Nobody ever flees capitalism?

So I received a tweet tonight from an account called @NLicense that asked the following question:

It always tickles me that these blockheads never stopped to consider their own question. Not only did they not bother to think about the answer to their own question (which no doubt in their minds can be dismissed with a simple “Because America is the best, no one suffers under capitalism” and a flippant wave of their hand) but they probably didn’t bother to consider that this is another of the bullshit cliche arguments that communists and socialists have to put up with every single day. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s an unanswerable question, even though the premise is a bit asinine. So, let’s cover this topic. Why do lots of people come to the US, and not very many leave?

Point 1

Ok, so how is it a faulty premise? Well, tons of people have tried to flee the US. Seriously. Let’s start with one of the most obvious cases. Slaves running from their “owners” to Canada. Yeah. In fact, it is estimated that 100,000 slaves ran from the US, escaping their bondage on the underground railroad.

Another aspect of the slavery portion of this answer to the above question is that millions were brought to the US against their will. The transatlantic slave trade that lasted for about 300 years brought over millions of slaves, millions of whom would die on the infamous Middle Passage, or shortly after their arrival. Families were torn apart, brother from sister, husband from wife as the United States engaged in the ugly and profit driven slave trade.

The shame of the hundreds of years of slavery is still with us. It doesn’t stop there, however.

This land, the fertile soil of North America was stolen in the first place. It is an uncommonly fertile land, with rivers, plains, fertile soil, game and natural resources. All of those? Stolen by violence by the European invaders. The native houses burned, the fields taken, the country gone. Stolen. I fail to see how the naturally occurring abundance of natural wealth that is in the US is to the credit of the people who raped, killed, slaughtered and committed genocide to get it. I fail to see how it is to the credit of capitalism how the North American continent was taken by force, and then cultivated using slave labor. But it doesn’t stop there.

What is America anyway? Its borders have changed dramatically over the past 200 years. What was 13 colonies along the coast was expanded by buying from the French what was not theirs to give. Then the US systematically stole the rest of the land too. Then it took at the very end Hawaii, a sovereign state whom we decided it was OK to visit upon with slaughter and imperialism once again. We took the Philippines in the Spanish-American War, then killed a million of them when they tried to gain independence. We attacked Cuba, and Haiti, all those people wishing to be left alone, but we visit them with weapons and hatred. Just try running from the US. They’re really good at catching people and bringing them back.

America has lived for more than 2 centuries on stolen land, ill gotten wealth, and borrowed time. And the chickens are coming home to roost. http://rt.com/usa/leaving-us-america-country-289/

Do you see the above link? Oh wait, people have been leaving the US?

Of course they are. They have been leaving for a long time. The government of course doesn’t want you to know that a lot of people are leaving, and have throughout history, but it’s true.

Now that I have destroyed the premise of this ridiculous question, let’s play a game wherein we humor the above moron. Let’s say that Americans never flee the US, they only flee socialism and communism.

Point 2

Even if that were true it wouldn’t mean that the US is a better place, a more moral place, or anything like it. See, if the US has bombed or invaded many countries in the last century, overthrown governments, supported terrorists, has a stranglehold on international business and finance, stole all their own land in the first place, built up their empire on the backs of the slaves, the Chinese, Japanese, Irish and other peoples, if they have cheated at the game from the start, murdered millions of people who dared oppose their tyranny and imperialism and hoarded all the wealth they got from exploitation and slavery, well, does that make us the best country in the world, or the worst?
I think you know what my answer would be.

If people are coming in droves to the US because we destroyed most of the rest of the damn world through colonialism, war, slavery and exploitation, does that mean we’re the best at anything other than colonialism, war, slavery and exploitation?

The world will one day be a much better place. That new age will dawn the day the United States of America collapses into the dustbin of history where it belongs with the Napoleons, the Hitlers and the Romans.

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 Value of Nothing

There is an old saying about economists, about how they know the price of everything and the value of nothing. That has a lot of truth in it. Many economists focus on price mechanisms, the behavior of the market, and many related topics. Understanding how economics works is important, to be sure. There are, however, more important things in life. Let’s have a brief discussion about what is important in life, and why capitalism doesn’t satisfy the emotional, economic, or psychological needs of human beings.

Alienation

Our current economic system is one that alienates people. It alienates on basis of nationality, race, religion, language and other categories. We are taught to hate other people who are not like us. We are taught to distrust Muslims, we are taught to attack foreigners. It is us vs them. We verses they. The nation vs the other. This alienation divides society, but not like the alienation of the worker from his labor. He is separated from the work of his hands (or her hands as may be the case of course) because he doesn’t own the means of production. The proletariat sells their labor, the only thing they have to sell. They sell away their lives, making others rich by their work, produced wealth they will never get to enjoy. We are alienated from our dreams, our hopes, and our creativity. Young people who would like to attend school, gain an education and change the world are imprisoned in bad neighborhoods with violence, crime, poverty and an early death more likely than their success. Artists who would show the world great beauty, are forced instead to sell their labor for a pittance, to pay outrageous rents, utility payments and for food. We are held back by the “invisible hand” that is really the tentacles of international capitalism.

The Value of Life

For those who think that life is about making money are many in our society. This system has taught us to be cold, ruthless and unflappable. No crying, no hesitating, no compassion. You step over others to get to the top, and when you’re there you sit on your rightful throne as the king of a dog eat dog world. Except, you just may be all alone. What good is money without love? What good is money without happiness, and fulfillment? What if you’re rich, but you live in a poor society? You pass the homeless on the streets, the boarded up houses and the refuse littered walkways. People searching for drugs to escape their empty desolate lives, trying to get away from the pain of a society alienated from itself.  They search for an escape, but there is not one to be found. The capitalist wasteland is all encompassing, it touches everyone, and ruins everything. Can you be happy in such a world? If you are financially secure, can you assuage your conscience? Can you stand to see the poverty of the world, see the people in Greece light themselves on fire in one final gasp of desperation? Perhaps those that have committed suicide to escape this heartless world performed one last act of individual autonomy, of freedom, of stubborn resolve.

What good is money if you are all alone? Isolated, unloved and unaccompanied? What good is it to be as rich as King Midas, yet lack any human warmth? Money isn’t everything. The pursuit of profit is a poor substitute for the pursuit of happiness, and no the two are not the same. Would you rather have a rich daughter, or a healthy and happy daughter? Would you rather be poor and happy, in love and content, or would you rather be rich, sick, miserable and depressed? Do you want a society that rewards greed, avarice and malice, or do you want a society that rewards cooperation, innovation and equality? Do you want riches, or do you want social justice? We can have a better world. This world of contradictions, alienation, exploitation and despair is not a good place to live in. So what do we do? We learn that humans are the most valuable things in the world. More valuable than diamonds, more valuable than all the gold in Fort Knox. We are the universe aware of itself. That’s pretty awesome. A better world is possible, and it’s called socialism. I want a happy, egalitarian world. What kind of world do you want?

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!

Some State Solution: The Problem with Israel

Some State Solution: The Problem with Israel

Is Israel, by the evidence of its history and policies, a racist, apartheid state? I would argue that for all intents and purposes, it is. That is not an assertion that should be made lightly, it is a grave charge against a state, and one that should be taken seriously. Then I must here present my reasons for labeling the state of Israel racist, and apartheid. Israel is in the news once again, as they send overwhelming firepower into the Gaza strip, punishing the Palestinians for their rocket attacks into Israel. To many people around the world, this story is quite the familiar refrain. Someone on one side starts shooting, and before you know it, the whole area is alight with rockets, missiles, bombs and gunfire. Often it would seem that people who aren’t familiar with the history of the conflict throw their hands up in exasperation. “That’s just the way that area is, they’ve been fighting for thousands of years, and they’ll keep fighting for thousands more.” That is quite an unfortunate assessment however, as there are reasons for this modern conflict, and those reasons aren’t as ancient as some would have you believe. These  problems go back to before the genesis of the state of Israel, back to the 19^th century and the start of a Zionist movement.

 

The geographic area commonly called Palestine has a long and storied history, and has been the home of some of the world’s greatest religions and cultural traditions. Jerusalem is sacred to all of the Abrahamic religions, accounting for billions of believers worldwide. It has also long been a source of conflict as different religious and cultural groups vied for supremacy and control over the small sliver of land in the Middle East. That long and storied history however is far too complicated and long to include in this short essay, so it will have to suffice to begin a little more recently in the story, namely the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

 

The state of Israel was created following the end of the second World War, however the movement to create such a state began in earnest in the late 19^th century. There are a number of factors that would many people sympathetic to the Zionist cause, their hope for a homeland. Jewish communities in Europe had been long subject to horrible discrimination, slander, and even mass murder. Pogram was a common word in many countries, and many died for simply being the wrong member of an ethnic and religious minority. Perhaps it was thought that if the Jews had their own homeland, that they would be free forever from the scourge of racism and religious bigotry. Centuries of antisemitism had resulted in the murder of multitudes of Jews,  the destruction of their property and their disenfranchisement from the societies they lived in. Understandably, they wanted an end to that bigotry, and an end to living in fear. The problem is that the establishment of the state of Israel as a “Jewish state” has not solved those problems. They continue to live in a world that is rocked by war, hatred and ill will. The state of Israel did not solve the problem of anti-Jewish bigotry because it is impossible to solve problems of racism by nationalist xenophobia.

So if we know that Jews were running from persecution and mass murder, some may wonder why anyone would deny them a national home where they would feel safe. A haven where they would have their culture, traditions and people protected. The answer is a simple one, and it is one whose reasons have been played out time and again in multiple different scenarios throughout history. The problem is that we’re defining “Jewish” as a cultural and religious identity, an ethnic identity, and asserting that they should have an exclusive piece of land just for them, and no one else; which does reveal some problems. How does one define what a Jew is? How far back in one’s family tree does one have to go before they are considered Jewish? Is it only a religious and cultural identity? Is there a perceived biological aspect to the identity of “Jewishness”? Why should any country be able to deny the entry or settlement of people on the basis of race, class, national origin, religion or other factors of a similar nature? Does the history of oppression of a group of people give them the right to persecute and or exclude other perceived groups of humans? Is that morally or logically tenable as a building block of national policy and identity? The question arises whether or not Israel by its history and policies is a racist, apartheid state. I would argue that for all intents and purposes, it is. That is not an assertion that should be made lightly, it is a grave charge against a state, and one that should be taken seriously. Then I must here present my reasons for labeling the state of Israel racist, and apartheid.

 

During the British Mandate of Palestine in the early 20^th century, the demographics of Palestine were much different than today. That alone, of course is not grounds for worry, however the differences between now and then, and how it came to be are historically significant. The Jews returning to the Palestinian region before, during and after World War Two did not simply slip into town and join the rest of the populace living in peace. During the British Mandate of Palestine, a majority Muslim population existed side by side with Jews, Christians, Druze and other minorities. The program of returning the Jews to the ancient land of Israel increased hugely after the war, and pushed out many of the original Palestinian inhabitants. It created a humanitarian nightmare. In the 2009 book by Richard Becker titled “Palestine, Israel and the US Empire”  this time in Palestinian history is explained.  Becker describes the Irgun, a Jewish terrorist group aiming to seize the entire land of Palestine from the hands of the British, and then the Palestinians, resorted to the horrific massacre of civilians, documenting eye-witness accounts of the horror. This was part of an ethnic cleansing campaign that would dramatically change the demographics of Palestine, and would steal away land from Palestinians who had lived there for many centuries. One such massacre was in a village called Deir Yassin. Becker states “On April 9th, 1948, the Irgun wiped out the entire population of Deir Yassin. The Irgun soldiers arrived in the village and announced that the residents had 15 minutes to leave. Then the attack began. The Zionist soldiers blew up homes with their inhabitants still inside, fired at will and at close range, and committed other atrocities. When it was over, more than two hundred lay dead.” (Becker, p. 61) That campaign of terror he describes was repeated many times as they drove out the Palestinians. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, causing a large humanitarian crisis. In discussing the  Palestinian right of return in Chapter 18, he mentions just how large that exodus of refugees really was. In 1948, the expulsion of almost three fourths of the Palestinian population caused 750,000 refugees, and the 1967 war led to another 300,000 refugees. (Becker) Israel took the land from the Palestinian people, and now have relegated them to tiny slivers of land in what used to be their own country. They are denied the right of return, and are forced to live within the confines of the Gaza strip and the West Bank. This is reminiscent of the regime of apartheid in South Africa that lasted until recently. Some wanted to create national homes away from the other ethnicities, to keep them separate. The population of the West Bank and Gaza now number in the millions of  people, people who still don’t have the right of return to their homes and their villages.

 

Aside from the history of the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homes and villages and being forced into defacto Ghettos, what exists in the State of Israel today that would designate them an apartheid state? We only have to look at the words of Israeli politicians, and the Israeli people themselves. Harriet Sherwood in the Guardian newspaper recently revealed the results of a poll first published in the Haaretz newspaper detailing what the Israeli public thought about apartheid and the Palestinian people. She said that the poll revealed that more than two-thirds of the respondents thought that the 2.5 million residents of the West Bank should be denied the right to vote should the area be annexed. Furthermore, three out of four Israelis polled wanted separate roads for Palestinians and Israelis, and 58% of respondents already considered Israel an apartheid state. (Sherwood )  Israel has denied the Palestinians a state of their own. Israel has demanded that they hold elections, and then blockaded those who dared to vote for the party Israel didn’t approve of, causing more humanitarian crises. Israel has assassinated at will Palestinian officials, and then condemned the Palestinians for fighting back. Palestine seems to be in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” sort of position. This all arises from the goal of establishing a state that was of, by and for one religious group, at the expense of everyone else. That bad idea has now gone on for decades, causing thousands of deaths, many of them civilians, even children.

 

The irrational fear and distrust of the Palestinian people by the Israelis is evident in the speech of their politicians. In 2008, as reported by the Telegraph newspaper, Matan Vilnai, the Israeli deputy defense minister called for a genocide stating “The more qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” (The telegraph) Shoah is the Hebrew word for holocaust. There have been many examples of this kind of speech.

 

In the book “Racism: A Very Short Introduction” by Ali Rattansi, he explains that racism can be based in cultural, or religious terms rather than overtly biological ones. He says “In practice, though, cultural demarcations are often drawn and used in a form that naturalizes them by implying that they are more or less immutable.” (Rattansi, p. 104) The Palestinians have been labeled as inherently violent, as incompatible for life in a society alongside the Israeli population. They have been subjected to apartheid, separated from the rest of their society for decades now, with no end in sight.

 

I believe that if we are to end the violent conflict in Palestine, we must bring about an inclusive, one state solution. We must heal the wounds, not by continuing to keep them separate, but by uniting them together into a peaceful coexistence. I believe it can be done. I think a two state solution would just legitimize the crimes of the Israeli state, and foster further resentment. Israel, in its current form as an apartheid state must end, for there to be peace again.

 

                                         CITATIONS

1)      Sherwood, Harriet. “Israeli poll finds majority would be in favour of ‘apartheid’ policies.” Guardian 23 OCT 2012, Online n. pag. Web. 16 Nov. 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/23/israeli-poll-majority-apartheid-policies>.

2)      Becker, Richard. Palestine, Israel and the US Empire. 1st Ed. San Fransisco: PSL Publications, 2009. Print.

3)      Rattansi, Ali. Racism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.

4)      ” Israeli minister vows Palestinian ‘holocaust’.” Telegraph 29 FEB 2008, Online n. pag. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1580339/Israeli-minister-vows-Palestinian-holocaust.html&gt;.

 

 

 

The 2012 US Election

Tuesday’s election was a win for the incumbent, Barack Obama, and a continuation of near the same balance between parties in Congress. In reality though, it was a vote for the status quo. What does this election mean? How is the rabid right wing taking it? And what is going to happen to the USA?

Rabid Response

The response of the GOP crazies to the election was over the top and over the edge. Tea party poster child and former SNL star Victoria Jackson took to twitter to lament that “America has died.” she also gave a tongue lashing to Christian for allowing Obama to be reelected. Donald Trump, poster child for worst hair on a public personality ever, called for revolution. Just against whom, I can’t imagine seeing since he already has millions of dollars and is firmly in the capitalist class that rules the country. Rabid squirrel brain having Ted Nugent,\ went on a badly spelled twitter rant, yelling that “pimps whores and welfare brats” voted for “economic and spiritual suicide”. He also called anyone getting government assistance “subhuman”.

The talking heads on Fox “news” went into a spiral of depression and denial Tuesday night, as Karl Rove tried to deny that Obama had won. Bill O’Reilly lamented the death of a “traditional” “White” America. He also equated this demographic shift to laziness, and wanting handouts.

While it is not surprising that the rabid right responded to this election with racist rants and old rich white people feeling sorry for themselves, I would not recommend anyone breathe a sigh of relief. See, contrary to popular opinion, Barack Obama is really not all that progressive, and not much of a leftist. He’s not a socialist. He is most definitely not a communist. I’ll tell you what he is.

Barack Obama is a war mongering capitalist imperialist.

Guantanamo Bay, still open. Afghanistan, still being fought. Thousands and thousands of dead and wounded soldiers, with more being wounded almost every day. The US is maintaining more than 750 bases all around the world, in more than 150 countries. We are helping the human rights abusing rebels in Syria, giving Israel more ammo to drop on Palestinians, we are still embargoing Cuba, we are still threatening Hugo Chavez, we are continuing NDAA, the PATRIOT act, drone surveillance of our own citizenry,
and on and on and on.

Obama is in effect, Dubya 2.0. So there must be a reason that the GOP, and the neocons hate him. Oh right, he’s black. Forgot about that.

I hope these gun wielding crazy assholes do start something. If the US is too busy destroying its own government then it cannot attack other countries. I hope it all devolves into a anarchic chaos filled pile. But it probably won’t, because Americans are afraid to fight for their own political future. They’re too scared to actually press for systemic change, and even the brain damaged reactionaries on the right are all talk and no walk. No surprise there.

So what’s the plan now? Oh, I suppose another 4 years of the status quo? What are you going to do about it? Nothing?

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.

 

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

 

PSL on the ballot in 13 states nationwide

PSL on the ballot in 13 states nationwide.

September 14, 2012

The Party for Socialism and Liberation is proud to announce that our presidential campaign has achieved ballot access in 13 states. In six of these states, the PSL candidates will be the only socialists on the ballot.

In each one of these states, supporters of the Lindsay/Osorio campaign volunteered their spare time to do the work required to gain ballot access. We collected almost 45,000 petition signatures and met 125 people willing to be electors for the PSL in a period of six months.

The PSL will be on the ballot in every region of the country: the West – Colorado, Utah, Washington; the South – Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana; the Midwest – Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin; and the Northeast – New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont.

About 85 million people live in these states, which include the third and fourth most populous states: New York and Florida. Almost 40 million registered voters — representing more than one-quarter of those registered in the country, and more than one-quarter of electoral votes — will have the option to vote for the PSL.

It’s not too late to be a part of this exciting campaign:

Get involved with the Lindsay/Osorio 2012 Presidential Campaign today!

Request Peta Lindsay or Yari Osorio as a speaker for an event in your area.

Join the Party for Socialism and Liberation!

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Below is a report published following the completion of ballot access efforts in New York State in August.

PSL campaign volunteers wait to file petitions for ballot access in New York State.

On Aug. 14 at 9:03 a.m., the Party for Socialism and Liberation filed an Independent Nominating Petition with the New York State Board of Elections in Albany to place Peta Lindsay and Yari Osorio on the ballot. PSL volunteers arrived at the BOE early in the morning before they opened to ensure that we could file at the very first opportunity when the filing period opened.

We met all of the requirements to be on the ballot for the 2012 presidential elections, including submitting nearly 30,000 signatures – almost double the required number. We are proud to say that millions of working-class people will be able to vote for a socialist alternative in New York State. Peta Lindsay and Yari Osorio will be the only socialists on the ballot in New York for the office of president and vice president.

An army of volunteers is working hard to get a socialist campaign on the ballot in as many states as we can — but your help is needed. Please make an urgently needed donation toward travel and accomodations for volunteers, filing fees and other costs of obtaining ballot status.

The requirements to be listed on the ballot include submitting 15,000 valid signatures of registered voters, with at least 100 valid signatures from each of half of the state’s 27 congressional districts. These signatures could not be collected prior to July 10, and were due on Aug. 21 – but the PSL filed a full week early because of an extraordinary all-volunteer effort carried out around the state.

The first phase of the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Presidential Campaign has been a great success. Through a tremendous amount of hard work, we have succeeded in meeting the requirements for ballot status in nine states and are in the process of achieving status in several more.

New York State was our biggest challenge. For 35 consecutive days, volunteers worked tirelessly in New York City’s five boroughs, and cities in Upstate and Long Island to collect the necessary signatures and prepare the filing. The army of volunteers sacrificed vacation time, days off, and time with their families to make sure that a powerful voice of socialism and struggle would be on the ballot in November in this key state.

PSL on the ballot nationwide

We are very excited at the prospect of being able to reach millions of people across the country with the Peta Lindsay/Yari Osorio campaign.

The PSL has now gained ballot status in every major region of the country. We are already on the ballot in New York, New Jersey and Vermont in the Northeast; Arkansas in the South; Iowa and Wisconsin in the Midwest; and Colorado, Utah and Washington in the West – and we are still working on several additional states in these regions.

Since we began the petitioning effort in March, we have collected more than 40,000 petition signatures, recruited more than 100 electors, held conventions and paid filing fees. Hundreds of volunteers are working around the clock in cities and towns throughout the country.

The capitalist elections impose burdensome and costly ballot access requirements designed to exclude third parties – but we are meeting this challenge with a massive nationwide mobilization to give voters a socialist option in as many states as possible. Be a part of this effort by making a generous donation now.

Join our campaign of struggle

The PSL’s Lindsay/Osorio Campaign is one of struggle. We will carry forward the message that the key to bringing about real progressive change is building a powerful people’s movement that stands together with our sisters and brothers around the world who are resisting imperialism and exploitation.

As capitalism sinks further into crisis, it is more important than ever that we explain that there are really only two choices for the future: Continue with a system based on maximizing profits for a tiny elite regardless of destruction to people or the planet, or create a new, sustainable system based on meeting people’s needs – socialism.

How many cities, towns and campuses we can travel to, how many people we can reach and bring into the struggle – in short, how successful we can be with the precious few weeks we have until election day – depends largely on you.

There are many ways you can help:

• Become a campaign volunteer.
• Contact us to help bring our campaign to your area or organization.
• Organize a speaking engagement or house meeting for our candidates.
• Make a generous contribution to the campaign. We can’t move forward without your help.

The Lindsay / Osorio Presidential Campaign will be organizing around the country in the coming months to bring the message of socialism into the electoral arena and provide an alternative to the corporate-dominated two-party system in 2012. Be a part of this effort by making an urgently needed donation!

Content may be reprinted with credit to VotePSL.org.

Death in Libya

The world is still shocked. And by world I mean America. And by America I mean the ignorant people who couldn’t see something like this coming. You can already tell by the title what I’m talking about. Libyans, reportedly angry about a film that gravely insulted Islam, stormed the US embassy in Benghazi and killed several Americans, including the Ambassador to Libya, a Mr. Chris Stevens. They also seemingly dragged his corpse through the streets of the city triumphantly, as a hunter might display their captured trophy prey. That kind of behavior is barbaric, it is disgusting and it is wrong. I condemn in the strongest language possible the killing of diplomatic personnel from any country. That said, I think it’s not wrong to examine why this happened, and why the US can only expect more of this to happen.

Islam vs Christianity? A false dichotomy

There are many who want to frame all this ongoing violence from majority Muslim countries as being a cultural war between the forces of Judeo-Christian civility, and Islamic barbarism. This is a misdirection of the issue, and is completely off base. The issue is  much deeper than just religious differences, or hurt feelings. It goes to the very core of why the US is hated around the world.

There is a talking point among the talking heads of Western media, and how they love to drive it into the ground. “The Muslims are dangerous, they hold nothing but ill will towards us nice white Christian folk, we’re in danger yada yada yada”. Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Libya et al. How true is that though? How many Americans have died from Muslim terrorism? Let’s look at the numbers. 2,600 some people dead on 9-11. 4 people dead in Benghazi. 17 dead on the USS Cole. Bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut. OK. That’s pretty much it? Sure there’s been a couple others, but let’s not get off track here. “Now what did the US ever do to deserve that?” You may ask tilting your head quizzically to one side. Gee, let me think. Give me a moment here.

….. ummm….. ummmm…… ummm….. ummmm…..

Well, we support the genocide and blockading of the Palestinians, overthrew the rightful governments of Iran, Afghanistan, and others, bombed Libya, invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, again, propped up, still prop up brutal dictators in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran and others, purposely insult their religion “just because we can”, exploit their natural resources, abuse their governments and their people and shit all over their culture and sovereignty. “Yeah, but we didn’t kill that many people.” You may say. Oh really? The toll in Iraq and Afghanistan ALONE is in the hundreds of thousands at least. Families dead, cities destroyed, progress halted, elections thrown, protesters jailed, refugees imprisoned starved and murdered, drone attacks on civilians, Israeli settlements, US gifts of weapons to Israel that kills Palestinian civilians, bombs and missiles and warships and boots on the ground and shock and awe and torture and Gitmo and secret renditions by the CIA and more bombs and more troops and more US flag waving and more “freedom” and more capitalism and more coca-cola and more McDonalds and more ripping up the Koran, and more countries collapsing, and they are left with nothing.

Nothing but the only goddamn thing that the US and all its imperial might can’t take from them. Their religious identity. Let me note right here that I am not  Muslim, I don’t believe in that religion, but I understand. The anger. The rage. They’re people who have been shat on and walked all over for so goddamn long that religion is the only thing they have. They don’t have nice cars and houses and food. They have their belief in their god, it warms them at night, and shades them by day. It is their opium and their placebo. It is their blanket and their fortress. And the Western man sits in his nice house, bought with money drenched in the blood of the weak and powerless, watching these developments on TV. He sips his singe malt scotch on the rocks and says smugly “Those barbarians, how can they even be considered human when they do things like that.” Then he pays as little tax as possible, which will be used to rain down the brimstone of heaven on the heads of more innocent Muslims around the world.

And you wonder why they’re mad.

So before all you self righteous assholes go condemning all Muslims, try something a little bit different for once. Start advocating the end of imperialism. Start advocating the end of interventionism and war. Start advocating for socialism, start advocating for progress. And reach out to the Muslims in your neighborhood. They’re people just like you. Accept them, understand them, love them.

End the cycle of violence, move beyond imperialism. We can make a better world. Join me.