Linda d passed on the following letter from a friend — someone born in Mexico, but who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. And LindaD commented that it reveals something about the political landscape, where people are truly agonizing about major crimes of this society, and yet still gripped with lingering hopes that emailing a governor or mobilizing the state government may (somehow!) solve the problem. And then, as you can also feel, there is leaking into the email a sense that all this hasn’t worked — which poses the question of actually will change things.
Clearly we need to discuss, here on Kasama, the ways communist revolutionaries reach such people (who exist in the millions) — to unite with their deep (and perhaps deepening) outrage over many crimes, and to help divert their political activity into revolutionary politics. We need to deepen our common sense of how to undertake this work and influence pepole — not in just ones and twos, but in their tens and hundreds of thousands.
Dear friend,
I need to share some news with you that breaks my heart.
Yesterday another farm worker’s life was lost due to heat stroke. Abdon Felix Garcia was the third farm worker heat death in the last 8 weeks and the 12th farm worker heat death since CA Governor Schwarzenegger took office. Then I need to ask for your immediate help to e-mail Gov. Schwarzenegger and California legislatures today and tell them this has to stop now.
ACLU Staff Attorney David Rocah said that the police spying on left activists “breeds distrust from within, which is exactly the point.” It was not just information gathering, but attempts to weaken and neutralize progressive political forces.
by DANNY JACOBS, (Baltimore Daily Record), July 17, 2008 (Props to Rag Blog for circulating this.)
Maryland State Police officers spied on dozens of meetings and rallies held by social activist groups and provided reports to databases accessible by local and federal law enforcement agencies, according to documents obtained by the ACLU of Maryland.
Officers with MSP’s Homeland Security and Intelligence Division covertly spent at least 288 hours primarily at anti-war and anti-death penalty protests between March 2005 and May 2006, according to the redacted documents released Thursday.
The state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union received the documents after filing suit against MSP last month for not releasing the reports under the Maryland Public Information Act. The ACLU originally requested the documents in 2006 in connection with the trial of peace activists arrested during a protest outside of the National Security Agency in Fort Meade.
An important demonstration took place yesterday in Iowa City, in support of immigrant workers and against the all-too-typical dangerous and exploitative working conditions at a large meat-packing plant there. It is worth noting that this important action drew people from across the Midwest and was mainly organized by progressive religious forces.
Following is an account from the Dallas Morning News.
Protesters criticize Iowa meatpacking plant
July 28, 2008 (Associated Press)
POSTVILLE, Iowa – About 1,000 people, including rabbis, Hispanic immigrants and Catholic clergy, marched through this farm town Sunday, protesting working conditions at Agriprocessors Inc.
Following a raid on the plant in May, federal investigators said they found the plant had employed more than 20 underage workers, some as young as 13.
Some of the underage laborers said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week.
One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L., who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant’s killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts, six days a week. “I felt like I was a slave,” he said in an affidavit.
I found this brief video by radical professor and author Michael Parenti — not just because of the discussion itself, but because of the clear, simple and popular presentation. Something to learn from and emulate…. no?
Here are some methods of making his speeches available:
GENEVA Thu Jul 17, 2008 (Reuters) – Record growth in the world’s poorest countries has failed to prevent an increase in their total numbers of poor people, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Thursday.
Recent rising food costs threaten to undercut what modest progress has been achieved, while three quarters of people living in least developed countries (LDCs) still survive on less than $2 a day, it said in a report.
Income under $2 a day does not allow most people to meet basic needs for food, water, shelter, health or education, the Least Developed Countries Report 2008 noted.
The 49 LDCs experienced record growth of 7.9 percent in 2005, followed by 7.5 percent in 2006 and a projected 6.7 percent in 2007, the report said.
But the high growth rates, driven in many cases by record exports boosted by high energy and minerals prices, may not be sustainable, it said.
by Tom Burghardt / July 17th, 2008 (tip of the hat to Dissident Voice)
In Planet of Slums, socialist historian Mike Davis mapped the brutal urban realities shared by more than one billion of the earth’s inhabitants, unmoored by neoliberal globalization from the “formal” world economy. From Baghdad to Karachi and from Lagos to Los Angeles and beyond, as ever-broader segments of the world’s population are transformed into “a surplus humanity,” the master class presents “no scenario” for ameliorating the immiseration it has itself designed through the “normal” functioning of a grotesque system of exploitation and injustice.
The vast expansion of planetary slum zones amid sumptuary wealth and dystopian high-rise palaces of glass and steel patrolled 24/7 by armed sentries, are future portents of a regime where the savage inequalities of the “free market” go hand in hand with the terminal vacuousness of the “Real Housewives of Orange County.” As economist Michel Chossudovsky points out, the current economic crisis gripping late capitalism is hardly an accident of history:
…downsizing, corporate restructuring and relocation of production to cheap labor havens in the Third World have been conducive to increased levels of unemployment and significantly lower earnings to urban workers and farmers. This new international economic order feeds on human poverty and cheap labor: high levels of national unemployment in both developed and developing countries have contributed to depressing real wages. Unemployment has been internationalized, with capital migrating from one country to another in a perpetual search for cheaper supplies of labor.1
In Berlin on July 24, Barack Obama made a clear and unmistakable statement on his view of the world. There is much to say about its details, but the most central and specific feature of it was his demand that the U.S. (and the German government) escalate their military invasion of Afghanistan.
“This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO’s first mission beyond Europe’s borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.”
This is not an antiwar stand. It is a open call for new escalations in this aggressive war initiated by the Bush regime. And it offers Obama’s diplomacy and charisma as an opportunity to rally more support for that war from the countries of Europe.
At this moment, there is a sentiment in many places of the U.S. military and political establishment for a strategic shift — from Iraq to Afghanistan (where the U.S. occupation is rapidly falling apart). Obama is making a major appeal for those forces, speaking directly to the ruling class and putting forward his own distinctive aggressive strategy for defending and expanding the U.S. empire.
At the brink of each new American military outrage, the lying representatives of this system claim the coming aggression is about protecting the American homeland. That is what Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld did to justify their invasion of Iraq. and that is what Obama is doing now to justify his escalation plan for Afghanistan.
To make clear what really lies behind U.S. interest in Afghanistan, i have been encourage to republish an article I wrote exposing what they seek in Afghanistan: oil, natural gas, and the severing of energy-rich Central Asia from Russian control.
I wrote this piece in 2001 to expose what George W. Bush was unleashing on Afghanistan. It applies just as well now, as Obama emerges as the pointman for a new and dangerous act of aggression.
This editorial statement was written by the Democracy and Class struggle blog. We are posting it here to call attention to the rapid political changes happening in Nepal, and the need for revolutionaries to pay close attention to developments and foreign intrigues against the revolution.
Democracy and Class Struggle says the decision of the CPN Maoist not to form Government given the new Anti Maoist Alliance of the CP UML, Nepali Congress and MJF reflects the new realities in Nepal where the counter revolutionary forces in Nepal have re-grouped.
The siren call of the Nepali Congress for CPN Maoist to form government is nothing but a rope for the CP Maoist to hang itself with.
Arjun Narsingh of the Nepali Congress says.
“We still believe and want the Maoists to form and lead the new government. That was our earlier decision and we stick by it,” Narsingh said. “We will not be an obstacle for them in this matter.”
The CPN Maoist rightly ignores such siren calls and should concentrate on exposing the new alliance of the bankrupt parties and their new government to build on its popular support registered in the Elections.
This article was taken from Climate and Capitalism. This article traces the origins of the population control movement as rooted in Malthus’s original theory. It then goes on to discuss it’s development and reemergence in contemporary politics and it’s manifestations within the “eco-right”. The article then demonstrates how the movement’s ideological underpinnings are based on racism and classism.
Population Control and Climate Change, Part One: Too Many People?
March 2, 2008
Population control is once again being touted by some in the green movement as an answer to climate change and other environmental problems.
By Phil Ward
Why is population control an issue?
There is a long history of intersection between the ecological movement and the advocates of population control. Sometimes, views on this issue are not explicitly reactionary, but still use terms and categories familiar to more trenchant population controllers, for example, the UK Green Party: “The UK casts its ecological footprint over the world, reflecting the real costs of a high, and still growing, population with high consumption.”[1] They link desired (lower) birth rates with sustainability and consumption levels with the “earth’s carrying capacity.”
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth appear not to take an official position on population control, but this means that they do not combat the reactionary positions put forward by the population control movement.[2] Read the rest of this entry »
This article was taken from Climate and Capitalism and discusses Socialist alternatives to rigid population controls and immigration policy.
Population Control and Climate Change, Part Two: The Socialist Alternative
March 9, 2008
The world needs radical policies that challenge the economic power of capitalism, not repressive population control measures against the oppressed
Part One of this article outlined how, after a 10-year lull, establishment figures are again raising the issue of (enforced) population control as a means of tackling the environmental crisis. Now the focus is on climate change, with a pinch of anti-immigrant racism just to spice up the mix. The rationale is that immigration from countries where greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita are low, into imperialist countries where emissions are greatest, enhances climate change. Part Two looks at how socialists should respond to this debate.
by Phil Ward
The lull followed the UN Conference on Population and Development in 1994, which in the face of feminist pressure dropped explicit advocacy of population control programs, while presenting mealy-mouthed positions on women’s rights. In her book Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control, Betsy Hartmann argues that the commitment of this Cairo Conference to “sustained economic growth within the context of sustainable development” actually opens the door to population control: “…there is no way advanced capitalism and rampant consumerism can deliver all the goods to all the people and “sustain” both the natural environment and the grossly inequitable distribution of wealth.” Read the rest of this entry »
Kasama is publishing a range of views on the presidential election — including, obviously, views we do not directly endorse. This piece, originally published in Counterpunch, deserves a serious read.
By MIKE WHITNEY
Obama’s candidacy is over; kaput. He’s already stated that he has no intention of stopping the war, so he has disqualified himself. That’s his prerogative; no one put a gun to his head. His op-ed in Monday’s New York Times just removes any lingering doubt about the matter. What Obama proposes is moving the central theater of operation from Iraq to Afghanistan. Big deal. Why is it more acceptable to kill a man who is fighting for his country in Afghanistan than in Iraq?
It’s not; which is why Obama must be defeated and the equivocating Democratic Party must be jettisoned altogether. The Democrats are a party of blood just like the Republicans, they’re just more discreet about it. That’s why people who are serious about ending the war have to support candidates outside the two-party charade. The Democrat/Republican duopoly will not deliver the goods; it’s as simple as that. The point is to stop the killing, not to provide blind support for smooth-talking politicos who try to mask their real intentions. Obama made his choice, now he can suffer the consequences.
Nancy Pelosi is a perfect example of what the Democrats are all about. Just look at the way she brushed aside the people who got her elected. They mean nothing to her. In a matter of months, the “San Francisco liberal” has achieved what former-Speaker of the House Hastert could only dream of; she’s driven the Congress’ public approval ratings into single digits for the first time in history making her the worst speaker of all time. She rubber-stamped the FISA bill, concealed what she knew about the CIA’s global torture programs, and vowed to stop any public effort to hold the administration accountable for its war crimes. (No impeachment) She has betrayed her most ardent supporters and singlehandedly transformed an already-emasculated congress into a purely ceremonial body incapable of doing the people’s work.
(Stan Cox is a senior scientist at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas and author of Sick Planet: Corporate Food and Medicine (Pluto Press, 2008). He can be reached: t.stan@cox.net)
The ecological destruction in progress all around us grows out of the human economy’s unvarying tendency to overproduce what is profitable while at the same time underproducing what is needed. There is no better example of that than American agriculture [1]. Efforts to bring agriculture into line with ecological reality fall into two classes. Some efforts can be started today and will help get humanity through mid-century. Others (which also must be accelerated, and soon) will take longer to complete but will be necessary to sustain agriculture to the end of the century and beyond.
In the short run: go to the roots of the economy
The energy content of food produced for residents of the United States has risen from 3200 calories per person per day in the 1970s to almost 4000 today [2], approaching double the average daily requirement. Much of that is wasted. For many such reasons, shrinking the economic “throughput” of agriculture and associated industries can be a much more straightforward process than in other areas of human society, and it need not mean that anyone need go undernourished.
The purpose of growing crops and pasture is to convert solar energy into food and other useful products. But as it is currently organized, US agriculture and the businesses it feeds absorb more energy in the form of fossil fuels and other resources than they capture from the sun. Reducing throughput would not only save energy; it could pay a host of other ecological dividends. That’s because as it stands, agriculture is the planet’s chief cause of soil erosion [3], biodiversity loss [4], and creation of coastal hypoxic areas, or “Dead Zones” [5]. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s a rumor going around that Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is feeling his oats, flexing his muscle, and displaying a newfound confidence that has allowed him to challenge the American occupation of Iraq. As a result, or so the story goes, Maliki has suspended talks with the United States on a long-term security agreement, and he has spoken out in favor of a timetable for withdrawing US forces.
But that’s mostly wrong. From the start of his reign as prime minister in 2006, Maliki has been a weak and ineffectual leader. His political base is exceedingly narrow, and his Dawa Party is virtually nonexistent as a political force in Iraq today. (Dawa — which means “The Call,” as in Islamic proselytizing, has always been a thin part of the ruling alliance, and it recently splintered, when former Prime Minister Jaafari and his faction withdrew from it.) Maliki’s power rests on a shaky coalition of other Iraqi parties, including the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), a militia-based party closely tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
As the national convention of SDS approaches, Kasama is publishing a series of pieces on the politics of this important student organization. As always, our posting of these pieces does not mean endorsement of their analyses, but a presentation of materials for exploration and debate.
by Hegemonik (originally published on Hegemonik’s own blog)
For members of Students for a Democratic Society, this is that strange time of year when classes are finished but we start to hit the books with some renewed fervor. Yep, we’re in the lead-up to the National Convention once again! This go around with the SDS National Convention, there’s been some back and forth on caucuses and how they will work, attempting to sum up some lessons learned on what to do and what not to do.
With that in the back of my mind, I felt like writing at length about my experience with the SDS People of Color Caucus, from the period of SDS’s founding National Convention to the current day.
Bite your lip and take a trip
My most vivid memory of a caucus 2006 (Chicago) round, where (like everything else) the caucuses were chaotic: first they were all scheduled against one another (women’s caucus versus people of color caucus — as if there were no women of color); then caucus times were swapped around by the various constituencies; then the people of color caucus was accidentally locked out as the U. of Chicago wasn’t open at the time that had been scheduled.
Linda d passed on the following letter from a friend — someone born in Mexico, but who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. And LindaD commented that it reveals something about the political landscape, where people are truly agonizing about major crimes of this society, and yet still gripped with lingering hopes that emailing a governor or mobilizing the state government may (somehow!) solve the problem. And then, as you can also feel, there is leaking into the email a sense that all this hasn’t worked — which poses the question of actually will change things.
