Defending the Legacy of the USSR

The USSR fell more than 20 years ago. Capitalists rejoiced, and quickly proclaimed communism dead. They said that it was all over, the story written, the song sung. All that was left was for liberal “democracy” to flourish bringing untold riches to the people of the world. Well, at least those who “work hard”. (i.e. get born white, into the right family in the right country etc etc etc.) Political scientists like Francis Fukuyama gleefully declared the “END OF HISTORY” in booming voices like that of a motion picture voice over artist. The curtain fell on socialism. All that was left was the bloody teeth of a capitalist Moloch waiting to enslave us all. Even socialists bought into this narrative, deciding that revolution was pointless, and that they had no choice but to drop their protest signs, their political activism and join the work a day world as willing wage slaves. They joined social democratic parties, the democratic parties and other right wing organizations. It was over.

Not as over as you think

For all their caterwauling  cries of the end of history, the liberals and conservatives forgot one thing. History is all about two steps forward, one step back. Let me give you a good example. The French Revolution tore down the old aristocratic privilege, it killed the king and proclaimed the rights of man. There were excesses. There were problems. Innocent people died. Then after a few short years, the revolution fell. It collapsed under its own weight, the people exhausted and the chaos triumphant. Napoleon Bonaparte would take power as an emperor, and control the country for many years. France went through a century of instability and uncertainty. So, the revolution was a waste then? No, it most certainly was not. Napoleon was able to take power for a number of reasons, but one of the main reasons is that the old system had died. In its place was a vacuum, one that he exploited for his own gain. However, it is of note that France no longer had a hereditary monarch. The legacy of the French Republic had been born. The French Revolution, for all its flaws, for all its excesses, had changed the world, it had altered the course of human history forever. The age of the divine right of kings was over, the age of aristocratic privilege was dying, the age of feudalism was on its way out the door. And that’s nothing to sneeze at.

In a similar vein, the USSR came into existence. While socialism was aimed at developed industrial capitalist countries, the Bolsheviks had a dream of a socialist Russia. They were sick of the aristocratic autocracy under which they suffered, and they wanted to create a better world. They were not an industrialized country. They were seen as a backwards feudal backwater of a country, neither Europe or Asia, stuck perpetually at a cultural crossroads. They were, in a sense, a mess. Yet, they believed in a better world. In the Czar’s Russia, unless you were a member of the aristocracy, you lived a nasty, brutish and short life working for your feudal masters. Just how bad was it? Most of the population were uneducated illiterate peasants. In the mid-19th century the Czar abolished serfdom, but did it in such a way that it further impoverished them. There was no freedom of speech, no freedom of thought, no freedom of any kind whatsoever. Only the rich and the noble had a chance at succeeding. High death rates, crushing poverty and hopelessness were the order of the day. Then, one day, the people had just about had enough. A revolution was born of the abuses heaped upon them by their unfeeling psychopathic rulers. The world would never be the same.

Seeing the USSR in its historical setting

There is much hypocrisy in those from the West who hate the USSR. They have had their brains washed with anti-communist propaganda, they have had their thoughts filled with fear at the inkling of a socialist revolution, even one that would benefit them personally. The USSR did amazing. It took a backwards feudal dictatorship, and brought about a very egalitarian society. It took an almost completely illiterate population, and taught them to read, write and even become scientists and doctors. It raised the standard of living at a ridiculously fast pace. It raised the life expectancy by decades, lowered the infant mortality rate and gave equal rights to women. It ended the mass killings of Jews, and would go on to defeat Hitler in WW2. After the country suffered heavy losses in WW2, they rebuilt it again this time stronger than before. A right to a home and food and education. A right to a voice in your government, a right to a good standard of living and a stake in your own means of production. Were there problems? Oh yes, there were. It wasn’t a perfect country, such a paradise doesn’t exist. However, while the US was segregating its population, the USSR was preaching the equality of all men regardless of the color of their skin. While the US was killing the Vietnamese in droves and destroying their land, the USSR was defending their right to self determination. While the US was still lynching blacks, the USSR was giving a free university education to anyone who wanted one. While the US ignored its lower classes, the USSR was pushing ahead into space. To look at the USSR and think it was a hell hole is to believe blindly the bullshit narrative spit out by those who hate progress and have nothing but contempt for the working classes. Can we learn from the USSR? Yes, we can, we can learn a lot. Do I want the USSR back? No, I want something even better. I want to build on the past revolutions, not relive them. We move forward into the future, building a better world.

In conclusion, yes, I defend the legacy of the USSR. Although flawed, it provided an example of the fact that the Bourgoise liberal “democracy” road was not the only one possible. It inspired millions of people to rise up, overthrow their oppressors and establish socialism. The legacy of the USSR lives on all around the world. Communism isn’t dead, it’s just incubating. This capitalist system is tottering, marching blindly to its own destructive end. Revolution rises from the ashes of the last, creating a dawn that will once again shake the world to its core. Hold the revolution in your heart, and work for a better world.

 

 

Just a note here, I will be writing a piece soon on social democracy, and liberal “democracy”. Don’t miss it.

 

Fuck this Shit

OK. I got your attention with the title, but that wasn’t the only purpose of that headline. I said it in response to what I’m about to talk about.

Do me a favor

Ok, so, you’re probably viewing this either on a smart phone, or more likely a computer. My request is not a difficult one, so don’t worry. Go to the Huffington Post. Look at the stories that are being reported. Here are some of the actual headlines that are on the front page as I write this: “American Sniper Killed at Gun Range” and “The End Of Football? America’s Favorite Sport Marred By Scandal, Brain Injuries” and “LOOK: Obama Goes Skeet Shooting ” and one more that is really real news “Amanda Bynes Moves Out After Weed Smoking Leads To Eviction Notice “

Do you see a pattern here? It’s all bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. None of that is shit that you should give a flying fuck about. Which brings me to my first point. The media in our wonderful capitalist societies are shit. It is complete and utter shit. Do we have news about what is happening around the world? Oh yes, here and there if you have the time and stomach to dig for it. We have alternative news sources, but they don’t get very much attention. We have mostly celebrity gossip, non-issues such as gun control, and slide shows of inane shit no one cares about. We have commercials for cars, and websites, and this business and that. Already forgotten are the names of the thousands of dead American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Never known are the names of the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis and Afghanis. We are encapsulated in our little capitalist world. A disturbing news story about the state of the world is on? Quick, switch it over to Honey BooBoo so we can watch their family slowly eat themselves to death while exploiting a little girl whose life is probably already ruined, her only childhood sold as a commodity for profit. Not just as a model or something like that, which in principle I’m not against, but as a 24-hour watched little clown who gets treats for doing doing back flips. Like a jester in a court, but too damn young to know that she’s being laughed at, not with. No, we don’t want to think about things like global warming. We can put that off for later. We don’t want to think about how we’re destroying the only planet we have to call home.

No, no, no. Just go back to your TV and keep watching inane bullshit. Keep the news on, you’ll feel cultured and well informed. War around the world, untold death and destruction being waged on innocent people by your government. Change the channel again. Don’t think about such morbid things. America is a free democratic country, right? OK then, try to run for political office with no money, only on your ideas. Let me know how that works out for you. If you did get elected, let me know what would happen when you stood up against the military-industrial complex and tried to change this country in a real way. Let me know how long it would be before they found a way to toss you out on your ear. Just try running anywhere as a socialist, and see how long it would take for people to tune you out. They’ve been programmed to believe that socialism is a dirty word. When you start talking about poverty, watch as screaming heads start yelling at you that you’re worse than Hitler, and that you just hate America. When you start talking about the dismantling of quality public education in America, watch while they accuse you of just working for “big unions”. When you ask about the state of the environment, watch while they call you a hippy, and a tree hugger. Ask about lobbying, and watch as you’re silenced. Try to change this system from the inside out and you will fail, and fail miserably. You will try to rally the people behind the idea that we can create a better world, that we can change things. They aren’t listening, they’re more interested in whether or not Lindsay Lohan will miss her next court appearance again.

So fuck this shit.

Fuck the false narratives. Fuck the false dichotomies. Fuck the lobbyists with their millions and their hearts of stone. Fuck the media and their deliberate stupidity. Fuck the people who are too timid to speak up and speak out. Fuck the myth of America. Fuck the people who say “support the troops” even though they never question what that means, if anything. Fuck the poverty that is killing our children, and ruining their futures. Fuck this oligarchic system that ruins lives and destroys dreams. Fuck the “immigration reform” that will still leave millions in the US in an economic underclass with no legal rights against the employers that exploit them. Fuck the US government that would rather drone bomb Pakistani children than send its own children to university. Fuck the GOP, their hate, imperialism and greed. Also fuck the Democrats and their fake leftism. They’re exactly like the GOP, but to goddamn cowardly to admit it. Fuck this two party system that ensures the continued rule of the bourgeoisie over the workers, stifling their voices. Fuck this system of war, poverty, death. Fuck the complacent assholes who won’t even stop their boring consumerist lives to think about the real state of the world. People are dying, literally dying, because of this crisis of capitalism. FUCK THIS SHIT.

Fuck this false diversionary bullshit put out by bourgeois media. It is time to say, FUCK THIS SHIT.

Are you prepared to sacrifice to make things better? Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is and demand a better system? Or will you be sucked back into the false GOP/Democrat dichotomy. Will you be willing to fight for real social justice and economic equality? Or will you fall back into your seat and listen to the watered down shit on NBC?

The only way the world will change, is by dedicated people doing everything they can to change it. Nothing less. Revolution won’t come otherwise. Change will always be just a dream. Ending poverty a punchline, and our schools will be sold to the highest bidder. No more science education, we’ll learn about Intelligent Design in Christian charter schools. So start thinking, start reading, start talking. As a friend of mine would say “Wake up, goddammit!”

The world will only change when we decide that we’ve had enough of this capitalist bullshit. It will only end when we as a people rise up and say, “Fuck this shit. We can do better.”

That day, I do believe, will come.

The Asian Century

Being sick and having nothing better to do at the moment, I started surfing the internet, reading articles and of course taunting a few people on twitter, as I am wont to do. I happened across an article in the Huffington Post by the senior program director at the Carnegie Council, Devin Stewart. In this article, entitled “The Asian Century Crumbles” Devin tries to dispel the idea that the age of American dominance and hegemony is coming to an end.  He cites such works as Fareed Zakaria’s “The Post-American World” and other works as examples of a the wrong headed idea that America was declining, and that Asia was rising. He states that not only was the idea of an America in decline wrong, but that Asia isn’t doing so hot either. He states that the Asia we are seeing emerge is not one of internationalist harmony, but one of conflict and regional disputes. He describes a few problems with the idea of an “Asian century”. First he says that it can’t be because of the aforementioned territorial and nationalistic disputes, and the fact that just recently Japan, and South Korea as well as others have elected nationalist conservatives to the highest offices. China’s expanding military strength is of concern to her neighbors, he says then accusing China of destabilizing the region. However, let’s really look at the facts. The US and Western colonial powers have been instrumental in helping to create most of the instability that now exists in Asia. From the colonial possessions of India, Indonesia and others, to the carving up of China, and even the militarization of Japan, it falls largely on the shoulders of the West. Furthermore, the most threatening force in Asia, militarily has been, and still is the US. Especially with the US’s recent announcement of a “pivot” to the Asian region, now that they’ve finished completely fucking up the Middle East, is proof that the US can’t leave Asia or control of it, to the people who actually live here. No, the US is determined to now shape Asia in its image, as it has tried to do so many other places. In fact, that point comes through very clearly in his absolutely ridiculous article. The whole thing reeks of ethnocentric bias, of bullshit liberal insanity and hubris, and a good strong helping of that sickening concept known as `American Exceptionalism`. In fact, I’m going to skip the other bullshit part of his moronic article, and take a quote by him at the end that really sums up the condescending way he looks at non-Western countries. “Instead, for many decades to come, Asians will likely seek to increase their freedom and equality to accompany their growing prosperity – the universal values that define the American Century.” Really? The so called “American Century” was one that was defined by equality? We’re talking about the 20th century, right? The one that had Europe killing more people than ever? Is that the American century where, for more than half of that century the US had a system of racial segregation, lynchings and an overtly racist political system? Was that the same century where we had a Great Depression that killed off an estimated 7 million Americans thanks to the greed of Wall Street? Is this the same century that ended with millions of Americans going homeless, hungry and uneducated? Is this the same century that the US invaded tens of countries killing millions of people? How interested do you think Vietnam is in becoming a little America? How interested do you think  Iraq and Afghanistan are in becoming part of America? Universal values my ass. The only values America has ever seemed to have is a combination of arrogance and hubris. This article is the epitome of the intellectually vacuous nature of the political discourse in the US. This guy claims ten years of study in Asian politics, but I honestly think he understands less than any given person walking down the streets of Beijing, Seoul, or Tokyo. This region is growing, it is evolving and it is changing. I hate to break it to you Devin, but America is in decline. So is Europe. Your so called “democracy” has suffered faked elections, riots in the streets, assassinations, civil wars and political corruption on a grand scale. This isn’t even mentioning the torture and lack of human rights in the US and Europe, nor does it even touch the “freedom” the millions of prisoners have in the US. The whole world is moving toward equality and freedom, but it is not going to come under the star spangled banners of the west. It will come with the popular liberation of the peoples of the world, the revolutions of the proletariat that will shake of the plague of capitalism like a bad case of the fleas. And all the American Exceptionalism in the world cannot stop the forward progress of humanity. All the American hubris in the world cannot stop the destruction of the capitalist empire. All the bombs in the world can’t kill the resolve of the working class when they rise up and decide that they’ve had enough. The only universal value, is that one day the means of production will be for the benefit of all humanity, instead of just for a few. Think outside the box, and reject this wrongheaded and intellectually vapid idiocy of capitalist imperialism.

In case you want to see this moron’s idiocy for yourself, please check it out here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/devin-stewart/the-asian-century-crumble_b_2352088.html?show_comment_id=216874197#comment_216874197

Gangnam Style and Michelle Malkin

Reports are popping up online about a song that the South Korean rapper, Psy wrote that apparently called for the killing of American soldiers. Here is the alleged song in English:

“Kill those fucking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives

Kill those fucking Yankees who ordered them to torture

Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers

Kill them all slowly and painfully”

Now it’s not surprising that Koreans hate the US military, after all we’ve been occupying their country continuously since 1950, but in reading the different reports about this song and the nationalistic idiots wringing their hands about it (“Oh dear, his music is ever so catchy but he has political sentiments I disagree with, oh dear”)

But what is more interesting than Malkin’s shrill predictable ranting about Murika and how everyone who hates the greatest country in the history of slaver-er I mean the world, should die and stuff, is the comment below the article on her site. For your amusement, and (I apologize) disgust, I present to you the best and the brightest of those who read the racist reactionary blog of Ms. Malkin

On December 7th, 2012 at 11:35 am, Dexter Alarius said:

PSY will be performing for the White House

And why not?
“Gang-nam Style” is how the Chicago thugs govern.

Get it? Because Obama’s from Chicago, and he’s black, and GANG-nam style. get it?

On December 7th, 2012 at 12:01 pm, WaterBoyz said:

Wonder if The Muslin Brotherhood will get more invitations as well?

Muslin? Isn’t that a fabric?

 

On December 7th, 2012 at 12:34 pm, NotaSlickFan said:

“GagNam” style is simply monkey noise, just like all other crap-rap. Roland, you just keep Roland with the filth. Sleep with dogs and you get fleas, lie in the muck with pigs and, well, you are obviously what you are. God bless all active and former U.S military personnel on this December 7th.

Wow. Rap is “monkey noise”. That’s not racist. At all. Not.

On December 7th, 2012 at 1:31 pm, Regulus said:

The problem all along with interposing ourselves via our military between certain countries and the real world — Europe and South Korea come immediately to mind — is that we have created the equivalent of “nation-state teenagers.”

Any fourteen-year-old is old enough and bold enough to mouth off at his parents, and to regard them as the stupidest, most un-cool people on the planet, but he’s in no position to accept any kind of adult responsibility, and doesn’t want it to boot.

A lot of our “allies” are the same way. Safe behind the guarantee that our armed forces will protect them, and unwilling to accept responsibility for their own defense, yet secure enough to trash-talk us because they think that dinner will always be ready for them on the table at the end of the day.

The “good” news is, it won’t be long before “Uncle” Sam won’t be able to afford the teenagers anymore, and they’ll be free to learn life’s adult lessons the hard way sooner than they imagine…

OK, so apparently South Korea is a bunch of teenagers who can’t take care of themselves, and the US has been babysitting them, and nobody appreciates how we’re “giving them freedom”. So we’re going to take our ball and go home.

Oh for the love of fuck, yes, please please, whatever the shitty reasoning, please take the “ball” and go home. For the love of god go home and never come back.

This my dear readers has been a slight detour into the minds of the criminally insane population in the US that unfortunately hold a lot of sway. The inmates are running the asylum, you might say. Till next time.

Hope for a Hopeless World

It’s common knowledge that the world today is in bad shape. Worldwide war, warmongering, overblown nationalism, starvation, sickness, poverty, wealth disparity, hate, racism, police brutality, recession, depression and too many more to list. It seems sometimes that the world has entered the post-modern apocalypse we always feared. Sure, we have our twitter, our iPhones, our apps and our laptops. We have our cheap goods at walmart produced with slave labor. We have our movies to entertain us and our dime a dozen novels to read on our shiny new kindles. we have our TV and our Starbucks and our glittery worship of vacuous celebrities. And it just seems so, so empty. There doesn’t seem to be any way out of the doldrums. We are told time and time again, by people such as Francis Fukuyama, that this is the end of history. There is no more progress, there is no other alternative. We just have to fall in lockstep with our system, because there can never be any other. I’m here to tell you that history has just begun.

Looking Back

Before we look to the future, and since we’ve taken a look at the less than stellar present, let’s take a quick stroll down history lane. Yeah, things are bad right now. The world has a lot of problems, a lot of pain, a lot of suffering. However, things are better now than they’ve ever been in history. You don’t believe me? Ask the ancient Romans, who although having running water, heated baths and paved roads, could never dream of the luxuries that we now enjoy on a daily basis. The Romans had a slave state, so if you weren’t lucky enough to be among the members of the ruling class, life really sucked for you. It was truly brutish and short. The middle ages was a time of superstition, rule by religious authority, and death. Lots and lots of death. Executions in public squares, the Black Death, autocratic kings and queens, endless wars and the feudal system. Oh boy, the feudal system. The rulers had lost much of the technology of the Greeks and Romans and Egyptians, but for the serf life was much more harsh. You could expect a short nasty life, working your fingers to the bone every day just to make the ruling class richer and more comfortable. Your wife might die in childbirth, most of your children by the time they turned 5. Then came the age of enlightenment! Oh grand theories of science and art, philosophy and exploration! (Ignoring the rape, theft and murder that came from those colonizing missions for a moment) Galileo! Copernicus! Thomas Paine! The world moved beyond the feudalistic system of old, through the new mercantilism, and right into capitalism. Once again revolutions led the way, violent or by threat of violence. Old regimes overthrown, new inventions, the moveable type, the explosion in literacy rates and on and on and on. Yet life was still nasty, brutish and short. Women couldn’t vote, there was widespread slavery and abuse, no votes for the poor, the workers who made the economy hum and grow. Then came the industrial revolution (I know, I’m moving through this pretty fast) children working in mines, Chinese immigrants in the US dying building the transcontinental railroad, while being discriminated against and denied rights as citizens.  Now we are here again in the present. We have come a long way. Did that help cheer you up a little bit? If no, the next part just might.

Historical Materialism

What’s that you say? What’s historical materialism? Well, without getting into a major philosophical dissertation, it’s basically what I just wrote above, in a nutshell. You see, the universe is in constant flux. It’s always changing. Changes in our societies, our politics, our economies are no different. There is a war going on, a struggle between two things. One is called the thesis, the other antithesis. The thing, and the opposing thing. This is how things change. The fight between the aristocracy and the growing burgers, townspeople who were beginning production of goods, ended with the abolition of the aristocratic class as the ruling class. That new ruling class grew, and became the giant capitalist class we know today. And the working class? Those who, not owning the means of production must sell their labor? Well, we’re still selling our labor aren’t we? We still live in the capitalist system. However. Marx explained that we already see the seeds of the destruction of this exploitative capitalist order. We see it because of the contradictions in capitalism that will bring it down. We are once again engaged in class warfare, and history has shown us that the result of that battle between thesis and antithesis produces the answer, the synthesis. The answer to the problem. That answer is socialism, the democratic control of the means of production. You see, it may be hard to see it from day to day when you’re struggling, but we are moving forward. The whole weight of history is behind us, and we cannot lose. Things are changing, and they’re changing perhaps even faster than you think. Things are getting better. So keep your chin up comrades, and keep fighting. In the meantime my fellow workers of the world, how about uniting?

If you’d like to read a more in-depth body of work about historical materialism, or any other concept in Marxism, here are a couple of websites for you to check out:

http://www.PSLweb.org

http://www.marxists.org

Have a great day, and happy reading!

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

I went to a forum at my university tonight on the subject of the US election. What I heard was people blatantly lie about both the political process, and the policies being enacted. I had the strong feeling that I was the furthest left person in the room as well, so that certainly made things interesting. I also got dressed down by an elderly woman who was incensed that I wasn’t voting for Obama. Long story short, it got me thinking about the political process in the US, and why it is so, so far out of whack. Why things can’t be improved in the current paradigm, and why we need radical change in our political systems.

Wealth Inequality

One speaker made a load of bullshit accusations and false characterizations about the occupy movement. I answered his stupidity, but it pissed me off that he could stand up there and blatantly lie about a movement he probably never went to, and held such contempt for. This man is white, a lawyer, obviously not poor; in short the poster child for the GOP. He thinks that the protesters were all violent hipsters out to get everything for free, that we just want a free ride in life. Untrue. We’ve worked our asses off for years, for low pay, only to be swallowed in debt, with uncertain futures, a lack of jobs, and a fractured world while men like him play the fiddle and pretend all is well. His material was mostly from the Heritage Foundation, a hack think tank if there ever was one. He slandered and lied the entire time he was slated to talk.

Here are some of his claims:

There is too much debt, the deficit keeps rising, and we’re sinking in debt, and it’s all the democrats fault.

The TRUTH:

Yes, the US is in debt, but why? Because of the democrats and their love for the welfare state? Oh hell no. We’ve spent over a trillion dollars on illegal and pointless wars in the middle east, in addition to massive tax breaks for the wealthy and huge government expansion. (Think PATRIOT Act, NDAA, Dept. of Homeland Security) Bush created a MASSIVE amount of debt, never balanced a budget, and ruined the US economy. Then the GOP gets mad at Obama for CONTINUING THOSE GODDAMN POLICIES.

Another claim: Liberals and the left just want everything handed to them on a sliver platter

The TRUTH: The fact is that in the US, the rich are really scared of something completely different. They’re scared that people will notice that the capitalist class has had everything handed to THEM on a silver platter. They have for too long taken for granted their positions of privilege, and they are now scared that they’re going to lose it. Wanting a society that can provide the basic human needs to the people is not asking for everything on a silver platter. The capitalist class sits around making money off the hard work of the proletariat, and then cries bitter tears of pain when they’re asked to sacrifice a tiny bit of their ill gained wealth for the common good. This only goes to prove that you can’t let the capitalists maintain power and still hope for socialism, or hell, even for some goddamn social progress.

The US Political System

Switching gears now away from the crazy claims of a disingenuous lawyer (also known as a lawyer), the talk tonight really highlighted for me the problem of our political system. There are only two sides. There are the democrats, and the republicans and they will decide what happens to the country. Don’t like the two party system? Too goddamn bad. Don’t like either party? Too bad. While the world is worried about a possible financial meltdown, a possible world war, increasing political tensions worldwide, a lack of jobs, the death of our environment, more war, income inequality, no money for education or housing, no money for anything other than the rich, real fucking problems… While all that is going on our political process consists of two people whose political positions are near enough that they could easily fit into the same political party, arguing on national TV about things that have NOTHING to do with the real problems we face. These same two will not be elected by a popular vote, they will be elected by an unaccountable electoral college, the names of whom no one knows, and political candidates for congress being the same old same old oligarchy that has ruled us since the dawn of this country. No other voices or concerns may enter the debate. No other parties can compete. No other way can be found. Status quo status quo status quo. Neither party candidate wants to end our overseas wars immediately, neither candidate wants us to close our excessive overseas bases, neither of them cares about changing American foreign policy, neither cares about ending the war on drugs, neither cares about anything other than getting elected so they can ensure four full years of power. Nothing changes, and they don’t want it to change. Things are just the way they like it because they can play you all off the other party, and get you so used to this bullshit that you are not educated or brazen enough to speak out against it. “If you don’t vote Republican, the Democrats will win” “If you don’t vote for the Democrats, the Republicans will win”. I said something on twitter the other day that really sums up how I feel about these two corrupt parties. I said “Having to choose between the Dems and the GOP is like being made to choose between salmonella and E.Coli. When will we wake up and see the truth for what it is? The US is nothing more than an oligarchy, a sad corrupt oligarchy that will come crashing down under the weight of its own hubris.

The lawyer who spoke tonight said many damned lies, and tried to back it up with shitty statistics. Like the BS claim that half of all Americans don’t pay tax. (Nearly every American pays tax of some sort)

But this is par for the course. We accept these lies as legitimate debate, when they are not. They are simply lies. Lies like the idea that the human beings who make up the populace of the USA can’t control their own political process, that we are beholden to a hundreds of years old document that we didn’t agree to. The idea that we are to sit down and shut up and not raise these questions. Why are there so many Americans on welfare? Good question, why are there so many Americans who NEED welfare? Are Americans just inherently lazy? It think not, and data backs me up. We’re one of the hardest working countries in the developed world. Why is it then? Maybe it’s because the people hoarding all the money in the US are not the real producers of wealth. Those are the grease stained engineers, the school teachers, the bakers. They are the street sweepers and the hotel desk clerks, they are the mothers and the fathers who bust their asses ever day to provide for their families, and are depressed, hurt and ashamed when there is more month than money. We are the people, teh strugglers, the fighters and the hopeful, and we are the ones who make the wheels of the economy turn. Assholes like that lawyer want you to believe that YOU are lazy, that you don’t want to work that YOU just want welfare. Fuck no. I don’t want welfare, I want socialism. I want a system wherein the workers own the corporations, and there are no CEOs. I want a truly transparent, money free political system that values ideas over political party apparatus. I want a system that believes in free and equal rights for all, including so called illegal immigrants, LGBT et al. I want a better world, not a world where the only way of making it big is to step on the corpses of your downtrodden worker brethren. We can, and indeed we must DEMAND and end to this ridiculous and unacceptable status quo. We need socialism bad, we need real workers democracy bad, we need equal rights for all bad, we need an end to capitalism. That may not be the popular thing to say, but it needs to be said. I will never stop advocating revolution in the US until we overthrow this militaristic fascist state. I will not give in and support Obama and the democrats. I will never OK the current treatment of Palestinians, Libyans and others. I will not accept capitalist imperialism, and I never will

So what are you going to do? Are you going to accept the status qo? Are you going to accept the rhetoric of lies, damn lies and statistics on Fox “news” and CNN? Or will you join me in demanding a better world, and a new political system to bring about that better world. You supported the overthrow of the regime in Egypt, right? Are you too cowardly to advocate the same in the US? It’s high time for a change, it is high time for an uprising, it is high time for a better world.

 

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.

Occupy the workplace!

Occupy the workplace!.

Occupy the workplace!

Workers have strategic power once organized

APRIL 29, 2012

 

Auto workers occupy their factory in the Flint sit-down strike of 1936-37. In the following months, the tactic spread across the country (see below).

 

Striking electrical workers at the St. Louis Emerson plants, 1937

 

Woolworth retail workers in New York City celebrate a victorious sit-down strike, 1937.

 

This article was published in the ‘May Day Means Unity!’ Edition of Liberation.

View the complete issue.

On the surface, working people appear to have no power. The super-rich, the employers and the politicians—backed up by the cops, the courts and the jails—seem to hold all the strings, to control everything. On the national level, corporate bosses decide what will be produced, who will work and who will not. Their hired hands in Washington decide who gets bailed out and who gets sold out.

 

At the level of the individual workplace, the owners exercise the same sort of domination. Since we live under a legal system that above all recognizes the private property rights of individuals and corporations, owners are given absolute control over who gets hired and fired, how much to pay, the enforcement of arbitrary rules, the reviews of employees, the organization of the business, and when to relocate or shut down a business altogether. At work, the reality of this system—as a dictatorship of the capitalist owners—is clearly revealed.

 

Unions and the strike weapon

 

The main way that workers have typically fought the employers’ dictatorship is by organizing labor unions. As long as workers are not organized, they have no power. A worker either has a union and collective bargaining rights, or the worker is essentially reduced to individual begging. As the famous union song “Solidarity Forever” goes, “For what force on Earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one—but the union makes us strong.”

 

Unions allow workers to feel their collective power at the bargaining table and when they use their ultimate weapon—the strike. It is the workers who make society run and who can bring it to a halt. If the owners of a hotel or a factory or any corporation were not to show up on a given day, operations would be largely unaffected. If the workers don’t show up, operations stop.

 

In other words, the working class, which appears to have no power, really possesses the greatest power of all. If workers unite on a political or economic issue and withhold their labor, the power of the working class becomes instantly recognized.

 

One example was the 2005 strike by New York City transit workers, who were resisting givebacks demanded by the mayor and city government. The corporate media in the city, which fawns on the Wall Street looters, universally portrayed the workers defending their pensions and health care benefits as the worst kind of criminals. Despite huge fines and threats of jail for its leaders, the union showed that New York cannot run without the workers.

 

The opportunity now exists to advance the struggle, but it will require creativity and boldness.

Taking organization to the next level

 

Labor unions continue to be the largest organizations of workers in the United States, and have a vital role to play in the protection of workers’ interests. A chief task of any new social movement of poor and working people will be to defend and rebuild existing workers’ organizations and form new unions in the expansive service sectors where the vast majority of workers are unorganized.

 

But the unions have been severely weakened over several decades. Declining membership and subservience to the political program of the Democratic Party have left the AFL-CIO crippled as it tries to survive in the face of ruthless corporate assaults.

 

A chief factor that has weakened labor is the global mobility of capital. Capitalists tell workers that to remain “competitive” and keep their jobs, they must accept lower and lower wages. They threaten to shut down if workers dare to fight back. The message is clear: Resistance is futile.

 

While unions have given workers an opportunity to respond collectively, they generally accept the numberone rule of capitalism: The owner has the final say and ultimate control over production. Labor unions soften exploitation by fighting for higher wages and better benefits and working conditions, but accept that the factories, offices, machinery and decisions to employ are the exclusive property of the private owners.

 

To resolve the problems of global capitalism in the interests of working people requires as a major first step the advancement of a radical idea, backed up by radical action—that workers have a right to control their jobs.

 

Sit-down actions: The original ‘occupy movement’

 

In 1934, the Great Depression had been going for nearly five years, unemployment was officially over 20 percent and millions of people had become homeless. Nearly every attempt to organize unions had been defeated. Because of the high numbers of unemployed, those with jobs generally had less confidence to struggle for better conditions and pay. They knew they could easily be replaced.

 

But that year saw a remarkable and highly unusual development: In three cities—Minneapolis, San Francisco and Toledo, Ohio—there were general strikes. The strikes were led by truckers, dock workers and auto workers, respectively, but brought in workers from every industry.

 

This new surge led to the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1936, and then the historic 43-day Flint Sit-down Strike. When General Motors, anticipating a strike, attempted to move equipment out of a major auto factory in Flint, the workers seized first one

 

GM plant and then another, and courageously held both for more than a month. Communists played a critical role in leading these actions.

 

Up until that time, the huge auto industry had no recognized unions, and conditions on the assembly lines were extreme. But, following their victory, hundreds of sit-down strikes broke out in every kind of corporation from factories to hospitals, retail stores and more. During that year, 5 million workers joined unions, a 250 percent increase in the number of union members in the country.

 

The sit-down strike, the occupation of a workplace, was a new tactic for labor. If they had gone out on strike in the traditional manner, with picket lines outside the factory gates, it is likely that the capitalists and the police forces would have found it much easier to disperse them.

 

Workers’ control

 

The opportunity now exists to advance the struggle, but it will require creativity and boldness. Popularizing the idea that workers have a right to control their workplaces, while remaining within the confines of the capitalist system, would still be a very significant step for the class struggle. Instead of accepting cuts, layoffs and shutdowns, workers can fight to assert their own “property right” to their jobs based on the extra value their labor has created beyond what they are paid in wages. If a business is going bankrupt, workers can assert their right to control it because they are its principal creditors who repeatedly “loan” their labor in advance of payment.

 

In fact, toward the end of the 1937 Flint sit-down strike, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins defended the occupying workers and declared that a job was a “property right.” It was only the mass struggle of the workers that led a high-ranking government official to make such a statement.

 

In 2009, the workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago revived the sit-down tactic when the company threatened to shut down and throw them out of work. The workers returned to occupy the same factory this year to press their demands again.

 

A battle over whose rights come first—those of the capitalists to their private property versus the rights of the workers to a job, housing, food, health care and so forth—has the potential to bring about a mass transformation in consciousness. That is exactly what happened in the course of the Flint strike seven decades ago, and it can happen again.

 

Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org.

Living Vicariously, Politically

Communists in the US of A have had it rough for a long time. The first Red Scare took place in 1919-21, and a second, more famous Red Scare in the 50s. The largest communist party was the Communist Party USA, which was a member of the Moscow led COMINTERN, or the Third Communist International. They had opposed war and racism, and worked to help workers with strikes, and direct political action. The rightist forces in the US worked hard to demonize and silence the voices of the radical left, and were largely successful in their witch hunt campaigns. They broke down the Communist Party, attacking its base, deporting its immigrant supporters, and generally made a complete mockery of what was supposed to be American political freedom.

Of course the CPUSA wasn’t the only socialist outfit around. There were others, some who came later, some who had been around for a long time. Parties such as the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the Socialist Party USA, among others, continued to fight for socialism. In spite of all the left’s hard work, they had been attacked, imprisoned, blackballed, and worse. Their numbers had fallen, and they were heavily weakened. Some parties decided to fight on, some withered away.

Fast forward to after the fall of the USSR. Some communist parties in Europe changed their names, and abandoned Marxism altogether. Some independent communist parties, like the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) continued to fight in their respective countries for a socialist future, with some measure of success. Right now, for example, the JCP has over 400,000 members, 15 members of the Japanese Diet (parliament), 105 prefecture assembly members, and 2,661 municipal assembly members. I’m not here to talk about the  ideology of the JCP, and whether or not I agree with their line, I’m going to use them as an example to make a point.

The CPUSA has abandoned their status as a party.  They have become a left wing faction of the Democratic Party; a party that gains millions in campaign contributions from the likes of J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and GE. They have advanced such policies as drone attacks, the scam of Cap and Trade instead of real green initiatives, they have supported bank bailouts and and imperialist war. Many Democrats are anti-choice, don’t support gay marriage, and are in effect completely conservative. The Democratic party is a completely bourgeois party, one that does not care for workers, and one that is working actively to sustain and advance capitalism around the world. This is the party that the CPUSA officially supports. They are actively giving support to a capitalist, imperialist party. They can argue all they like that it’s just a strategy, that it is only for now, but those protestations are falling on skeptical ears. The American people, and the working classes of the world have suffered long under the scourge of American capitalist imperialism, and they need an alternative, not a capitulation.

My point in highlighting the popularity and success of the JCP, is that we in the US, at the very least, need an opening for greater democracy. Instead of fighting for an opening up of the US political system, allowing the growth of parties other than the Republicans and Democrats, the CPUSA is actively supporting and advancing the interests of the capitalist bourgeois imperialist state. They are not trying to build a working class movement, they are trying to give their support to a party that hates them, and reviles them. Recently when the especially batshit crazy Allen West made a claim that 80 members of congress were communists, the Democrats only response was to attack them back by letting everyone know how much the Democratic party hates communists. THIS is the party that the CPUSA is supporting. Instead of building their own party, working with the poor and working of America to struggle for political change, they are actively supporting and touting Obama and his NDAA, his bombing of Libya his sad sorry sack of a fucking excuse for health care reform. The American people need real change, economically, politically, and socially. That change is never going to happen with radical socialist parties selling out to the status quo. Real, working class support can be built, but not like this. All the CPUSA is doing is working for their own demise.

So CPUSA, either work for communism, or give the name up so real communists can use it.

And that goes for any of you socialists and communists who are supporting Obama. Stop supporting the bourgeoisie, stop supporting imperialism, stop supporting the Democratic party. We want a new government, a new system. Stop acquiescing to the Democrats. Stop thinking that the American radical left can somehow live vicariously through the Democratic Party.

Dear American left: Please grow a fucking backbone.

Reference: http://peoplesworld.org/at-cpusa-conference-delegates-look-to-the-future/

P.S. I guess by look to the future they mean the long, long distance before they effect any real change for the American people.

 

 

What is Democracy?

From http://www.pslweb.org/party/marxism-101/14-what-is-democracy.html

What is democracy?
The word “democracy” comes from the Greek words “demos”—the people—and “kratos”—rule, and therefore means “rule of the people.” As a political form, it is commonly understood as majority rule.

For centuries, the U.S. government has upheld itself as the most advanced expression and international defender of democracy. It has launched wars and invasions in the name of democracy. But there are different types of democracy, so what type exists in the United States?

The earliest European system commonly called a democracy was in Athens, Greece around 2,500 years ago. In a city of 100,000 people, however, it is estimated that less than 10 percent of the population voted. Only men who had completed their military obligations and who were full citizens could participate. The system excluded women, immigrants (metics) and the more than half the population who were slaves.

In a government based on the “rule of the people,” it was really a minority ruling class that decided who constituted “the people.”

Much like the democracy of ancient Greece, U.S. “democracy” was founded by slave owners. It too excluded women and enslaved people, and initially gave voting rights only to men who owned property. As of 1787, the property-owning requirement to run for political office was so stringent that most voters did not even qualify as candidates. So the owning class used property ownership requirements to create a “democracy” that concentrated political decision-making power in their own hands.

Since the founding of the United States, popular struggles have torn down exclusionary voting requirements. State after state eliminated their property qualifications for white male voters in the first half of the 19th century, with South Carolina being the last to do so in 1860. A powerful suffragist movement won white women the right to vote in 1920. African Americans defeated Jim Crow voting restrictions in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, winning the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

But as this aspect of the democratic system—voting requirements—has been opened, the U.S. ruling class has carefully adjusted the political system so that informal rather than formal requirements keep power in the hands of the rich property owners. A bipartisan political system offers the appearance of a choice—between two parties that fundamentally agree on the supremacy of the corporate exploiters at home and imperialist exploitation abroad.

For instance, rather than formally requiring someone to be worth a certain dollar amount in order to run for office, as it was in 1787, candidates now must be able to raise tens of millions of dollars in order to run their campaigns. It is basically an informal requirement that one must be rich to win political office.

There have only been three African American senators since post-Civil War Reconstruction ended in 1877. Nearly half of current senators are officially millionaires. The real number is probably higher. There is not one worker in the U.S. Senate. It is hardly a representative body.

Moreover, only the inessential parts of the U.S. political system are subject to the vote and majority rule. You do not get to vote on your wages or benefits. You do not get to vote on whether the company you work for should lay off workers. You do not get to vote on whether the country should go to war, or if it should cut spending on social programs. There may be a vote taken on these issues, but it is a vote amongst millionaires in the corporate boardrooms and the halls of Congress.

Marxists call this kind of “democracy” under capitalism “bourgeois democracy”—the democracy of the owning class. No matter the outcome of any given vote, the continued rule of the capitalist system is guaranteed.

In a society divided into social classes, words like democracy only have a meaning in the context of actual class relations—democracy for which class?

When the African American community, still suffering from systematic disenfranchisement, calls for democracy in the United States, that is something very different than the right-wing Cuban exiles in Miami who clamor for “democracy” in Cuba—a country where working people have more political and social rights than in any advanced capitalist country in the world. The former aims to extend rights to more working people, while the latter aims to take rights away.

The basis for working-class democracy

Is there an alternative to this democracy for the rich? The practical basis for constructing a new type of democracy is very simple. Whether in Ancient Greece or in modern capitalism, a minority class has controlled society’s wealth and decision-making powers. “Majority rule” is a lie as long as a tiny minority holds the vast majority of the wealth.

Under capitalism, the economy is not subjected to the will of the majority. It is driven by the quest for profits. Decisions are made by individuals and groups of individuals on the basis of how and where to maximize their personal profits.

A democratic society would be organized so that the people have decision-making power over how to use the wealth of society, which is produced collectively. Subjecting the economy to conscious decision-making and to majority rule—in other words, bringing the economy into the realm of democracy—is called a planned economy. It is a basic principle of socialism.

The single biggest obstacle to this real democracy in the United States is the tiny elite of corporate owners and bankers—the capitalist class. Expropriating the wealth of the capitalist class and using it to meet the needs of society would lay the basis for genuine working class democracy.

Can be used with credit to the Party for Socialism and Liberation