military incursions and invasions by the Western powers.

For me as an Australian to satirise Islam to give aid and comfort to the imperialist exploitation of Islamic countries. I am not being oppressed by an Islamic government, nor am I in any danger of being so.

I see oppression by a Capitalist government that uses Christianity, not Islam, to justify its actions. Thus, it is fit and proper to attack the Christians for allowing their religion to be used as a means of keeping power.

Press freedom is not an absolute right. It is a necessity for those resisting oppression. It is an abuse of privilege for those who support and enable oppression.

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Mexico: 2014 saw a resurgence of the broad opposition movement

Dan La Botz writes Mexico: 2014 saw a resurgence of the broad opposition movement.

Moreover, it should be remembered that the United States government will never permit: 1) the coming to power of a left government, either through election or revolution; 2) a military coup; or 3) a total breakdown in social order. The United States must maintain a nominal democracy in Mexico, because it cannot preserve democracy in North America and in its “own backyard” (as Mexico is always so disrespectfully called), it will lose credibility throughout the world. To say nothing of the billions of dollars of US investments in Mexico that must be preserved. Consequently, Washington has spent $3 billion in the last six years on the Mérida Intiative, a border security, counter-narcotics and counterterrorism program established by the George W. Bush administration in 2008. The US Defense Department also spends millions of dollars to train the Mexican military. The United States will not permit Mexico to go South.

…

With the resurgence of a broad opposition movement in Mexico, the last four months of 2014 represented a dramatic turn in the fortunes of the government of Enrique Peña Neto and his PRI party. The Ayotzinapa solidarity movement and the call for a constituent assembly to “refound” Mexico represent serious social and political challenges to the president, the ruling party and to the existing political system.

At the moment, the working class remains on the sidelines, more a spectator than a participant. Social change in 2015 will depend in large measure on resurgence of working-class activity as well.

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Democracy is always dangerous for the Capitalists for people with the wrong ideas could get elected and start doing harm to the interests of the Capitalists. So, we have the facade of democracy while real power is concentrated in the bureaucracy, barracks, and board-rooms.

We can never have true democracy until all of the organs of power (state, military, and economic) are answerable to the popular will.

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Sci-jacking

Noah Smith assures us that Economics is free of Sci-jacking .

But an even broader point is that econ has always resisted being sci-jacked. Studies find that political bias exists, but is small in size. If you've spent much time in an econ department, you know this — economists generally bend over backward to avoid the appearance of politicization. It's impossible, of course, to completely expunge politics from one's opinions and priors and basic beliefs, but economists, in the main, seem to have done an admirable job of staying as politically neutral as humanly possible. Even Milton Friedman, who was a member of the Mont Pelerin society and the most prominent conservative activist in the profession, made an attempt to separate his assessment of the facts from his own opinions and desires. And the "leftward shift" I talked about in my BV article has been more pronounced in the public sphere — in academia, the shift has been only minor and muted, because any earlier rightward tilt was also only minor and muted.

In other words, econ was never in danger of falling prey to sci-jackers, the way anthropology has. The sci-jackers made a lot of noise and established a lot of think tanks and coined a lot of buzzwords, but their assault broke on the walls of academic objectivity. I think econ deserves a lot of credit for that fact.

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Here we have another example of the Capitalist ideological superstructure blinding the masses by promoting academic objectivity. Trust us, they say, because we are outside of the political system.

He cannot see that he is part of the system. His blindness has allowed him entry into it. His blindness is a political act and a political necessity. he would be unlikely to find employment otherwise.

By promoting neutrality, he has implied that there is no alternatives to Capitalism in Economic study. The assumptions of agent behaviour and formation can only be explained through Capitalist eyes.

He cannot see that the economic forces create the political reality which then sustains the economic separation between Capitalists and workers. This separation aligns the political structure with the Capitalists.

However, the ideological system of Capitalism requires egalitarism and meritocracy. The purpose of the ideological superstructure is to disguise this alignment of the state with the interests of the Capitalists by promoting the ideas of government neutrality, academic objectivity, press freedom, and artist freedom.

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Hip hop, the boardroom, and the street

Dan Little writes Hip hop, the boardroom, and the street.

Hurt asks penetrating questions about the relationship between the street, the music industry, and youth culture. The documentary takes on a powerful strand of popular culture and the pop culture industry that creates it and undertakes to piece together an interpretation of the meanings this system of lyrics and images has. Hurt wants to know how this medium influences the young men and women who follow it. But he also asks how the content of the medium itself is shaped by the profit imperatives of the music industry. And it becomes clear that this is a complicated mix of commercial interests and some young men’s distorted ideas of masculinity.

This is real social criticism, in the Frankfurt School sense. The documentary raises a crucial question: Why is it that the music industry gives the lucrative contracts to the most violent, misogynist, and degrading rappers? And why has it been increasingly difficult for more radical and critical bloggers to get contracts and distribution in the past fifteen years? A young rapper offers a striking theory: it is preferable for white America to have hip hop music glorifying violence and sex in the hood than the messages of anti-racism and class-sensitized anger that are found in Public Enemy.

…

This is a complex set of issues, with causation going in many directions. The commercial interests of the major music companies drive the content of the videos and recordings; the content of the music influences the behavior and practice of young men and women in the neighborhoods; events in the street reflect back into the content of hip hop art; and realities in the neighborhoods are determined by the larger structures of power and race in our society. It is possible to see the formative power of popular culture on behavior; the media on popular culture; the business of music on the content of popular culture; the extreme behaviors that seem to result on the street; and the ideological forces that permeate all of this.

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Here we have a genuine popular art-form based on egalitarism and meritocracy moulded into a sexist and racist form by the Capitalist system for inclusion into the ideological superstructure. The purpose is to divide us and to distract us from the real problems.

Instead of the anger of young black men being directed against the Capitalist system and its agents, commercial hip-hop is being used to direct that anger against each other, and against women. It also serves to frighten white people.

And to whom do we turn we are frightened by angry black men? The system that created that violence in the first place. They both create the need and fill the need. Just like the case of Isalmophobia: they create radicalised Muslims, and use them to frighten the rest of us. And, of course, they have the only solution.

We need to break this cycle of violence that Capitalism creates and feeds on. We need to become masters of our destiny instead of being continually frightened by the bogeymen created by the system.

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Sri Lanka: Mahinda Rajapaksa defeated, Australia urged to push for new way

The Tamil Refugee Council writes Sri Lanka: Mahinda Rajapaksa defeated, Australia urged to push for new way.

“The Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, could start by reversing Australia’s “whatever it-takes-to-stop-the-boats” foreign policy, which included the shameful (unsuccessful) decision to block the current UN war crimes investigation — a move which saw Australia reject its traditional allies, such as the US, UK and Canada and side with such noted human rights’ abusers as China, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

“Abbott also needs to stop condoning Sri Lankan torture, as he did at CHOGM in Colombo in 2013, and see the change in leadership as a chance to help re-direct policies away from military-led repression to a new way that allows Tamils, in particular, to live the way they decide, and in peace and harmony.

“If Australia really wants to stop Tamils fleeing in the long term, then the root cause must be addressed, which is the persecution. We can only hope that this forms part of the discussion in Abbott’s congratulatory phone call to Sirisena.”

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Australia is deeply involved in the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka through our government's support of theirs, and through the forced repatriation of Tamil refugees back to Sri Lanka. We have a shared xenophobia and a desire for a mono-cultural state based on a single language (English and Singhalese) and a single religion (Christianity and Buddhism).

Tamil refugees must be allowed sanctaury in Australia until they feel safe enough to return to a Sri Lanka that is truly multi-cultural.

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Paul Krugman: Voodoo Time Machine

Mark Thoma posts excerpts from Voodoo Time Machine, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times.

The main point, however, is that we’re looking at a political subculture in which ideological tenets are simply not to be questioned… Supply-side economics is valid no matter what actually happens to the economy, guaranteed health insurance must be a failure even if it’s working, and anyone who points out the troubling facts is ipso facto an enemy.

And we’re not talking about marginal figures. You sometimes hear claims that the old-fashioned Republican establishment is making a comeback, that Tea Party extremists are on the run and we can get back to bipartisan cooperation. But that is a fantasy. We can’t have meaningful cooperation when we can’t agree on reality, when even establishment figures in the Republican Party essentially believe that facts have a liberal bias.

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As a Capitalist economist, Krugman can say this with a straight face because his reality is a Capitalist one. He could have only ascended through the ranks of academia and to have a regular column in the New York Times by doing so. Misfits are efficiently weeded out.

Academia and the press are but two (2) components of the ideological superstructure that justifies, preserves and defends the Capitalist system. Their credo is that Capitalist:

…ideological tenets are simply not to be questioned…

Their entire existence is to present and interpret reality in Capitalist terms, and to find excuses when reality cannot be made Capitalist.

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Socialists: Abbott's Paris massacre response 'no solution'

Socialist Alliance released a statement: Socialists: Abbott's Paris massacre response 'no solution'.

Socialist Alliance condemns the conservative religious fundamentalist sects which promote and carry out such acts of violence. These sects are deadly enemies of democracy, justice and progress and their violent and sectarian actions weaken the real struggles for a just, equitable, democratic and sustainable future.

The Socialist Alliance also warns against and condemns any attempts by Western politicians, governments, corporate media and others to use this latest incident to whip up racist Islamophobia which is already virulent in the rich countries of the world.

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Religion is being used as a tool of oppression, rather than a source of liberation. We need to take back religion from the rich, and use it to serve the needs of the poor.

Religion has been absorbed into the ideological superstructure that hides and excuses the true horrors of Capitalism. We need to wrench religion out like we need to wrench the press from the clutches of the Capitalists.

Unless this gross global inequality and oppression is ended, Abbott's warning that there will be more terrorist acts in the future is guaranteed to be fulfilled. But the Abbott government offers no real solutions. It offers only an intensification of the deadly cycle of violence.

Socialist Alliance calls for real solutions to the cycle of violence that must include:

• Ending Australian participation in all imperialist military interventions and occupations.
• Breaking from all imperialist military alliances and closing all US military bases and facilities in Australia.
• Just reparations to the victims of all Australian military interventions.
• An end to the war on refugees and full implementation of obligations under the Refugee Convention.
• Abolition the new, undemocratic “security” laws passed by the Abbott Liberal-National government with the support of the Australian Labor Party.

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Capitalism is the true source of terror throughout the world as it bombs, starves, invades, ravages countries throughout the world. Not even Australia is immune to these horrors as neighbourhoods are emptied of poor people so that the rich can get a better view of Sydney Harbour, or water supplies and crop land are poisoned through fracking.

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Freedom's supporters

Chris Dillow looks for Freedom's supporters.

Herein, though, lies my question. Where are the real, honest, defenders of freedom?

We'll obviously not find them in the police or security services who forever want to expand their powers. Nor are the main political parties unequivocally on the side of freedom. The coalition, like New Labour, has actually increased the number of new criminal offences. And the next election is likely to be a competition for who can most restrict freedom of movement. Nor should we expect companies to support freedom. Those bloggers who have criticized newspapers for not reprinting Charlie Hebdo's cartoons miss the point - that people become bosses by surrendering principle to pragmatism, which is no basis for a vigorous defence of freedom. More generally, as Nick says, companies use libel laws to suppress critics.

It's in this context that we should remember one of Marx's insights. Ideals, he thought, triumph not because of their intellectual strength but because of their political power: capitalism, he thought, would be overthrown not by sweet reason but by the power of the working class. The problem that we supporters of freedom have is that whilst we have right on our side, we don't have might.

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In the class war against Capitalism, we should always remember whose side we are on. We should be wary when the Capitalists cry out for the freedom of the press. We should what their agenda is.

The ideological superstructure of the Capitalist system, of which the press is a part, exists to preserve and defend the Capitalist system. The press continually extols the virtues and saving grace of Capitalism, follows the heroics of the Capitalists, wonder at their titantic battles. We are to be mesmerised by the wonders of Capitalism.

Capitalism can do no wrong, but it is a fragile thing for any interference results in malfunctioning of the system. And any criticism also threatens the system by upsetting the delicate natures of these heroic and valiant Capitalists.

But we should remember that freedom of the press means freedom to attack the enemies of Capitalism. But this does mean that the enemies of Capitalism have the same freedom to attack Capitalism.

The weapons used against the critics are economic, political, and police. The economic ones include deny employment to political cartoonists, like Ted Rall, and suppressing their work from being published. The political and police tactics include equating criticism with terrorism.

It is up to people like us to:

1. Support Ted Rall
2. Support Green Left Weekly

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Editors, Not Terrorists, Killed American Political Cartooning

Ted Rall writes that Editors, Not Terrorists, Killed American Political Cartooning.

There is still powerful political cartooning online. Ironically, the Internet contributes to the death of satire in America by sating the demand for hard-hitting political art. Before the Web, if a paper canceled my cartoons they would receive angry letters from my fans. Now my readers find me online — but the Internet pays pennies on the print dollar. I’m stubbornly hanging on, but many talented cartoonists, especially the young, won’t work for free.

It’s not that media organizations are broke. Far from it. Many are profitable. American newspapers and magazines employ tens of thousands of writers — they just don’t want anyone writing or drawing anything that questions the status quo, especially not in a form as powerful as political cartooning.

The next time you hear editors pretending to stand up for freedom of expression, ask them if they employ a cartoonist.

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For political cartoonists, like Ted Rall, to survive, he needs the support of people like us. The Capitalist elite has no need of such people because they fearlessly question and expose the status quo. But we need such people in order to show the lies that underlie the reality of everyday Capitalism.

Please Support Ted Rall.

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The POUM: Those who would?

Doug Enaa Greene discusses The POUM: Those who would?.

In the end, the revolution in Spain was lost not during the May Days of 1937, but long before. While the POUM arguably possessed a revolutionary program of victory, they had made a number of strategic errors before the war which isolated their influence to Catalonia. And during the war itself, the POUM's policies were two-faced: looking toward the Popular Front and for revolution. This was not helped by their ineffective leadership and their lack of allies.

The anarchists by contrast had the potential mass influence and zeal to carry a revolution across Spain. However, their own doctrine prevented them from doing what was necessary in order to win. At the moment when victory was possible, and power was in their hands, they threw it away. The Spanish Civil War also threw up new problems that anarchism couldn't comprehend. It showed that the path to victory was not as easy as abolishing the state and proclaiming libertarian communism. Rather, a state was needed to plan production, organize the war effort and mobilize the populace. And despite the later myth-making, the Spanish anarchists recognized this in practice when they joined the Generalitat and Republican government to prosecute the war.

And in light of the fact that neither of the options proposed by the POUM or the anarchists were viable options — whether through lack of will or ability — that left only the Communist Party's strategy. The PCE, whatever other mistakes they may have made, clearly recognized that a centralized regular army was needed to win the war. And in light of everything, they possessed both the means and the will to put their plans into action.

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The Spanish Civil War is seen as a battle between the ideals of Bolshevikism and Anarchism. It is also a lesson in not compromising the strategy of armed insurrection in order to seize state power.

Popular fronts are a means of drawing workers and others into active politics, and for various political parties to explore ideas and actions in common. But they are not a means of waging a revolution.

The lessons of Russian Revolution cannot be directly applied to other revolutions. There are general lessons like democratic centralism, and soviets. There are the particular lessons, relevant to Russia, of how to approach and involve the peasants.

The success of the Boliveran Revolution in Venezuela is due the radicalisation of the armed forces, and the capture of state power through the electoral process. The former allowed the latter to happen. Yet, this revolution is not secure because the economic power is divided in Venezuela thereby contributing to a prolonged period of dual power.

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Greece: 'Troika stop! Give them back their democracy!'

'Troika stop! Give them back their democracy!'.

It is up to the people of Greece, father of democracy but today matyr of austerity, to decide, in sovereignty, upon their future.

We, citizens of Europe, demand that the international financial institutions, the ratings agencies and the European authorities immediately cease their shameful pressuring. It is not up to the current European institutions and finance to dictate to the people for whom they should vote! Austerity is a political choice that they should be able to reject democratically!

We are in chorus with SYRIZA in saying that Greece’s problem is the same as that of all of Europe and that what is playing out here could signal the beginning of a new European adventure.

We, citizens of Europe say to the Greek people: do not fear, you can count on us, we are at your side. Our Europe is not theirs; it is yours.

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Democracy is only acceptable to Capitalists when their interests are preserved. Otherwise, coups are organised as happened in Iran in 1953, in Guatemala in 1954, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1965, in Greece in 1967, etc..

Even though SYRIXA wins the election, there is still the danger of a military coup and subsequent brutal repression. Capital must have its way in a Capitalist society, no matter what the means are.

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Most people wait (for most people)

Seth Godin writes that Most people wait (for most people).

No, most people wait. For most people.

Worth a pause to understand that this is literally true, obviously true, and not a criticism of those who choose to go first nor of those who wait.

The marketer's challenge, then, is to work hard to get to the point where most people (in the community) feel that most people are accepting the new product or service. Outbound marketing is largely the act of alerting the right people in the community at the right time… to keep most people in sync (which is our goal as most people).

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This is why mass actions are so important. They are a visible demonstration of how people care about an issue that they come out onto the streets to show their support.

This shows a greater level of commitment than voting, writing to the papers, blogging, tweeting, face-booking, etc..

Even those demostrations ebb and flow. Remember February 2003 when 1,000,000 Australians marched against the war in Iraq? Remember the anti-globalisation protests in Melbourne in 2000, and in Sydney in 2001?

Thus, there is the need for a revolutionary party to capture those experiences and lessons for the next time public anger swells up.

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Uncertainty is not the same thing as risk

Seth Godin says Uncertainty is not the same thing as risk.

That's not risky. That's uncertain. It takes fortitude to live with a future that's not clearly imagined, but it's no reason not to apply.

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It is risky being a Communist. It is certain that one will end up either dead or in gaol.

But it is important to pursue a vision of a society in which people control their own lives and live in harmony with others because all share in the bounty that society produces.

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Big data and class

Cathy O'Neil writes on Big data and class.

This is a sentiment I’ve noticed a lot, although it’s not usually this obvious. Namely, the elite don’t need to be monitored, but the rabble does. The rich and powerful get to be quirky philosophers but the rest of the population need to be ranked and filed. And, by the way, we are spying on them for their own good.

In other words, never mind how big data creates and expands classism; classism already helps decide who is put into the realm of big data in the first place.

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The Capitalist know they are in a class war. They know that their survival is at stake. Any means to keep us down and under control is justified.

Our privacy is an impediment to their control. Privacy is a privilege of the Capitalist, not the worker.

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