And the Nobel Peace Prize goes to…

The internet erupted with outrage at the announcement of the winner of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. A prize that is supposed to be given to those who have advocated for peace, and helped bring about a more peaceful world. Of course as you most likely know, this year’s prize went to the European Union. After having given the prize to other capitalist imperialists such as Barack Obama and Henry Kissinger, this only helps solidify the meaninglessness of the prize and its control by those who wish to advance, not human rights or democracy, but capitalist control over everyone and everything. Their rationale for awarding the peace prize to the EU was that it had solidified unity on a continent that used to be torn by war. This may sound reasonable to some, but if you dig just below the surface you’ll see that this is a farce, and that giving the peace prize to the EU is like giving a prize for outstanding human rights to the keepers of Guantanamo bay. Now I’m going to tell you why.

Peace and Human Rights my Ass

While it’s true that Europe has managed not to kill off the entire globe yet, that is hardly cause for a Nobel Peace Prize. Hell, I’d qualify for that shit if that was the case. What is the EU’s stance on human rights? Have they actually produced a more peaceful world? The answer to both, unfortunately, is a negative one. Let’s start with the first question, human rights. Is Europe upholding human rights? The answer is an unequivocal NO. Let’s start with the support of many EU countries for and complicity in illegal CIA renditions. No less than 14 EU member countries have been explicit in helping the US with their illegal kidnapping and imprisonment structure in Europe. Countries like the UK, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece, Sweden among others. Want to read more about this? Glad you asked, because here is a link for you from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/world/europe/07iht-prisons.1915898.html

And that’s not all. Amnesty International reported that migrants to Greece, many of them minors were being unfairly and illegally imprisoned in detention centers. Here’s the story here:  http://www.amnesty.eu/en/press-releases/security-and-human-rights/detention-of-minors-in-greece-shows-failings-of-eus-immigration-policy-0463/

Migrants left to die: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/28/left-to-die-migrants-boat-inquiry

These problems are important egregious violations, and I could talk about support by the EU member nations and participation in the US’s illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that has killed upwards of a million people, but there is something closer to home that I want to focus on.

The EU financial crises is years old now, and the struggle continues as Brussels, Germany and France try to squeeze the poorer member nations for all they have. Greece, Italy and Spain among others are floundering in ridiculously high unemployment, sagging economies and corrupt governance. Hundreds and hundreds of people in countries like Spain and Greece have taken their own lives because of austerity programs that took away from them what they had worked hard their whole lives to build. Men who had worked for a lifetime found that their guaranteed pensions were being stripped away from them, leaving them with nothing to live on. The disabled and sick are left hanging as the government cuts and cuts and cuts social programs that helped these people live with a modicum of decency. Surely it was because all those social programs had bankrupted those countries, right? (this is what the right likes to bray every time you bring up the trouble in Europe) NO. It is the fault of none other than the EU itself. It brought poorer countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal under the common currency when they were not ready to do so, and created a tidal wave of economic excess. Banks borrowed at ridiculously low rates and bet on bad debt over and over again, and the whole economy was managed very very badly. A mountain of debt piled up and the banks were about to go under so the governments bailed out the bad decision making bankers and put themselves deeply into debt. The bankers, the governments made out like bandits, and the working people were thrown under the bus. Higher taxes, for less government services. That’s not fiscal responsibility, that is straight up theft from the working classes. That is reprehensible. Mothers in Greece are abandoning babies they can’t feed, homeless numbers are growing, riots in the streets and anger abounds. The EU is in the throws of a social movement that could possibly bring down the whole damn apparatus. The police hit, shoot, beat and gas protesters for expressing their anger against this travesty, and pictures of bloodied and beaten protesters abounds. Speak out against this sickening fleecing of Europe and you’re thrown in jail, kill millions of jobs and steal pensions, you’re a hero. It is down right sickening. Here’s some pictures from “peaceful” Europe:

This is all going on RIGHT NOW. People are suffering and dying thanks to the economic terrorism wafting out of Brussels, Berlin and Paris, and there are loads of riots and talks of war, separatist groups and economic collapse. And it is to this region, that they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Seems legit.

Dear Europe, you don’t deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. You don’t deserve it because there is no justice in Europe, only class warfare. And as you may have heard before, no justice, NO PEACE.

FUCK the EU and its capitalist tyranny. End the EU and build socialism in your countries.

Also, give up on ever respecting the Nobel Peace Prize, it’s a joke and has been for some time.

It is important enough to say again:

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE.

Free Speech in the UK

Countries in the West like to hold themselves up as the paragon of democracy, civil liberties and human rights. This week there were three news stories that showed that this facade of freedom and democracy in the West is just that, fake, a facade and a lie. Let’s look at these stories, and what people in the UK are facing under their oppressive hypocritical government.

Clothes Make the Man

This first story is a man from Radcliffe, UK who made a t-shirt expressing his opinion about a gun and grenade attack that killed two Manchester police officers only hours earlier. The t-shirt read on the front “One Less pig, perfect justice” and on the back “killacopforfun(.)com ha, haaa?” Now, you may guess that some people were not amused by this, and that some understood the sentiment being from the bad reputation that cops have as oppressors of the working class. However, apparently this was such an egregious crime that it warranted a sentence of 8 MONTHS IN PRISON. EIGHT. Two thirds of a year in prison for making a t-shirt expressing an opinion? Welcome to the United Kingdom, where you have freedom of speech unless you say something someone doesn’t like.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/914746-man-jailed-over-offensive-t-shirt-worn-hours-after-deaths-of-female-officers

Bad Taste Notwithstanding

A 19 year old Matthew Woods from Lancashire UK has been sentenced to 12 weeks in prison for making jokes about two young girls who have been missing since 2007. He posted the unsavory jokes to twitter and was then subsequently arrested. Were those jokes in bad taste? To be sure. Was he breaking any law or really hurting anyone? No. Welcome to the United Kingdom, where you have freedom of speech unless you say something someone doesn’t like.

Talk About Morality

And finally, a man has been sentenced to 240 hours of community service for daring to say things against the UK military. 20 year old Azhar of West Yorkshire was found guilty of “grossly offensive communication” after he posted on facebook that he thought that all soldiers should die and go to hell. The message was in a response to a page that was commemorating the deaths of six British soldiers killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) in Afghanistan in March. Mr. Ahmed was told that “with freedom of speech comes great responsibility” meaning apparently, “with freedom of speech comes no freedom of speech”. You can’t fucking uphold your country as better than others because of “freedom” when you arrest and imprison people, not for committing actual crimes, but for speaking words that you don’t like. The imperialistic UK has spent decades terrorizing the middle east, bombing and invading and killing away, but don’t you dare disrespect the troops who are committing these crimes against humanity. The UK government, like the US government and others has proved that it only cars more about supressing unpopular speech than it does in respecting the right of people to voice their opinions. The next time someone tells you that communists don’t believe in freedom of speech, send them a link to this blog and then laugh in their faces. The UK is not democratic, it is a plutocracy, it is for the rich by the rich of the rich. Tear down the monarchy, build a republican socialist nation that will respect not only the freedom of speech but the freedom to fight against imperialism, capitalism and war.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19883828

Money for War, Can’t Feed the Poor

The US loves to go on about how they are the greatest, most successful, richest and most prosperous country in the world. We sing of alabaster cities and glistening ivory towers. We have our gilded halls and our expensive rugs. There is something else Americans like to say too. “America is broke, we can’t afford these entitlement programs. We just don’t have the money to provide for food, education, healthcare or anything else for the poor. Just look at us, we’re broke!!”

You can’t have it both ways America. You sound like a deadbeat dad who has the money for the bar, but can’t cough up child support. No one is buying it. Seriously, no one (with half a brain) is buying it. The US has a GDP of over 14 trillion dollars a year. That’s nearly 10 trillion dollars more than the next contender China, or Japan right behind it in 3rd place. We throw away more food than any nation on earth. We spend more on health care costs per capita than any developed nation on earth. While McDonalds, your local supermarket, and high class restaurants throw out literally tons of food, people in the US starve, they go without the basic human necessities. The poor are deciding whether to pay their electric bill and have heat for the winter, or to forgo that and be able to eat. The elderly are contemplating whether to have medicine that keeps them alive, or have food to eat. Meanwhile the rich capitalist class is sitting on trillions of dollars. TRILLIONS. That could help pave our roads, pay our teachers,  feed the poor, send poor kids to college, etc etc etc.

“But we’re broke” they naysayers whine. Let me tell you just how “broke” we are most certainly not.

This link takes you to a chart that breaks down government spending by category: http://www.usfederalbudget.us/us_welfare_spending_40.html

Now let me give you some figures from 2011. Surely we poured money into welfare, entitlements, and those damn educational institutions, right? Wrong. Dead wrong.

We spent 903 BILLION dollars on defense in 2011. That’s almost a freaking trillion dollars in ONE year, just on our many wars. How much on education? 153 billion. oops. 131 billion on welfare for families and children, 109 billion for unemployment (be sure to blame that on the unemployed now,not the greedy selfish capitalists who fired them and made the remaining workers work harder for less),  and a paltry 75 billion on housing. Of course the government does cough up 37 Billion dollars to house its 2 million prisoners in this “land of the free”.

Americans live in a country that has a tangled messed up health care system that leaves millions without care for more than the cost of universal health care, the largest prison population in the WORLD (absolute, or per capita, either one), 800 plus military bases in 150 plus countries world wide. We can pay for pointless and destructive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can pay for thousands upon thousands of bombs and ships and missiles and guns, but no money for a poor child’s meal, or education. We say we don’t have enough to meet everyone’s needs, but that is a bold faced lie. We most certainly do have enough to meet everyone’s needs, and then some. We just don’t have enough, and will never have enough to satisfy the greed of the capitalist class.

All of this is the direct result of living in a country that has a capitalist system. The elite few who own the companies and corporations ride high on the hog while you toil away trying to survive. Their kids are guaranteed education in the hallowed halls of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, while you’ll be happy if you can afford to send your kid to community college. They make the profit, you do the work. The working class dies in the sands of Iraq, their kids dine on caviar and drive a Ferrari. Your house has leaks and crack and holes, they employ someone like you to make sure their topiary is always nicely groomed. They sell you out, use you up, throw you in the waste basket, and then America, then you praise them and admire them. You gladly wave their blood stained flag and are happy to sacrifice your children to the fires of their Moloch. You are happy to work you say, happy to have a job, they’re happy too. They are happy that you’re not aware that you are a wage slave, that you make them millions while you can’t make ends meet. Open your eyes, look around you and see that this is not a good system. The people are suffering, they are even dying. When they start to speak up, they get pepper sprayed, called dirty hippies, beaten, imprisoned, censored and stomped. NO MORE.

Reject this fake democracy, throw off the shackles of capitalism. How you ask? You won’t change things by voting for the two parties that control government, and get paid by the likes of JP Morgan Chase. You won’t change anything by spending a lot of time talking about how the cops (the running dogs of the capitalist ruling class) are really your friends. We can only change things one way in the US. That is to rise up and demand a new form of government. Please, join a socialist party (maybe the Party for Socialism and Liberation) ANGRILY demand an end to these useless deadly wars, call for a stop to US imperialism, resist the government. If you are in the military, get out NOW. Demand recognition as a conscientious objector, do what you have to. Do not fight any more for their bloody greedy bullshit. Your life is worth more. Start a union where you work. Start conversations with the people around you, show them what kind of a system it is. It is time to build class awareness. This is a class war, and it has been going on for a very long time. Fight for NOT JUST THE US, but the world as a whole. A socialist US is a good thing for the entire globe, and all its myriad peoples. Have courage, speak out, fight back. Workers of the world, UNITE!

“Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”- Maggie Kuhn

 

9/11: A Day for Tears

I saw the second tower hit on national television. I remember the shock, the utter horror at what I was seeing. I cried that day. Many people died, and that is tragic. That day was a step toward my political awakening though, and here I am 11 years later, a bit older and wiser. Instead of talking to you today about my memories of that day, and how it affected me however, I want to talk about something just a bit different.

I want to talk about tears. Do you cry? Can you look at the destruction and pain and suffering in this world, and not be moved? I cry. I don’t hide the fact that I cry. Crying is not weakness, no more weak than laughing. So let’s talk.

Who Cries for Them?

Today in the US there will be memorials. People will hold cherished photographs of loved ones passed on, and they’ll cry. The country, maybe even the world will cry with them. We’re all human. We know loss. Thousands of people lost their lives that day. But put that aside for just one little moment and answer these questions for me:

Who cries for the starving children in the US? The ones with the tattered shoes and the snotty nose?

Who cries for the Palestinian mother, as she clutches her dead baby against her chest, another victim of Israeli missiles.

Who cries for the children blown up by unaccountable unmanned US drones? The houses gone, the dreams buried.

Who cries for the 3 million dead Vietnamese, the victims of unprovoked US aggression? Their forests burned and decimated, their children maimed and killed.

Who cries for the thousands of US military dead? Their children missing fathers and mothers, their sisters and brothers bereaved.

Who cries for the tens of thousands of Chileans who perished at the hands of US backed Pinochet, after they overthrew the legitimate government?

Who cries for the thousands of victims of the so called war on drugs? The ruined lives, the shattered families.

Who cries for the Afghans, their country destroyed for a crime they never knew happened? Their villages ripped apart by foreign invaders.

Who cries for the millions of the homeless on the streets of America, as they shiver in the cold and rock back and forth humming to forget the crushing hunger?

Who cries for all the many endless victims of US aggression, war, imperialism, hubris, hegemony, and self righteousness? Who cries for all the victims, the millions and millions of victims of capitalism?

Where is their day of remembrance? Their monuments, statues and poems? Their hopes and their dreams and their lives? Forgotten, as forgotten as stock market price of sugar the day before the stock market crash. They’ve covered up their cries with commercials and Olympics and flashy parades.

Today, instead of watching the fake-patriot bullshit on TV, the meaningless speeches and the sound of bag pipes, I implore you to take just an hour to sit quietly in a library, or in your home, and read about one of the imperialist aggressions of the US against the people of the world.

Who knows, if you still have a heart, it might make you cry.

What Next?

On a recent blog post here on the Communist Daily, a reader keeps insisting that I don’t have a plan for an economy, and that the best way to win battles for the working class is through electing Democrats. Here, I will show why he’s wrong about socialism, and dead wrong about the democrats.

Elections in the US of A

America’s form of government is technically a “Federal Republic.” What does that mean? Well, it means that we’re a union, or federation of states under a central government, and that we elect officials to represent us. It sounds nice. It sounds democratic. It’s not very accurate. What we have in the US is a dictatorship of the capitalist class. What does that mean? It means that the capitalist class controls and owns every aspect of political life in this country. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s look at the facts.

Interesting Facts about the American Political System

Less than 1% of the American population are millionaires. About 47% of congress members are millionaires. The median net worth of congressional members was an average of  $2.56 MILLION.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/47-of-congress-members-millionaires-a-status-shared-by-only-1-of-americans/

Women make up about 50% of our population. How are they represented in congress? As of 2011, in the 112th congress, they represented just 16.8 % of the seats in the House of Representatives, and only 17% of the seats in the Senate.

Source: http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/Congress-CurrentFacts.php

Who is controlling government? Do we the people really have the power? Not according to the facts we don’t. Throughout our government are members who have close ties to companies like Goldman Sachs, and politicians have received millions of dollars in financial contributions from them. Here’s a good source where you can see just how pervasive this corruption is:

Source: http://littlesis.org/list/39/Government_Officials_with_Ties_to_Goldman_Sachs#members

Spending in Elections: In 2010 both parties broke records for amount of money raised and spent on getting themselves elected. Hundreds of millions of dollars wasted to win a popularity contest.

Source: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/10/election-2010-to-shatter-spending-r.html

The solution

I could go on and on with these kinds of facts, that show that both parties are complicit in the corruption that controls our government. I could go on about how the same corporations support and defend both the Democratic, and the Republican parties, because they’re both the same, and the results are the same. I could go on about the minutiae of political interworkings, but instead, I’m going to lay out the way forward. We know that our political system is broken. Let’s not kid ourselves. Congress at last check had an approval rating of just 9%. We’re not happy with our government. The problem is that we’ve been told for so long that we’re powerless to change it. We’re told to just shut up and vote, ignoring the limited nature of our choices. Shut up and vote, ignoring the war, economic trouble and corruption that both parties represent. We’re told to shut up and vote, ignoring that our voting doesn’t really matter in a rigged system. It’s time to reject that line of reasoning. We do have a voice, we do have a choice, and it’s time we exercised our prerogative.

 

 Step One:

Demand a new government. Yes, I know that this scares some people. I know that it’s frightening to abandon the old and reach for the new. However, we must. Our current government is broken beyond repair, yet we hang on to it like it was a priceless heirloom. Let go America. Demand a government that truly represents you. Demand a government that is not controlled by money, not controlled by the capitalist class. Demand a government where you really do have a voice; one where we all really have the opportunity to pursue democracy. Before we can do anything else, the US needs a new government. Stat.

Some Plans for a New Country:

Now I am going to talk about issues. First, bring every last troop home . Every last one. Close EVERY base in foreign countries. Yes, that means close our bases in Germany, Japan, South Korea, the UK, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba etc. EVERY LAST ONE. Close them down immediately. Cut the military down to bare bones. Close hundreds of bases in the US, as much as possible.

Seize the wealth of the capitalist class. This means outlawing the stock market. Freeze all assets above $200,000. To build a new society, we will need to use the money that has been stolen from us for so long. The US has a GDP of around 14 trillion (with a T) dollars. Yet we cannot provide the most basic services to our citizens. This is unacceptable, it needs to end NOW.

Reform the education system. Abolish all for profit schools and seize their assets. Make education free and open to all citizens through at least the masters degree level. Education is a human right. Forgive all student loan debt.

Nationalize the health care industry. All medical care shall be free and open to anyone, regardless of their ability to pay. This is a human right as well, non-negotiable.

Redistribute the seized wealth, pay reparations to the countries we’ve invaded.

Start building an economy that works for the working class. Invest in research and development, medicine, public transport, green technology, alternative fuels.

End energy production using fossil fuels.

Destroy all nuclear weapons and make the US a nuclear free country.

Mandate that women make up half of the new government, with proportional representation and autonomy for the oppressed nations within the US. Give full unabridged autonomy to the Native Americans.

Conclusion:

These are some ideas for a new America. One free of capitalist corruption, imperialism, racism, sexism and the threat of nuclear war. A country that is truly democratic, socialist and free. I know that many Americans agree with me. They are sick and tired of the old status quo, sick of the lies and hubris of a political and financial class that walks all over them, and sick and tired of being sick and tired. We can build a new, better society, free from capitalism. The first step is to wake everyone up to the fact that we can, and must demand a new government. We are beholden to nothing but our consciences, our morals and our dreams. The planet is dying. Human beings are suffering because of this system. We can turn this around, but not until we achieve STEP ONE: A new government.

Some, like the commenter I mentioned above, think that we should settle for scraps from the table. They think that we can achieve our goals by begging the democrats pretty please. Surely they’ll listen to us. They ignore that it has been Democrats that have sent the police after activists, shot protesters in the face with tear gas canisters; Democrats were those like Obama and Rahm Emanuel that helped suppress the occupy movement. Democrats like the mayor of Seattle who has battled to protect the racist and brutal Seattle Police Dept. against Justice dept. inquiries. Democrats like Obama who have not only NOT stopped our imperialism, but have accelerated it. Democrats like the ones whose money grubbing hands are stained with the blood of innocent Iraqis, Afghans, and Palestinians. Democrats are JUST as guilty as the Republicans. Don’t be fooled. Don’t be swayed. The only way to get real change is to change the corrupt and evil system that has allowed all of these horrible things to happen, that has allowed criminals to go free while innocent Americans sit in prison by the millions. If you really believe in the courage of your conviction leftists, then stand up and demand what we have needed for so long; a new government, one that is truly of, by, and for the people.

Until we have the courage to do that, our demands will fall on deaf ears. They know that we are powerless because we make ourselves powerless. We refuse to have the courage to demand a new government, that we have no way to really pressure them.

Change that. Bring this government down.

 

 

Democracy: Hated in America?

Get into an argument with a right wing nut job, and it’s likely at some point he will mention how he hates democracy. It’s true! I honestly don’t remember how many times a conservative has told me in no uncertain terms that they hate democracy. In fact, I’m about willing to bet that he will say some inane cliche such as “Democracy is two wolves and a sheep, deciding on what to have for dinner.” or something like that. Why do they actually hate democracy, and what is their alternative form of government?

The Republic

One common conservative habit is to wax poetic about the illustrious history of our great republic. You see, a republic means that umm, we’re the best, because no one else in the world has a republican form of government or something. In fact, special treat for your comedic enjoyment, I will now post actual conservative comments on what it means to be a republic. Here goes:

From media cesspool of stupid PJmedia:

“Yet America is a republic, not a democracy. Our Founding Fathers instituted a form of government guided by the rule of law rather than the desires of a majority of voters. They understood that a democracy is always in flux and given to “mob rule,” while a republic is fixed and stable, resting on “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Because of the uncertainty of democracy, Benjamin Rush — a signer of the Declaration of Independence — wrote: “A simple democracy is one of the greatest of evils.’”

Or let’s try this one:

“Democracy is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for dinner.”

That last one heard just about fucking everywhere. What does that mean though, and what the hell is a republic anyway, and why would it be superior to a democracy?

Let’s first go to a dictionary (something I suspect many conservatives of never having done). Here is the dictionary definition for republic (Merriam-Webster):

re·pub·lic noun \ri-ˈpə-blik\

a (1) : a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president (2) : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government
b (1) : a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law (2) : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government

So it’s essentially a form of government that doesn’t have a monarch. It might help to know the etymology (that means history of a word for you conservatives) of the word, from the online etymology dictionary:

republic
c.1600, “state in which supreme power rests in the people,” from Fr. république, from L. respublica (abl. republica), lit. res publica “public interest, the state,” from res “affair, matter, thing” + publica, fem. of publicus “public” (see public).

So it means a state in which the power lies in the people (as opposed to a monarch of some sort). It means a government concerned with the affairs of the people. Let’s go over what it is not.

It is not a government that never changes. It is not a government that never improves. It is not a government that never progresses. It is not necessarily a government that allows unrestricted weapon possession, imperialist war, homophobia, rule of religion or any of the other insane agendas of the radical right wing in the US. Before I tie this all together, let’s look at what the right thinks of as a detrimental, and anti-American form of government.

Democracy

What is democracy? What does it mean? Why is the right so vehemently against it? Let’s start with the definition of democracy.

From Merriam-Webster:

de·moc·ra·cy noun \di-ˈmä-krə-sē\
plural de·moc·ra·cies

Definition of DEMOCRACY

1
a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority
b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2
: a political unit that has a democratic government
3
capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the United States <from emancipation Republicanism to New Deal Democracy — C. M. Roberts>
4
: the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority
5
: the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges

Democracy is simply a government run of, by and for the people (Where have I heard that before?). From the Greek “demos” meaning people and “kratein” meaning to rule. Rule by the people. The right doesn’t want that. They don’t want a government run of by and for the people. They want to cast democracy as “mob rule”, giving the image of an angry irrational mob carrying pitchforks and torches. They know that’s not what democracy is, and they don’t care as long as they convince people that it’s bad. So without further ado, let’s tie this all together.

Republic, Democracy, Capitalism and Socialism

One point of this blog is to point out the ridiculous arrogance of the conservatives in the US. More importantly than that however, is the fascist lie they are propagating. The lie is the lie that has been spread in many countries is a historical revisionism that makes a fetish out of history. They like to elaborate upon the wishes of the founding fathers, and how those all knowing demigods made a perfect system that could not be improved upon. They claim that the “rule of law” meant the government as it was established in the late 18th century, and that we mere mortals are not to deign to question a government that god himself made out of liberty and democracy. They gloss over history, the reality of what it was, and they put up walls to halt the process of humanity.

Newsflash: It is 2012. It is not 1776. Let’s talk briefly about why that’s important. When this country was founded, something the right loves to pontificate about, the country had slaves. When this country was founded, only white, land owning males could vote. When this country was founded, it only had just over 3 million people, total. That’s less than exist in my metropolitan area today. Now we are one of the most populous countries on earth. In the late 18th century we didn’t have TV, phones, cars or the internet. In short, it was a very different place than the present US in the 21st century. Now the conservatives say we should go back to the foundation the founders set for us. They like to assert that we must govern ourselves according to the rules and philosophies of men who’d never heard of toothpaste, let alone envisioned this world and what it has become. We are bound to the 18th century to them, in our philosophy, our religion, our ideas. To them, that is freedom. To me, this is absurd.

The founders were the radical leftists of the day, declaring that they did not need a monarch, that a people could be self ruling. The self rule of a people by the way, is called a democracy. A republic is one in which there is no monarch. That is what they established. We should read, learn and understand their times, their ideas and their philosophies, because they did indeed affect the world in monumental ways. In fact, the ideas of the enlightenment would bring on the birth of socialism, and the idea of even greater freedom and democracy in societies. They ignore the radical revolutionary nature of the revolutions that rocked the world at that time, and instead focus on the outdated ideas of the era that we should have long ago discarded. The worst thing, is that they say that we who live in this time, are not intelligent, or discerning enough to create the country we want to live in. We must live under hundreds years old laws that do not fit our time, our people or the world. We as a people are expected to be powerless before the oligarchs who rule over us. One of our founders actually had some very pertinent words regarding this phenomenon, that we should be beholden to the rulers of the past. Thomas Paine state this in his seminal work “The Rights of Man”:

“The method which Mr. Burke takes to prove that the people of England have no such rights, and that such rights do not now exist in the nation, either in whole or in part, or anywhere at all, is of the same marvellous and monstrous kind with what he has already said; for his arguments are that the persons, or the generation of persons, in whom they did exist, are dead, and with them the right is dead also. To prove this, he quotes a declaration made by Parliament about a hundred years ago, to William and Mary, in these words: “The Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do, in the name of the people aforesaid” (meaning the people of England then living) “most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their heirs and posterities, for EVER.” He quotes a clause of another Act of Parliament made in the same reign, the terms of which he says, “bind us” (meaning the people of their day), “our heirs and our posterity, to them, their heirs and posterity, to the end of time.”

Mr. Burke conceives his point sufficiently established by producing those clauses, which he enforces by saying that they exclude the right of the nation for ever. And not yet content with making such declarations, repeated over and over again, he farther says, “that if the people of England possessed such a right before the Revolution” (which he acknowledges to have been the case, not only in England, but throughout Europe, at an early period), “yet that the English Nation did, at the time of the Revolution, most solemnly renounce and abdicate it, for themselves, and for all their posterity, for ever.”

As Mr. Burke occasionally applies the poison drawn from his horrid principles, not only to the English nation, but to the French Revolution and the National Assembly, and charges that august, illuminated and illuminating body of men with the epithet of usurpers, I shall, sans ceremonie, place another system of principles in opposition to his.

The English Parliament of 1688 did a certain thing, which, for themselves and their constituents, they had a right to do, and which it appeared right should be done. But, in addition to this right, which they possessed by delegation, they set up another right by assumption, that of binding and controlling posterity to the end of time. The case, therefore, divides itself into two parts; the right which they possessed by delegation, and the right which they set up by assumption. The first is admitted; but with respect to the second, I reply –

There never did, there never will, and there never can, exist a Parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the “end of time,” or of commanding for ever how the world shall be governed, or who shall govern it; and therefore all such clauses, acts or declarations by which the makers of them attempt to do what they have neither the right nor the power to do, nor the power to execute, are in themselves null and void. Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow. The Parliament or the people of 1688, or of any other period, had no more right to dispose of the people of the present day, or to bind or to control them in any shape whatever, than the parliament or the people of the present day have to dispose of, bind or control those who are to live a hundred or a thousand years hence. Every generation is, and must be, competent to all the purposes which its occasions require. It is the living, and not the dead, that are to be accommodated. When man ceases to be, his power and his wants cease with him; and having no longer any participation in the concerns of this world, he has no longer any authority in directing who shall be its governors, or how its government shall be organised, or how administered.”

Did you get that? I hope you did. If you didn’t, try reading it again. We the people, are the ones who decide. We the people are the ones who govern ourselves. We are not beholden to the ideas of the past, we are not beholden to the mores of the past, we are not beholden to the people of the past. We are beholden to each other, to rationality, and to scientific and reasoned progression. We are therefore entitled as the peoples of the world to design our own destiny, and yes, our own posterity. We leave to the future the building block we have laid down, hoping that instead of tearing down our progress, the future generations build upon it to greater heights. We are entitled to a democracy, because no other government is legitimate. The only way we can have real democracy is through economic equality, and that through socialism. Join the fight against the regressive forces of the right. You have the  right to have a say in your government. You have the right to democracy and socialism. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

 

Who are, after all, the hoodlums?

Savas Metoikidis is the 45-year old teacher who hanged himself as a form of political protest in the evening of April 21 in his hometown of Stavroupoli, in northern Greece. What follows is a translation of a text he had penned for the uprising of December 2008 (greek original).

“Who are, after all, the hoodlums?

Violence is to work for 40 years for crumbs and to wonder whether you will get to retire.

Violence are the financial bonds, the looted insurance funds, the stock exchange scam.

Violence is to be forced to take out a mortgage which you end up paying as if it was made out of gold.

Violence is your boss’ right to sack you at any moment they please to do so.

Violence is unemployment, precarity, the 700 euros [monthly wage] with or without insurance contributions.

Violence are the labour “accidents” because bosses cut down their running costs at the expense of the safety of the workers.

Violence is to take psychiatric drugs and vitamins in order to cope with the exhaustive schedules.

Violence is for you to be a female migrant, to live with the fear that you might be kicked out of the country at any moment and to live through a constant insecurity.

Violence is for you to be a worker, housewife and mother at the same time.

Violence is for you to be groped at work and for them to tell you, ‘smile dammit, is that too much to ask?’

What we lived through I call a revolt. And just like any revolt it looks like a Civil War rehearsal; it smells of smokiness, tear gas and blood.

It cannot easily be harnessed or controlled. It ignites consciousnesses, it reveals and polarises contradictions, it promises, at least, moments of camraderie and solidarity. It traces paths toward social emancipation.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the metropolises of chaos! Install secure doors and alarm systems to your homes, turn on the TV and enjoy the spectacle. The next revolt will sure be fiercer even, as the rottenness of this society deepens… Or, you can take out to the streets on the side of your kids, you can strike, you can dare to assert the life they are robbing you of, you can remember you once were young people who wanted to change the world.”

Savas Metoikidis

Land of the Free

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

That song was written in 1814 by a man looking at the battle of Ft. McHenry; who famously wrote of still being able to view the flag of the land of the free after a harsh battle. The land that was wrenched from the hands of the Native Americans by invasion, sickness and gun, their villages destroyed, their families killed before their eyes by foreign invaders eager for vast profits to be had. From the first slaves arriving in the 16th century, dragged away from their homelands in chains, pulled by that illustrious profit motive, 300 plus years would pass before we would end slavery. Land of the free, like the millions of African Americans who unwillingly toiled in the hot sun for no pay, only to be whipped if they stopped. Their masters sell their families away, because they were not people you see, they were property. The land of the free, where the Cherokee people were marched hundreds of miles away from their land, to a strange place, thousands dying on the death march to Oklahoma. Land of the free!!! The land where the exalted Thomas Jefferson wrote proudly of the “unalienable rights” of human beings, like the human beings he owned. Land of the free!!! 620,000+ dead from a war in which the institution of slavery was only ended after years of war and a shattered country. Land of the free!!! The country that denied the right of self determination to the Philippine people, and in doing so murdered an estimated million and a half Filipino civilians, not counting the 20,000 dead Filipino soldiers.  Land of the free!!!  That proclaimed ourselves the possessors of liberty, even as we denied suffrage to anyone who was not white, male, or a land owner. Land of the free!!! We used Chinese labor to build our transcontinental railroad, it’s trestles resting on the bodies of their dead. Land of the free!!! We taxed the Chinese-Americans gold miners heavily, but only because they were succeeding and white people were jealous.  Fake tax collectors shot and killed Chinese-Americans, or tricked them into giving them money, since they were easy to fool because of the language barrier. Land of the free!!! For example when we made laws stating that Chinese were not allowed to testify in court against white Americans, even in heinous cases such as rape or murder. Land of the free!!! Chinese Americans denied the right to citizenship, and forced to live for generations as foreigners in their birth land because, and I quote: “ …a race of people whom nature has marked as inferior, and who are incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point, as their history has shown; differing in language, opinions, color, and physical conformation; between whom and ourselves nature has placed an impassable difference” and as such had no right ” to swear away the life of a citizen” or participate” with us in administering the affairs of our Government.”-The California Supreme Court. The land of the free!!! 3 million dead Vietnamese testify to our steadfast dedication to their “freedom”, whether they wanted it or not. Land of the free!!! 50+ countries whose governments have been overthrown by the US, regardless of the nature of the government, to suit American greed. Land of the free!!!  Where millions starved in a great depression that wasn’t the fault of capitalist greed at all, oh no no no. Land of the free!!! Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis and Afghans, again, freeing them whether they like it or not. Land of the free!!! Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians nuked in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, right before the US tried and hung Japanese military men for having biological weapons. Land of the free!! That busted unions, shot workers, threw dissidents in jail, restricted the rights of socialists to organize, or even be socialists and speak their minds. Land of the free!!! That has imprisoned Bradley Manning for daring to expose the truths about American war crimes. Land of the free!!! The land of the new NDAA, the Patriot act, and the very grabby TSA. Land of the free!!!

Don’t you worry your little head about history!! You have McDonalds, and the Gap, and SUVs, and television. We’re the Land of the free, don’tcha know?  Do what’s expected of you. Vote! You have the freedom to vote for the parties they tell you that you can vote for. Land of the free, where you can go to college, if you’re OK with amassing a huge amount of debt that will only be surpassed by your debt that you accrue when you buy a house, and god forbid a car. You see, we’re the land of the free!!! Don’t worry that gays and lesbians have been beaten to death for their sexual orientation, it probably doesn’t happen /that/ often. Don’t worry about the millions of inmates locked up for really petty crimes, their lives ruined forever because they smoked weed, you see, we’re in the land of the free! Don’t worry about high rates of teen pregnancy, or poor school districts without money. Don’t worry about the fact that that US has the highest income inequality in the developed world. Don’t worry about Trayvon Martin’s murder, you didn’t know him. Don’t worry about the rotting carcass that is American society, politics and economy.
Don’t worry.

Here’s all you have to do. Go to a ball park. See a game. Get a nice hot dog, with lots of mustard. Drink your cola.

Put all of that misery out of your head, all the rising poverty, all the inequality, all the war and the death and the destruction. It’s a million miles away from you now. Just put your hand over your heart, and as your blood stained flag raises in the air to that old familiar tune, and sing along. When it gets to the part that goes: “…O’er the laaaaaaaaaaaaand of the FREEEEEE…” just hold that thought in your mind and keep saying it over and over again until you can’t think of anything else.

Now repeat after me: ” I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free I am free. I am free .

See? There ya go. No need for rational thought. You’re free, and as the tears of patriotic fervor roll down your face, boy do you love big broth-er I mean your country.

 

A Short History of the USSR: Part 1

It seems like I’ve been having a lot of discussions lately about the Soviet Union, what it was, what was the nature of its existence, and its legacy. It seems like any time one starts talking about the successes of the USSR, some self righteous person will pop up, and tell you condescendingly how absolutely horrible the USSR really was. Sometimes it really seems that many people are incapable of taking a nuanced view of history, or to even escape the red scare propaganda they’ve had shoved down their throats their whole lives.  So, let’s take a look at some facts about the USSR, it’s place in history, and what it meant for progress and socialism.

Before the Revolution: The Czar and the Serfs

To really understand the USSR, we have to start before it existed; just as we study colonial America to understand the foundations for the establishment of the US. History as we know, is a progression. The USSR didn’t just pop up out of nowhere for no reason.  The Russian Empire was the predecessor to the USSR. The Czar ruled with a heavy hand, and much of the population lived in poverty and servitude. It was only in 1860s that serfdom was abolished, and even then not in a way that actually benefited the serfs. Conditions were absolutely horrible for the millions and millions of subjects of the autocratic Czar. Up until 1861, serfs were essentially slaves, needing permission even to marry. They made up over 80% of the population of the Russian empire, but existed as slaves without rights. When serfdom was abolished, the landlords had their debts paid for by the government, while the serfs had to pay outrageous sums, above market value for the land they had worked their whole lives. This time was characterized by extreme poverty, high suicide rates among the peasants, high disease and death rates and worse. For a huge majority of the country, life was nasty, brutish and short. Meanwhile the Czar in all his imperial hubris, fought needless wars with countries like Japan, draining valuable resources to try to feed his quest for power and imperialism. Then came the last straw, the one that broke the camel’s back. WW1 began with great fanfare for the Emperor, and ended quite badly. He poured the resources of the Russian Empire into the war on Germany. Food and fuel shortages mounted as the Germans blockaded trade routes. Inflation skyrocketed and the lives of low paid workers grew ever dimmer with each passing day. In 1917 things had reached their breaking point, the Army sided with the people, the Emperor abdicated and a people’s Soviet was established that started working with the weak provisional government. How did the empire break? Strikes by workers shut down the economy, further destroying any hope for a populace that would support the war effort. Cities came to a standstill as working people of all kinds simply refused to continue a system that exploited them for so long. These were the birth pangs of a revolution that would forever change the world, and would drastically improve the lives of the Russian people, as well as the peoples of oppressed groups and ethnicities within the Russian Empire. This, in short, was the birth of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. For the first time in their history, the Russian people would  have the reigns of power in their own country.

This is only the first part of my historical discussion of the USSR, and more will come soon. The goal here is to illuminate the historical foundations, and material conditions of the USSR, and the historical and future implications of its existence.

Austerity: Cuts in Common Sense

The stories just keep coming back. Most of them from embattled Greece. Families, unable to care for their children, abandon them. People desperate to find work, just enough to survive, trudge home day after day with empty hands, and empty hearts. People are suffering.

I could go deeply into why, and how this has come about, but I’ll only touch on it briefly, because I want to focus on the human impact of these policies.  Greece, like many European nations it would seem, has a debt problem. Sovereign debt is high, and the governments claim that they can no longer keep up the payments on this debt. Ignoring that many of these problems came as a result of the Eurozone, and the common currency, countries like Germany and France are determined to get their pound of flesh. The IMF, in its eternally sleazy way, promises help, but only if that help doesn’t go to the poorest, neediest, and most vulnerable Greeks. Burdened with these problems, Greece’s government, with a gun to its head approved austerity measure after austerity measure. A downward spiral, killing the economy, and making things worse by the day.

What is happening to the people of Greece? How is this affecting them? It is failing, and failing with horrible consequences attached. The corporations have their field days as they lay off workers, make the remaining workers work harder, and pay them less. Those who can’t find work are finding that the social safety net is fast retreating. Pensioners who worked hard their whole lives, are finding that they are now without anything. The capitalist class lives high off the hog, while the workers pay for Europe’s mistakes, and lies.

And what has been the result of this austerity for Europe? There cutting everything they can, public workers, pensions, infrastructure, not politician’s pay of course, education et. al. The result should be a great jumping rebound of capitalism’s wonderful built in springs, right? Unsurprisingly, no. As economies shrink, more worker’s lose their jobs, the wealth gap widens, more and more people fall into poverty and despair. It has been an abject failure. Even capitalist economists are starting to realize that the austerity measures are stunting economies, destroying families, and ruining countries. So why do they keep doing it? The answer is because, as always, the rich are in control. The capitalist class sits back with their fine wine, and exquisite cigars, puffing away about how everyone needs to tighten their belts in time of crises. The crises they created. The crises they are profiting from. The crises that will only make them richer and more powerful. They sit in their ivory towers laughing at you. “Look at those little ants, running in the streets of Athens, they think if they protest hard enough we’ll let them have more money to buy food at the market, or clothes for their children.” They scoff in their protected palaces. “Let them scream all they want, let them despair, let them cry, let them rage. They can’t touch us.”

Do  you get the picture? They don’t have democracy. They don’t have a choice. They are enslaved to the money interests of European capital, chained with no chance of escape.

Imagine working hard your whole life to earn a pension to retire on. Maybe you didn’t want much. You just wanted a decent place to live, maybe near a public swimming pool, somewhere that had bowling and other activities. Let’s say you lived alone, and thought it wouldn’t take much money to survive by yourself. All you wanted was to enjoy the rest you earned after a lifetime of working so hard.

Imagine that was taken away from you. As your debts pile up, and your money dwindles, all because your pension has been wiped out by the greedy bastards who run the government, by capitalist assholes in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris. You realize that you’re going to end up penniless; you’re going to slowly starve. This isn’t a hypothetical situation. This is real life. The man I’m talking about decided to take action. Rather than lose his dignity, by becoming homeless and starving on the street in spite of a lifetime of work,  he walked in front of the Greek Parliament, the people who have completely ignored the anguished cries of the assaulted Greek people, and shot himself.

From his suicide note:

“The occupation government… has literally wiped out my ability to survive, based on a respectable pension which I had paid for during a 35-year period,” the pensioner said in an excerpt published in Greek newspapers.

“I find no other solution for a dignified end before I start sifting through garbage to feed myself,” he allegedly wrote in red ink.

Now do you understand that capitalism kills? That this is insanity? We have enough for the world, we really do. We really, really do. Capitalism gives more wealth than anyone can use to a select few, and starves the rest. The workers don’t matter, their social security doesn’t matter, they don’t matter, because to a capitalist all that matters is that his own greedy wallet gets fatter.

Hey Greece, maybe it’s time you started pointing those guns in a different direction.

Eat the rich.