Fenian Rising

New way to Access Socialist Alternative radio programs

2011-11-29T09:24:00.000-08:00

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I will be adding more programs to this Widget soon...With this Widget you can play the files on a player at the website if you don't have time to download them... Just click on the program you want to listen to..I am also adding this widget to the right side of my blog...It makes it more easier to access the files for Socialist Alternative Radio and other files I will soon add...

New Program Archives For Socialist Alternative Radio

2011-11-28T04:55:00.000-08:00

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I know I haven't been posting a great deal lately, but I have a facebook page that I am also posting on..I have posted some new archives for Socialist Alternative radio on the right side of ny blog...There are also the older show further down on the right side as well... I will try and upload more of their recent programs as well as other audio that I have collected... I will also try and post some more commentary soon when I get time...
http://www.facebook.com/fenianrising1917?ref=tn_tnmn

Joe Higgins TD questions Enda Kenny during Leaders' Questions on "renego...

2011-03-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

Capitalist Class Declares Class Warfare On All Public Sector Jobs

2010-10-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

The Bastard Vulture Class is on the attack, and it has all public sector union jobs in it's bulls eyes. This is with the help of Obama, and the Democrats, as well as the high paid union officialdom which has allowed for the weakening of unions.
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The capitalist are always looking for new channels of investment to profit from and in recent years they have found that the Public sector ranging from Prisons to Education can be a great cash cow...

When it comes to education the corporate parasites have found a way to corporatize it through the so-called charter school movement in which teachers have even less input in what can be taught, since the private sector will now control everything...And most charter schools are anti-union...

And without union representation teachers can be fired at will, and this is part of the agenda of the profit driven charter schools. The threat of firing at will can make sure that the school curriculum is purely capitalist in nature...

And guess what? The so-called self centered philanthropists Bill Gates is one of the scumbags behind this privatization effort who spent $60,000,000 in something he called Ed in 08, in which teachers salaries are linked to merit pay, and the promotion of charter schools...In which capitalists like him can set the educational agenda...

There are many more problems with the privatization of education which I will post about in upcoming posts.

I am also going to include some links to audio programs about the privatization of education.

Along with the privatization of education, the movement for the privatization of public libraries has arrived. The capitalist class has found another channel for their blood thirsty investments.

They are now looking to break the unions of library workers, so they can feed off it's carcass...

The privatization of libraries also means that the public will no longer have much influence in these for profit Libraries but what ever can make a profit for these private owners is what will be the driving force and influence for what will be available there.

All you need to do is just visit the website of Frank Pezzanite's private library services company to see what I mean.

The scumbags company is called Library Systems & Services, a private, for-profit company that an increasing number of towns are contracting to take over their local public libraries.

The ruling class has been declaring class war on us since the 1970's through the implementation of neoliberalism, which has privatization and profiteering at it's core, and has devastated the living standards of the working class...

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They have fired the first shots, now we need to organize to fight back...and this can only be done through a unified struggle of the working class...

We must fight and win or otherwise humanity will be the loser...

Published on Monday, October 4, 2010 by The Huffington Post
Keeping It Public (If the Libraries Don't Sway You, the Blazing House Might)
by Amy Traub

By Katie Quarles Sep 14, 2010
With 46 states facing budget shortfalls this year, public education is facing major cuts across the country.

By Ty Moore Sep 15, 2010
As the global economy stumbles deeper into crisis, baldly revealing the bleak future capitalism has on offer, youth across the globe are moving into open revolt. With unprecedented budget cuts raining down everywhere, the struggle over public education has emerged as the main battleground.

By Steve Edwards, President, AFSCME Local 2858 Sep 12, 2010
CORE represents the response of rank and file teachers to the City of Chicago’s attacks on their union and on public education.

By Tony Wilsdon Sep 3, 2010
As the 2010 elections approach, millions of working people and young people who are looking to fight against the right-wing corporate agenda will be confronted with the question: Should I give my vote to the Democrats?

Race to the top or to the bottom?

School reform fails in test score scandal

Still waiting for the truth about teachers
The "documentary" Waiting for Superman is the latest installment in the campaign to smear teachers as the main obstacle to better public schools.

Why testing fails our schools

The Privatization of Education Program Download

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The Corporate and Government Assault On Education

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What's Wrong With Charter Schools?

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Why are the Democrats so Lame?

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NGOs
The Revolution Will Not be Funded
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Rebuilding a Fighting Labor Movement
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A New Era For Labor?
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2010-10-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

Are We Headed For Another Great Depression, w Joel Geier, PART 1 from RedReel on Vimeo.

Are We Headed For Another Great Depression, Joel Geier PART 2 from RedReel on Vimeo.

2010-10-05T09:41:00.001-07:00

Antonio Gramsci: Life of a Revolutionary

2010-10-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

Socialism 101:An Alternative to Capitalism

2010-10-05T09:34:00.001-07:00

Socialism 101: An Alternative to Capitalism from Steve Ramey on Vimeo.

140 Bellingham, WA Students Attend Meeting on “The Case for Socialism”

2010-10-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

This is an article about the meeting at Western Washington University in Bellingham, sponsored by Socialist Alternative, which also had representatives at the DC rally as part of the Socialist Contingent.

I will also include links to an interview with Cian Prendiville from the Socialist Party of Ireland, which is also posted on the right side of my blog.

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140 Bellingham, WA Students Attend Meeting on “The Case for Socialism”

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Oct 4, 2010 By Ramy Khalil

140 people came to Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington on September 28, 2010 to hear Cian Prendiville from the Socialist Party of Ireland make “The Case for Socialism.” This was the largest turnout to a public meeting on the topic of socialism that Socialist Alternative has ever organized in the U.S.

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One student expressed the sentiment of many people who came to the meeting. “It was inspiring to see the room completely jam packed with people discussing socialism as an alternative to our profit-driven, corporate-controlled society.”

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The high turnout of students reflects the growing interest in socialist ideas, particularly among youth. A May 4, 2010 Pew poll found that only 52% of Americans supported capitalism, while 29% reacted favorably to socialism. But among people between 18 and 30 years old, supporters of socialism and capitalism were evenly divided at 43% each!

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Similarly, support for socialism was dramatically higher among blacks, women, and low-income groups.

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This growing support for socialism has taken place in spite of the relentless barrage of free-market propaganda from the capitalist mass media. Most media outlets in the U.S. are owned by only 5 corporations, and there is not a single major media outlet or politician in the U.S. that publicly advocates socialism. On the contrary, every major media outlet and politician dismiss socialism as an inefficient, bureaucratic economic model. Despite all this, a third of Americans and half of young people favor socialism over capitalism!

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How can this be explained?
Karl Marx's materialist philosophy explains that people’s ideas are ultimately shaped by their material experiences -- their day-to-day experiences in the real, material world. When working-class people and young people are increasingly experiencing unemployment, discrimination, war, and environmental devastation, and at the same time bankers are getting bailed out and receiving huge bonuses, then workers question the social system and seek out an alternative, despite the elite’s propaganda against socialism.

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SA Radio 09/17/10 Part 1

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SA Radio 09/17/10 Part 2 Interview withIrish Socialist who is touring the U.S. speaking about the capitalist crisis and the need for socialism, the situation in Ireland with the demise of the "Celtic Tiger" myth, etc

The Case For Socialism

2010-10-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

The Case for Socialism w/Sherry Wolf from Steve Ramey on Vimeo.

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This video is From We Are Many.Org: From The ISO: International Socialist Organization, which too part in the socialist contingent at the D.C. Rally this past Saturday. Of course the big business media focused on the pro-Obama speakers and groups, but did not include anything about the socialist contingent. This is quite typical...

Obama Ain't No Socialist!!! We Are!!!

2010-10-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

Capitalism Gets More Barbaric: As Budget Cuts Lead to Semi Privatization Of Vital Services Like local Fire Departments

2010-10-05T04:55:00.000-07:00

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This is a glimpse of what a tea party nation would look like. This is basically neoliberalism inside the US. Where every thing has an individual fee, which just means another way to privatize everything. The cost is no longer shared by a collective effort which includes taxing big business, and billionaires but no it is everyone out for themselves, and the capitalist class no longer has to contribute to any social services so they can keep everything for themselves....They are real bastards!!! if you can't afford the certainly ever increasing fees, for a semi private fire department then you are just plain out of luck like Gene Cranick was in the above video...

Would they not have acted to put out this fire if there were people inside???? These kind of neoliberal policies could lead to some really awful crimes, as they already have in many other parts of the world such as, in South and Central America, and places like Haiti...as well as right here in the US in New Orleans, where rescue and evacuation of people was designated by FEMA through agencies which had been privatized.

Privatization of FEMA HERE: GOP contributers received contracts

FEMA subcontracting and the buses of New Orleans

So why are scumbag billionaires like Forbes, Murdoch, and the infamous Koch brothers funding movements like the Tea Party? There are many reasons and Jane Mayer of the New Yorker exposes some of them in her article about the greedy scumbag Koch brothers:

"The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy __

Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States.

And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.
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In a statement, Koch Industries said that the Greenpeace report “distorts the environmental record of our companies.” And David Koch, in a recent, admiring article about him in New York, protested that the “radical press” had turned his family into “whipping boys,” and had exaggerated its influence on American politics. But Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said, “The Kochs are on a whole different level. There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.”

Frank Rich also wrote about these scumbags in "The New York Times" :

ANOTHER weekend, another grass-roots demonstration starring Real Americans who are mad as hell and want to take back their country from you-know-who. Last Sunday the site was Lower Manhattan, where they jeered the “ground zero mosque.” This weekend, the scene shifted to Washington, where the avatars of oppressed white Tea Party America, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, were slated to “reclaim the civil rights movement” (Beck’s words) on the same spot where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had his dream exactly 47 years earlier.

Vive la révolution!
There’s just one element missing from these snapshots of America’s ostensibly spontaneous and leaderless populist uprising: the sugar daddies who are bankrolling it, and have been doing so since well before the “death panel” warm-up acts of last summer. Three heavy hitters rule. You’ve heard of one of them, Rupert Murdoch. The other two, the brothers David and Charles Koch, are even richer, with a combined wealth exceeded only by that of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among Americans. But even those carrying the Kochs’ banner may not know who these brothers are.

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Their self-interested and at times radical agendas, like Murdoch’s, go well beyond, and sometimes counter to, the interests of those who serve as spear carriers in the political pageants hawked on Fox News.

All three tycoons are the latest incarnation of what the historian Kim Phillips-Fein labeled “Invisible Hands” in her prescient 2009 book of that title: those corporate players who have financed the far right ever since the du Pont brothers spawned the American Liberty League in 1934 to bring down F.D.R. You can draw a straight line from the Liberty League’s crusade against the New Deal “socialism” of Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission and child labor laws to the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater assault on J.F.K. and Medicare to the Koch-Murdoch-backed juggernaut against our “socialist” president.

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Only the fat cats change — not their methods and not their pet bugaboos (taxes, corporate regulation, organized labor, and government “handouts” to the poor, unemployed, ill and elderly). Even the sources of their fortunes remain fairly constant. Koch Industries began with oil in the 1930s and now also spews an array of industrial products, from Dixie cups to Lycra, not unlike DuPont’s portfolio of paint and plastics. Sometimes the biological DNA persists as well.

The Koch brothers’ father, Fred, was among the select group chosen to serve on the Birch Society’s top governing body. In a recorded 1963 speech that survives in a University of Michigan archive, he can be heard warning of “a takeover” of America in which Communists would “infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the president is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us.” That rant could be delivered as is at any Tea Party rally today. "

And Matt Taibbi also did his own expose about the Tea Party in "Rolling Stone magazine"

"After Palin wraps up, I race to the parking lot in search of departing Medicare-motor-scooter conservatives. I come upon an elderly couple, Janice and David Wheelock, who are fairly itching to share their views.
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"I'm anti-spending and anti-government," crows David, as scooter-bound Janice looks on. "The welfare state is out of control."

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"OK," I say. "And what do you do for a living?"

"Me?" he says proudly. "Oh, I'm a property appraiser. Have been my whole life."
I frown. "Are either of you on Medicare?"
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Silence: Then Janice, a nice enough woman, it seems, slowly raises her hand, offering a faint smile, as if to say, You got me!

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"Let me get this straight," I say to David. "You've been picking up a check from the government for decades, as a tax assessor, and your wife is on Medicare. How can you complain about the welfare state?"

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"Well," he says, "there's a lot of people on welfare who don't deserve it. Too many people are living off the government."

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"But," I protest, "you live off the government. And have been your whole life!"

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"Yeah," he says, "but I don't make very much."

Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it's going. But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I've concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They're full of shit. All of them. At the voter level, the Tea Party is a movement that purports to be furious about government spending — only the reality is that the vast majority of its members are former Bush supporters who yawned through two terms of record deficits and spent the past two electoral cycles frothing not about spending but about John Kerry's medals and Barack Obama's Sixties associations. The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them.

In fact, their lack of embarrassment when it comes to collecting government largesse is key to understanding what this movement is all about — and nowhere do we see that dynamic as clearly as here in Kentucky, where Rand Paul is barreling toward the Senate with the aid of conservative icons like Palin.

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Early in his campaign, Dr. Paul, the son of the uncompromising libertarian hero Ron Paul, denounced Medicare as "socialized medicine." But this spring, when confronted with the idea of reducing Medicare payments to doctors like himself — half of his patients are on Medicare — he balked. This candidate, a man ostensibly so against government power in all its forms that he wants to gut the Americans With Disabilities Act and abolish the departments of Education and Energy, was unwilling to reduce his own government compensation, for a very logical reason. "Physicians," he said, "should be allowed to make a comfortable living."

Articles like these are very good and expose who and what is really behind this phony grassroots movement, but unfortunately they do not go far enough in their criticism of the system as a whole, but instead present the democrats and Obama as the lesser evil, when in reality they are the flip side of the same ruling class coin, which also represent the interests of billionaires, like those of Wall Street, Big Banks, Health insurance and Pharmaceutical Industries, etc...

Obama and the democrats do not represent the interest of working people, but unfortunately many liberals such as the writers above only offer lesser evilism as the only alternative to the phony "Tea Party" hypocracy.

That is why we as socialists need to start organizing and informing working people about real alternatives to the dangerous capitalist economic system, which is becoming more barbaric every day...

I will post some programs about socialism in respones to the "Tea Party" distorted rhetoric.. such as "Obama is Socialist"

If Obama was a socialist we would all have:

FREE HEALTH CARE

FREE HIGHER EDUCATION

FREE EQUAL EDUCATION FROM K-12

THE BANKS WOULD HAVE BEEN NATIONALIZED AND PUT UNDER DEMOCRATIC CONTROL BY THE WORKING CLASS, INSTEAD OF BAILED OUT BY US, AND KEPT IN THE HANDS OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS WHO REAP THE PROFITS WHILE WE IN THE WORTKING CLASS GET FORCLOSURE NOTICES AND GET STUCK WITH THE COST OF BAILOUT...

THE COMMANDING HEIGHTS OF INDUSTRY WOULD BE NATIONALIZED AND PUT UNDER DEMOCRATIC CONTROL...

ETC., ETC.,

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THE OBAMARAMA IS NOT A SOCIALIST!! FAR FROM IT!! HE IS A CAPITALIST POLTICIAN THROUGH AND THROUGH....

Two Souls of Socialism

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What is Socialism? Program Download

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What Would Socialism Be Like

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Is Human Nature a Barrier to Socialism?

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How Are Revolutionary Parties Built?

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Socialist Alternative Radio: Blast From The Past: 05/23/08 Is Socialism Against Human Nature ?

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Teabagger Utopia - Firefighters Watch as Home Burns to the Ground
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More...
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2010/10/04-3

Join the Socialist Contingent on October 2: March for Jobs, Peace, Justice and the Socialist Alternative That Can Win Them

2010-10-01T22:52:00.000-07:00

There will be a march on Washington this Saturday October 2.
A large Socialist Contingent will be part of this march to demand jobs, to demand an end to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and for a society that is fairer, more equal and more just.
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We must all begin to organize to do this outside the two bourgeoisie political parties of capital(Republicans/Democrats) , and form a workers party to represent our interests.
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I will post the statement along with links so all who can make it there can find a way to get there, although there will be rallies in many other cities around the US as well.
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This march will attract many more than the bourgeoisie media contrived Tea party rallies, but will of course get much less media coverage, that is why we need to continue to build our own methods of communication.
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I will post the Socialist Contingent statement along with the links.
Please try to make it if you can....
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Join the Socialist Contingent on October 2
We March for Jobs, Peace, Justice and the Socialist Alternative That Can Win Them
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Hundreds of thousands of Americans organized by labor and civil rights organizations will gather in Washington, D.C. on October 2 to demand a change in the direction that our nation is heading. We are proud to join this march to demand jobs, to demand an end to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and for a society that is fairer, more equal and more just. We believe it important to be in the capital on that date to help create a counterweight to Glenn Beck, the Tea Party, and Republicans, their reactionary politics, ruthless economics, and their racism.
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We do not, however, share the goals of the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, and other organizations which hope to achieve jobs and justice by supporting Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in the national elections on November 2. We believe that it has become quite clear now that neither Democrats nor the Republicans are capable of solving the country’s three great crises—the economy, the environment, and the wars—in a way that will be good for the American people.
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The goals of a full employment economy, real environmental sustainability, and peace cannot be achieved by our capitalist system and the corporations motivated only by profit. We need a new direction toward a new system.The two major parties have failed us. During the past two years, the Democrats and Republicans have failed to represent us, but they have done a fine job of representing the banks, insurance companies, and corporations.
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They saved the banks for the bankers—not those whose homes are still threatened with foreclosure or collapsing value. They saved the auto industry for the auto CEOs—not for the workers whose plants have been closed, whose health insurance contributions have been raised, and whose wages have been lowered. They have saved the health insurance companies by forcing millions of Americans to buy their policies, while denying us a single-payer plan and leaving prices remain uncontrolled. They have saved them, but they have not saved us.
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We join the movement for this march, excited and enthused to see the labor unions, the African American and Latino populations, the women’s, gay and lesbian and environmental movements taking to the streets. But we know that change can only be brought about as it has been in every period of American history by independent social movements. And such independent movements must find political expression first in independent candidates and then in a party of working people and all in our society who suffer exploitation, discrimination and oppression.The organizers of this march have called it “One Nation.” The truth is we are two nations. One nation of corporate CEOs and Bankers and their legions of high level executives, the very wealthy of our country, and another nation of working people, many of them now jobless.
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We are two nations: the corporations who run this country and the working people who make this country run. We will be marching with the working class to end a system dominated by corporations. We march because we believe that those working people who make the country run should run the country.We know from American history and the history of the world that great and progressive changes come about only from below. We know that in modern times working people, who stand at the center of our economy and represent the majority of our population, represent the crucial force capable of making the changes we need.
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We also know that if we only organize movements and fail to create an independent political force, the Democrats will harvest all of our organizing. The fruits of our labor will be turned against us in Congress.So we march. We march for jobs. We march for single-payer health care. We march for free public education from K to Ph.D. We march for an end to our racist and class-biased injustice system, and for equal justice for all. We march for women’s rights.
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We march for legalization of all the undocumented. We march for LGBT rights. We march for an end to the destruction of our environment. We march for an end to the U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. We march for an end to US support for Israel's occupation of Palestine and blockade of Gaza. We march knowing that the things we march for can only be achieved by abolishing capitalism and creating a democratic socialist society.
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We invite you to march with us. Join the Socialist Contingent on October 2 in Washington, D.C.To support and endorse the Socialist Contingent contact us at: socialistcontingentoct2@gmail.com
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Join us at the rally:
Saturday, October 2, 2010 at 10:00 a.m.At 12th and Constitution (NW)Washington, D.C.
Following the rally, 5PM:
Join the ‘Socialism for the 21st Century’ forum with Dan La Botz, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and others.
Location TBA:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130523846996239&ref=ts
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Organizations:
Dan La Botz, Socialist Party campaign for U.S. Senate, Ohio
International Socialist Organization (ISO)
Solidarity: a democratic, revolutionary socialist, feminist, anti-racist organization
Socialist Alternative
Socialist Action
Socialist Party of New York City
Socialist Party of Central Virginia
Action for a Progressive Pakistan
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http://socialistcontingentoct2.blogspot.com/
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Attempted Coup In Equador: Counter Revolutionary Forces Try To Take Power: Only Mass Organization And Action Can End This Honduras-Style Coup !

2010-09-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

The ongoing coup attempt in Ecuador only goes to prove that as long as power of the state such as the police, military ( ARMED BODIES OF MEN), and courts are set up to continue to serve at the bequest of the bourgeoisie
there will always be attempts to overthrow, and/or overturn any progressive moves toward a more equitable society
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The only way forward for Presidents such as Correa, and Chavez, would be to nationalize the main sections of the economy, and to help bring about democratic socialism from below. The question is not whether the state owns the economy, but who owns the state?
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Is it the working class or the bourgeoisie?
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In Venezuela, and Ecuador the state is still in the hands of the bourgeoisie, and so it is backed up by the armed bodies of men, (police and military), which are backed up by the courts, and other legislative bureaucracies. As Marx concluded "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready made state machinery and wield it for it's own purposes, but instead workers must smash the existing state and build their own workers state.
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Where reformists such as Chavez, and Correa are elected into power and begin to institute reforms, the bourgeoisie will scheme with the top military and police officials to overturn these reforms through a coup, as they did in Chile, and more recently in Honduras, and Haiti., and attempted to do in Venezuela. Therefore: capitalism cannot be legislated into socialism, it must be overturned.
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I am posting a portion to an article about the coup with links to the article along with other relative links.
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I am also posting a link to an audio program which is titled " Can We Vote Our Way To Socialism" Which also points out many other contradictions that occur with reformism, as well as other relative program links.
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Venezuela: “Only Ecuadorans Can Neutralise Coup Attempt”
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Mérida, September 30th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – As a coup attempt takes place in Ecuador, Venezuela and regional organisations of Latin America have come out in solidarity with Ecuador, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on the people and military of Ecuador to defend President Rafael Correa and their country’s democracy.
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Ecuador is a close ally of Venezuela, and a fellow member of the progressive Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our America (ALBA).
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Early this afternoon the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry released an official statement condemning the coup attempt and expressing its solidarity with President Rafael Correa and the Ecuadoran people.
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The statement said, “A few minutes ago President Hugo Chavez Frias talked with President Rafael Correa, who is being held in the National Police hospital in Quito. President Correa confirmed that what is taking place is a coup attempt, given the insubordination by a section of the National Police towards the authorities and the law”.
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“Commander Hugo Chavez expressed his support for the constitutional president of our sister, the Republic of Ecuador, and condemned, in the name of the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our America (ALBA), this attack against the constitution and the people of Ecuador,” continued the statement.
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“The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its confidence that President Rafael Correa and the Ecuadoran people will overturn this coup attempt and, together with the people of Latin America and the Caribbean, we will be alert and accompanying them with solidarity in this historic moment,” the statement concluded.
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Later this afternoon, Chavez talked on the telephone with Telesur, commenting on the coup attempt as he prepared to travel to Argentina to meet with other presidents of UNASUR and discuss the situation in Ecuador.
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“According to what our ambassador [in Ecuador] has reported, the airports have been taken. It’s an operation that has been prepared. They are the forces of... the extreme right,” he said.
“The president [of Ecuador] is alone [in the hospital] with just an assistant and a few security members. Our ambassador Navas Tortolero tried to enter the hospital but they impeded him. There is a lot of police violence and its clear they received instructions from above.”
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Correa “told me, ‘I’m ready to die, I’m not going to give up’,” Chavez said.
Chavez argued that a peaceful march needs to support the president, and the military needs to guarantee the peace. “Only Ecuadorians can neutralise the coup attempt... and can save democracy in Venezuela,” he said.
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“Correa is a man of great dignity, we’ve seen him confront this situation despite his physical condition, his knee [which was operated on recently]... I have faith in President Correa, who has already suffered attacks from outside Ecuador in the sad case of Colombia’s incursion... he knows how to respond and how to plant peace in Ecuador,” Chavez said.
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Chavez also commented that it was “strange that the military hasn’t appeared... their president is kidnapped... they aren’t letting him out, hopefully there’ll be a reaction... I’ve talked with Venezuelan military in Ecuador who tell me that the military there are in their barracks but they aren’t active... the situation is very very bad.”
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Chavez called on the Ecuadoran military to “not allow them to massacre the Ecuadorian people” and to “rescue President Correa.”
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“It’s a coup attempt against ALBA... the countries who have raised the banner of democracy... the [coup] masters... we know where they are, they are in Washington,” he concluded.
Already, Venezuelans are mobilising outside the Ecuadorian embassy in Caracas.
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Continued Complete Article
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Venezuelan elections: A Serious Warning to the Revolution
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Can We Vote Our Way To Socialism? Program Download
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Socialism: You Mean Like Sweden? Program Download
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What Do Socialists Say About the State ? Program Download
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What Do Socialists Say About Democracy ? Program Download
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Rosa Luxemburg’s Reform or Revolution ... Program Download
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More information about Ecuador and President Correa
Upside Down World .org
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Health Insurance Parasites Are Still Denying Coverage To Those Who Need Healthcare The Most !

2010-09-23T18:05:00.000-07:00
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Gee... who would have guessed it... The health insurance robber barons are finding ways to deny coverage to children with pre-existing condition's through loopholes they made sure were included in the Obamonation unhealth care piece of garbage.
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The health insurance maggots are refusing to write new individual policies for children who are not covered under their parents plan.
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And guess what..?of course even if they decide to cover anyone with a pre-existing condition, they can make it so unaffordable by exorbitant premiums that no one would be able to afford it.
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Oh yeah ... even if you cannot afford to buy this crappy healthcare because it is so expensive, you now get penalized through fines that get taken out of your income taxes...Since you are now basically a bondage slave to the healthcare industry...Thanks to the Obamonation and the rest of the ruling class politicians...
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This piece of garbage was modeled after the MIT (Rob Us Blind) Romney plot to fleece the working class in Massachusetts. As Joshua Koritz, member AFSCME Local 3650 wrote about in Socialist Alternative on Mar 9, 2009 in which he wrote
"Universal Health Insurance?
This strategy is not universal healthcare, it is private health insurance forced on the poor. Residents must now pay for the lowest quality insurance policy or face a fine. The legislation even created a new lowest tier of insurance policies specifically to offer to those who could not afford what had been the least expensive option.
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Before this plan, it was possible to walk into community care facilities and receive care without any insurance. Now, they won't even look at you without it. In other words, what was once provided by the state to the poorest Massachusetts residents is now only provided if the private insurance companies can take a cut.
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Much of the money spent in Massachusetts does not actually go to providing services to people. In the U.S., the for-profit, and even the non-profit, health insurance industry spends 31% of all its money on administrative costs, double the amount spent per person in Canada (Toronto Star, 8/21/2003). In other words, almost a third of your money spent on health insurance goes to hiring people to deny care and services. "
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Entire Article
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Life Under capitalism will be getting really barbaric and deadly, as the ruling class seeks new ways to extract more money from those of us in the working class...And at the same time some of the capitalists want to give us back some of the crumbs by becoming philanthropists like Warren buffet, who made his billions through speculation, which has had devasting effects on the working class, since investors are always looking for investments in corporations that can make them more profits. And one main method for making more profits is by driving down the wages and working conditions of workers...Such speculation is also responsible for the creation of the real estate bubbles which have burst and devasted the economy for many in the working class...No Mr. Buffet your crocodile philanthropy will not save us, only putting an end to a system which creates such inequality will...
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Many of these so-called philanthropists who want to gain some notoriaty by their so-called charitable endeavors, give with one hand and take away quadruple with the other as I have pointed out above and as Joe Higgins who is a socialist and the EU MEP for Dublin, has written about in his article Let them eat cake, not the crumbs off the table…
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" Other glaring contradictions stand out. Michael Dell, the billionaire Chief Executive of the Dell Corporation has his very own philanthropic foundation devoted to “children’s causes” and health issues in the US and India. The same gentleman, however, did not hesitate to throw 1,700 workers on the unemployment queues in the Limerick Region by shifting his manufacturing base to cheap labour countries in search of greater profits.
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Some billionaires outsource their business to China. A company called Foxconn hires tens of thousands of young Chinese to produce many of the technological products for companies like Apple, Dell and other US and EU companies.
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Foxconn has been in world headlines recently and not because of its philanthropy. Many young workers have committed suicide on its premises in recent months, pushed over the edge by the slave wages and its brutal working conditions akin to those of battery hens. Likewise, Bill Gates’ Microsoft has engaged Chinese companies severely criticized for bad treatment of workers. Incidentally, we should not forget our own crop of billionaires who swan prominently around charity events while living in tax exile!"
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These are some of the glaring contradictions of captalism. that is why we need to organize and fight for democratic socialism which will serve the needs of the many and not only the greedy few.
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But in the meantime we need to get organized to get rid of this piece of foul fish wrap un health care legislation which should be thrown in the garbage where it belongs and replaced with at least something like single payer until we in the working class can fight for real socialized medicine...
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I am including some links to 2 past Socialist Alternative Radio Programs which discuss the Health Care disaster, and are also on the left side of my blog.
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SA Radio 07/17/09 Part 1
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SA Radio 07/17/09 Part 2
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SA Radio 03/26/10 Part 1 Program about the health care deform legislation and other things of relevance
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SA Radio 03/26/10 Part 2 program about the health care deform legislation and other things of relevance
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Racism: Dehumanization 2 - Mike Prysner One of many soldiers to gain class consciousness

2010-08-02T10:46:00.000-07:00
I am posting a video that was taken from the Winter Soldier testimonies in 2008. Mike Prysner is describing what had and is still occurring in Iraq under US occupation, but this can describe any brutal occupation such as the US occupation of Afghanistan, which is being exposed through the Wikileaks documents.
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Along with some of his testimony Mike Prysner also reveals his class consciousness, and the real reasons US imperialism is occupying both Iraq and Afghanistan.
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I am also including a link to a letter to PFC Bradley Manning, Now Imprisoned by the US Army in Kuwait. He is certainly brave for doing what he did, but The big business ruling class media, and the US ruling class will try to crucify him and use him as an example to make other soldiers fearful of revealing the truth about what is really going on under US occupation no matter where it is.
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I am also including a link to another article about the Wikileaks Afghan War Diary, and some commentary from Ralph Nader
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John Grant
Letter to an American Hero: PFC Bradley Manning
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Maximillian C. Forte
The Wikileaks Afghan War Diary: Reasons for Celebration, Causes for Concern
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Ralph Nader
Obama's Afghan Formula: Peace Through War

Social Security Under Attack: Cuts Proposed, Higher Retirement Age Suggested

2010-07-20T01:12:00.000-07:00
Social Security Under Attack: Cuts Proposed, Higher Retirement Age Suggested

Part II: Social Security Under Attack: Cuts Proposed, Higher Retirement Age Suggested

2010-07-20T01:06:00.000-07:00
Part II: Social Security Under Attack: Cuts Proposed, Higher Retirement Age Suggested

Capitalist Vultures Are Circling Over Social Security Waiting For The Kill By The OBAMAnation and his Deficit Cutting Death Panel

2010-07-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

Yes sirree the US ruling class is at it again. Yep every time they talk about cutting the deficit we can bet our last bottom dollar they will be after our working class ass...
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Once again social security, which is the last vestige of what little safety net we have left here in the good ole USA, is in the bulls eye of the capitalist class with the help of the OBAMAnation and his deficit cutting death panel. As reported on "Democracy Now"Obama’s bipartisan eighteen-member commission dealing with the nation’s public debt is due to come out with a report in November that is expected to recommend cuts to Social Security.
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The so-called deficit, which was created by the capitalists by forcing government borrowing to pay for their extortionate bailouts, and their endless wars, is now being placed on our backs. They want us to pay them for their crisis. After all who are the so-called investors and bond holders which the government borrowed from in order to bail out the wall street banksters, and help fund their imperialistic wars? It is some of the very same corporate whores who have caused and benefited from this capitalist crisis.
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Many of us have already paid for this crisis through job losses, home foreclosures, and the poverty draft, etc...But of course that is not enough for the ruling class bastards, they are out for the kill, and lusting for more of our blood.
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we can no longer think about having job security or some sort of dignified standard of living, but now they want to make sure that we do not have any sort of dignified retirement, and they want to make sure we die before we can even collect one measly check by raising the social security age to 70.
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The political prostitutes such as Obama or Simpson, etc., don't have to worry about working until 70 since they really don't do much work except working at screwing over the rest of us as much as possible in order to pay back their corporate sponsors. But for those of us who are wage slaves and do real labor, both physically and mentally, working until 70 is basically a death sentence. Our retirement age should be at least as low as 60 years of age, so we can be young enough to enjoy some quality of life, before our health starts to deteriorate.
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That is why we need to replace this barbaric capitalist system which only serves the needs of the ruling class and replace it with democratic socialism which will serve the needs of the rest of us...
But in the meantime we need to fight against any of these assaults on social security, and other austerity plans by the capitalist vultures.
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I am including some articles and other links as well as the democracy now video about social security.
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The History of Social Security

May 1, 2005 By Bryan Koulouris

In 1935, Congress passed and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act. This Act provided a system of federal benefits for retirees and the elderly. In 1956, the law was expanded to include the disabled.
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The Social Security Act wasn't passed and signed because the politicians were "nice guys" or "looking out for the people." Whenever any law is passed that seriously benefits workers, it is a concession by big business to the mass movements of ordinary people.
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Social Security's OriginsIn 1935, huge mass movements in U.S. society were shaking capitalism to its core. In the previous year, there were local general strikes and demonstrations of tens of thousands of workers in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Toledo, Ohio. These led to important victories for workers and helped spark a wave of strikes and organizing drives in key industries centered around the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). This militant labor federation soon grew into the millions.
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Massive strikes scare bosses because when we don't work, they can't make any profits by exploiting our labor. Strikes hit big where it hurts them most - in their pockets. Strikes also show working people their own collective power and can lay the basis for wider political struggle.
Together, organized with a clear program and clear methods of struggle, we can achieve anything. That's exactly what the bosses and their politicians, including FDR and Congress, feared when they passed the Social Security Act.
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The strikes and other struggles of the 1930s were also connecting broader issues besides the wages and workplace conditions of the people on strike. They took up the issues of the unemployed, the elderly, and the need for broad social programs. Socialist organizations also recruited many members and led mass unemployed organizations.
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From pressure from these struggles, and in an attempt to co-opt the fight into big business politics, the Democrats enacted the "New Deal," which included Social Security.
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The Lessons of HistoryOne reason that led to the labor movement moving into action was the crisis created by the Great Depression, which began with the stock market crash of 1929. Today Bush is asking us to trust the stock market with our Social Security money. This same market crashed 75 years ago, and that was a key reason for the events that led to Social Security in the first place.
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The proposal for Social Security privatization is a huge gamble, like shooting craps at a casino - only this gamble is being played with loaded dice. The stock market has gone down recently, and with rising oil prices, a falling dollar, and a ballooning national debt, the market could go down more. We can't let big business gamble with our future.
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Many working people depend on Social Security for their survival. As of 2000, 45.2 million people were receiving Social Security benefits. In 2000, the Social Security program paid out $407.6 billion in benefits.
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With the conditions that we face today, we need everything we can get. Housing and gas prices are up, the cost of higher education is skyrocketing, we're being robbed by pharmaceutical companies, and budget cuts are going on everywhere. On top of that, corporations have shipped millions of industrial and technical jobs out of the country.
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It is damn near impossible for working people to save significant amounts of money for retirement. As of 2000, one third of Americans had no savings at all, and one third have less than $2,500 in savings.
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While fighting to defend Social Security as a basic safety net, we also need to raise the need to expand and strengthen it. Currently, Social Security benefits for many are hardly enough to survive on. All retirees should have a government guaranteed pension of at least $500/week, along with free, high quality healthcare as part of a universal national system.
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Make the Rich PayRight now, working people pay a higher percentage of their income to Social Security than the rich. Social Security taxes are subject to a wage threshold. Any income earned above the threshold is not taxed. The threshold for 2005 is $90,000.
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Bush endlessly talks about a "crisis" in Social Security. However, there is a simple solution. The threshold could be reversed so that ordinary people don't have to pay, and the rich can cough up the necessary money for our Social Security. Simply put: Tax the rich!
Big business and their politicians have already raided Social Security many times to pay for their wars. Lyndon Johnson (a Democrat) raided it to help pay for Vietnam. Bush raided it for the Afghanistan war.
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Bush talks about his overhaul of Social Security creating an "ownership society." His vision is simple: owners do not pay taxes, workers do.
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The Democrats have let the framework of the debate become ridiculous. While opposing Bush's privatization plan, their alternative offers nothing attractive to working people. Rather than showing how Social Security can be maintained and expanded by making the super rich and big business pay, they advocate increasing workers' Social Security taxes and decreasing benefits!
The history of Social Security has shown us the necessity of organizing mass action to beat back the corporations and their politicians. The leadership of the labor and other progressive movements needs to be challenged to take the lead in organizing against not just the assault on Social Security but also the broader attacks working people face.
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But this will require ending these movements' fatal dependence on the corporate-controlled Democrats. History has shown us that we can't depend on big business politicians to represent us, but we can use our own social power to fight back and win!
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Socialist Alternative Says:
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No to Bush's privatization of Social Security!
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For the labor, women's, anti-war and other progressive movements to organize local demonstrations culminating in a national march on Washington to defend Social Security, women's rights, and "Money for Pensions, Jobs and Education, not War!"
No to benefit cuts, raising the retirement age, or increasing workers' Social Security Tax!
Flip the Social Security tax! All wages below $90,000/year to be tax free - only tax income above $90,000/year
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Congress should re-pay all the money it has stolen from Social Security
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Expand Social Security to cover all retirees and disabled workers with a government guaranteed
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$500/week minimum benefit
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Free, universal, high quality healthcare
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Looting Social Security
Behind closed doors, advocates of entitlement reform are pushing Obama to tap the Social Security surplus to pay for bank bailouts. It could be a defining test for new politics in the Obama era.
William Greider
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Looting Social Security, Part 2
He's baaack--the Wall Street billionaire who wants to loot Social Security. This time, Pete Peterson has invented his own "news network" to promote his right-wing rants about shrinking the only retirement security system available to millions of working people. Peterson styles himself as a patriot saving the nation from fiscal insolvency and has committed $1 billion to that cause (a chunk of the wealth he accumulated at Blackstone Group, the notorious corporate-takeover firm). His efforts might be dismissed as ludicrous--except money does talk in Washington, and Peterson is now buying Washington reporters to spread his dire warnings.
William Greider
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Polls and Polarization: Is This a Shift to the Right?
The right-wing populist, anti-government, anti-Obama Tea Party movement has kept making headlines over the past year. Tea party activists have been influential in the Republican Party’s drive to try to make gains in the 2010 mid-term elections. An April NYT/ABC poll showed 18% of the population identifying themselves as “supporters” of the Tea Party.
Increasingly, Republican candidates and leaders have to heed the commands of right-wing hacks like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. No lesser light than Newt Gingrich said that he hoped the Tea Party would become the “militant wing” of the Republican Party. The meteoric rise of the Tea Party movement caused serious concern among the liberal commentators like Paul Krugman that the country was moving sharply to the right.
Jun 19, 2010 By Alan Jones
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G20: From Stimulus to Austerity at Dizzying Speed
By The Socialist, Socialist Party England and Wales Jun 30, 2010
The G20 meeting in Toronto of the leaders of the main capitalist governments of the world demonstrated a complete incapacity to solve the huge problems that confront us, particularly those hardest-hit – the poor and the working class – by the economic crisis.

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Why I Am a Socialist
By Christopher Persampieri, Roofing Laborer, Abingdon, MA Jun 29, 2010
Being a supervisor for five years at a Fortune 500 company made me a socialist. When I first entered management I was a Republican and honestly believed that if you worked hard and the company prospered, you would prosper as well.
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An Interview with Cindy Sheehan — Capitalism, Obama, and the Need for a New Party
By Ramy Khalil Jun 24, 2010
Cindy Sheehan came to prominence in 2005 when she set up a protest camp outside of President Bush's ranch, waiting to ask him simply why he had to send her son to die in Iraq. In 2008 she ran for Congress as an Independent against the top Democrat Nancy Pelosi, winning an impressive 16% of the vote, beating the Republican, and coming in second place.
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Social Security Under Attack: Cuts Proposed, Higher Retirement Age Suggested
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Part II: Social Security Under Attack: Cuts Proposed, Higher Retirement Age Suggested

Enough With the Killing of Demonstrators, Lift the Siege Immediately

2010-06-07T23:32:00.000-07:00
The massacre of of the flotilla activists is just another sign of a decaying Israeli ruling class which will resort to any means possible, in order to maintain their rule over
the working class in Israel.
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This is Israeli imperialism at work, in which a few wealthy Israeli's are striving for their own piece of the capitalist pie, and will resort to all types bloody methods to procure it...

The only way forward for all working class Israelis is to overturn the capitalist rule in Israel and build a society of democratic socialism, in which as
Isa Al-Jaza'iri
has stated in an article I am including
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"A revolutionary movement in Israel would also have reverberations in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and across the region, where not one regime is stable and all collude with imperialism while crying crododile tears for the Palestinians.
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A socialist federation of the Middle East would open a real golden age for the masses of the region, freeing them from the bloody chains of Islamism, Zionism and Imperialism. A revolution in life and culture would ensue, focusing the world's attention on the region not because of the blood spilt by today's ruling classes, but because of the enormous achievements and the beacon of hope such a federation would become.
This is the only solution."
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But of course this also has to happen along side a democratic socialist movement of the Palestinian people as well, in which they need to break away from their own corrupt bourgeois leaders, and begin to build a mass socialist movement to end the siege and break with their own corrupt capitalist politicians, and avoid being drawn once again down a dead end reactionary road by Hamas, and other similar organizations...
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As Aysha Zaki, Of the CWI in Lebanon has stated in another article I will include:

"While Hamas’s popularity has been decreasing recently because of their domestic policies (mainly economic but also social), these sanctions and this new slaughter will, if no mass movement is built and no socialist alternative is on offer, lead a number of desperate youth to look to the policies and methods of Hamas. This shows, once again, the urgent need for a socialist alternative to help build a mass workers’ movement to break the siege and for the overthrowing of the brutal capitalist system in the region and internationally.
We say:
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Release the detainees now!
End the sanctions on Gaza - Open the borders!
For a mass movement of workers and the poor in the region against capitalism "
For an end to war and poverty – for world socialism
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I am including other related articles as well as some related audio and video
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Flotilla massacre exposes criminal blockade of Gaza
Written by Isa Al-Jaza'iri Wednesday, 02 June 2010
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In the middle of the night of the 31st of May, 64 km off the coast, Israeli commandos rappelled down from helicopters onto the 6 ship flotilla. Activists say they boarded the ships firing. The Israeli government decided to use deadly force to maintain their blockade of the Gaza strip, provoking waves of protest. These events have exposed the policy of Israeli imperialism to the masses everywhere: Gaza is a ghetto, kept in starvation conditions, and no one may interfere. This will have effects across the world, even in Israel itself.
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Gaza - A Prison Camp
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In order to understand what happened on the ships, it is important to understand the conditions that exist in Gaza.
Since 2007, when Hamas was elected with a majority, the Israeli state has maintained a complete blockade of the strip. Nothing comes in or out without army approval. No one is allowed to enter or leave. Food, medical supplies, and even construction materials are severely restricted.
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The situation is desperate, as a Financial Times article shows:
Outrageous as this behaviour was, the true outrage is the illegal blockade of Gaza that it enforced. Since the January 2009 Gaza war, which exposed Israel’s determination to destroy Hamas’s capabilities regardless of the cost to innocent Palestinians, Israel and Egypt have colluded to prevent the enclave’s reconstruction. According to the United Nations, three-quarters of the damage has not been repaired and 60 per cent of homes do not have enough food.
The reasoning for the blockade given by Israeli imperialism, and approved by US imperialism, has been to prevent Hamas from building rockets. It just so happens that the material they are so worried could be used for rockets is essential for rebuilding the homes destroyed in 2009: cement. It is completely banned.
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Blockade helps Hamas
This blockade has only served to reinforce Hamas, which has been getting a hefty cut from lucrative smuggling operations through clandestine tunnels into Egypt. The World Bank estimates that 80 percent of Gaza's imports come through the tunnels. In 2008, Palestinians broke a hole through the border with Egypt, and the UN estimated that half of the 1.5 million population of the Gaza strip poured through to get gas, cooking oil and other everyday items before the border was sealed again by the Egyptian army
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This shows just how explosive the situation was even then. Since then, it has only gotten worse, as the Egyptian government began building a steel barrier underground in an attempt to block the tunnels. Furthermore, without legal trade, particularly into Israel, Gaza's economy has collapsed. The CIA World Factbook estimates that the unemployment rate in 2009 was 40%. 44% of the population are youth 14 or under. What future can they expect to have? It is these conditions that ensure that when they reach working age, they have nowhere to go and are easy prey for recruitment by reactionary organizations like Hamas.
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This is the situation in Gaza, an entire people kept in an open-air prison.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla Attacked
It is these conditions that the army acted to “defend” on Monday.
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A group of solidarity organizations organized to break the blockade. 6 ships were prepared, the lead ship from Turkey, carrying 10,000 tons of prefabricated houses, building materials, medical supplies and essentials, and left port from Cyprus in an attempt to provide relief. The 700 passengers set out in the direction of Gaza, as a protest against the blockade.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed the army acted in self-defence, but the night raid on the ships occurred in international waters. As the soldiers first boarded the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship, they came under attack with sticks. The Israeli army claims that the first soldiers were armed only with paintball guns, and live guns were only deployed after they came under gunfire on the ship.
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But the IDF's own reports of the seized ships show that no guns were found, except those brought on board by the IDF. In other words, either the activists seized their guns, in which case the IDF soldiers were armed from the beginning, or this is simply untrue. Furthermore, the IDF has posted videos with activists using chairs and sticks, but no video of gunfire has been shown.
Another Financial Times article points out that the IDF moved quickly to isolate the activists once they were on shore, posting armed guards at the hospitals with instructions that they were not to speak to the media, in an attempt to prevent them from questioning the story being presented by the government. When they were finally contacted, this is what some of them had to say:
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However, the few accounts to have emerged from the other side paint a different picture. Greta Berlin, a representative of the Free Gaza Movement, said that she and her fellow activists were watching the live stream from the Mavi Marmara when the assault took place. “We saw them come off the helicopter, we saw them turn around, look at each other and then shoot. We were speechless watching this,” she said.
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Hanin Zoabi, an Arab-Israeli member of the Israeli parliament, was aboard the Mavi Marmara. He said: “It was clear from the size of the force that boarded the ship that the purpose was not only to stop this [voyage] but to cause the largest possible number of fatalities in order to stop such initiatives in the future.” (Furious debate over moment of attack, FT, June 1, 2010)
Either way, Israeli imperialism sent commandos to board the ships in the middle of the night, in order to prevent the breaking of the blockade, and at least 9 people are now dead as a result. Other reports put the figure at 19. Dozens have been injured, and around 600 activists remain in prisons across Israel, being interrogated. A full list of the names of those dead or injured has yet to be released, although some information has come out.
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Israeli Imperialism Becomes a Burden to its Allies
This incident is too much for the allies of Israeli capitalism, who have come under pressure and been forced to come out with condemnations one after another.
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The interests of the different capitalist classes coincide with, but are not identical to the interests of the Israeli ruling class. Turkey, previously one of the closest regional allies, has recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv. 3 out of the 6 ships were Turkish, and the largest contingent of the passengers was Turkish, some of whom are among the dead. The protest in Ankara was enormous.
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The Egyptian ruling class, another close ally, was charged with being the other side of the vice squeezing the Gaza strip. When the border was broken open in 2008, the order was given to the Egyptian army to open fire on the crowds and reseal it. Protests shook the country then, and even larger ones in 2009 during the bombing of Gaza. Their complicity in the oppression of the Palestinian people has added to the widespread hatred for Mubarak and his regime amongst the working masses in Egypt. Now they've decided continuing it would be too dangerous. As of today, the Rafah crossing has been reopened in a limited capacity, though it's unclear for how long.
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The EU has issued condemnations, but the most important effect will be felt in Washington.
The US was attempting to manoeuvre for more sanctions against Iran in recent weeks, this has made that all but impossible. This follows several similar embarrassing incidents for Obama. As we reported previously, the Gaza war was undertaken without consultation with Obama, and with very bad timing from his point of view. American imperialism was losing the war in Iraq, and was attempting to come to some sort of arrangement with the Syrian and Iranian ruling classes, without whom a pullout would become a fiasco.
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Such a deal with imperialism would for these elites require something tangible that could justify the 180 degree turn, and hence the importance of at least the image of a solution to the question of Palestine. That war was a warning from Israel to Obama: “we will not toe the line in any deal done without us”.
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Obama's calls for a halt to illegal settlement building resulted in similar embarrassment. Vice-President Joe Biden had to cut short his visit to Israel and return to Washington when more buildings were announced while he was on an official trip to the region. This could not have been accidental, it was a calculated insult expressing anger at criticism of the settlements.
Even layers within the Israeli ruling class are beginning to see the writing on the wall:
"Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden," said Dagan, speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to Haaretz.
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Crocodile Tears and International Law
But the chorus of condemnation from western governments is simple hypocrisy. None of the powers did anything to stop the blockade for the past few years, and their protests against "violations of international law" mean nothing. International law is no different than any other bourgeois law: it is the law of the ruling class.
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Many honest activists are raising the cry against the illegality of boarding ships in international waters, the illegality of disproportionate use of force, and the illegality of collective punishment inflicted on the Palestinian masses in the form of the blockade. This all may be true, but it misses the point. These laws are meaningless for the powerful. Imperialist powers only apply them when they suit their interests; otherwise they simply call for inquiries without teeth and cry crocodile tears about "impunity".
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There is no hope of the bourgeois UN doing more than writing a resolution. Ban-Ki Moon will continue to "urge", Obama will continue to "regret", and Netanyahu will continue to ignore. We must look to our own class for a solution, not to the den of thieves.
Obama, who was supposed to represent change, didn't even condemn the attack, only saying that he wants an "impartial inquiry".
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In contrast to the stale and hypocritical remarks of the bourgeois, the response of the masses across the world came like a breath of fresh air.
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For a labour boycott campaign
Those who organized the flotilla showed great personal courage. They knew what they were facing and several paid the ultimate price for their convictions. We fully share their burning indignation at the brutal injustices committed every day against the men, women and children of Gaza by the Israeli aggressors. But we point out that humanitarian aid cannot solve a problem that is of a political character.
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We are convinced that it would be more effective to create a worldwide movement against Israeli occupation. Such a movement, if it is to succeed, must be based in the international working class organisations. Instead of the kind of campaigns that have been tried (and failed) in the past to boycott Israeli oranges, it would be far better to commit the trade unions to an international boycott of Israel until it has lifted its criminal blockade of Gaza and granted the just demands of the Palestinian people.
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Such a labour boycott should be accompanied by an international campaign of mass meetings to explain to the world what is happening in Palestine and mobilize the public opinion of the workers of the world. Such a campaign would have far more effect inside Israel than a million resolutions from the Security Council in New York or a hundred hypocritical speeches by Hillary Clinton.
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Mass working class action the only solution
Despite short notice, protesters responded to the call for action across the world. There were protests in Cairo, Montreal, Madrid, Athens, Rome, Paris, London, Dublin, Sydney, just to name a few cities.
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Most important of all was the demonstration in Tel Aviv. Tellingly, the protest in Tel Aviv drew 3000 people, and Israeli Arabs have called a general strike against the attack and the blockade. Reports say the strike, called by the Higher Arab Monitoring committee, had close to 100% participation. Shops were closed and quiet ruled in Dir al-Hana, Arabeh, Sakhnin, Kafr Kana and Nazareth. This is only the beginning.
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Another two ships which were delayed and couldn't keep up with the flotilla have decided to continue the trip, and are expected to enter Gaza's waters on Friday. Others are also planned in the weeks ahead. If the Israeli regime is serious about maintaining the blockade, they will board these ships as well, which will mean the possibility of more deaths and injuries, which will in turn mean an intensification of protests worldwide.
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The biggest danger for the Israeli ruling class is at home. It is the danger that another explosion could occur amongst the million-strong Israeli Arab population, who make up 20% of the total population of the country. Even more dangerous is the response amongst Jewish Israelis, many of whom participated in the protest in Tel Aviv. A general strike by the Israeli Arab workers could raise this issue in a serious way within Israel, and the regime will be scrambling to ensure the protests do not spread to the Jewish working class.
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Because at the end of the day, it is the Jewish workers who are always being asked to send their sons and daughters off to die in Lebanon, the West Bank, Gaza, and now at sea. The dangerous question is now becoming: for what? To prevent the rebuilding of homes in Gaza? To prevent a group of activists from bringing medical supplies to the strip?
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This event will leave its mark on the region, and the Israeli masses. Already, Zionism is losing its grip on the youth, the future. In the Tel Aviv municipal elections - as we reported previously - the Israeli Communist Party candidate received a level of support which must have been shocking to the Israeli ruling class, considering that their platform includes the right of return and that this is a party that unites Israeli Arabs and Jews. An interview with Knesset member Dov Khenin makes clear that this is only the tip of the iceberg:
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The interesting phenomenon was that we succeeded with the 'City for All' movement to achieve nearly 35% of the vote for the mayorship in Tel Aviv. 35% of the votes, well of course not enough to win the mayorship, but it was a very big success for a local movement which ran for the elections without money at all, with the support only of the enthusiasm of volunteers; we had approximately 2,500 volunteers working for us all around the city, which in Israeli terms is a very very big number. And the most interesting phenomenon was that we got the votes of about 75% of young people below 35. (Ending the vicious circle of hate and blood: an interview with Israeli Knesset member Dov Khenin, our emphasis)
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It is this reality that Palestinian solidarity activists should keep in mind. Zionism is losing ground amongst the future workers of Israel. In the final analysis, this means the death of Israeli imperialism, and the most urgent task is to build the unity needed to achieve it.
The Israeli Communist Party needs to back the call for a general strike against the blockade, and call on Jewish workers to join it. The masses in Gaza need the Israeli working class, and the workers across the world, now more than ever.
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It is time for the Israeli workers to break with their ruling class. This bourgeoisie is exposing the Jewish workers to wars and asking them to bleed for the fatherland. But whose fatherland is it really? Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz answers this question best:
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"The fact that the Israeli economy is controlled by 30 families does not constitute corruption. But it does cause economic problems and damages competition," Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said this weekend during an interview with the Channel 2 television program "Friday Studio."
"We must find ways to reduce centralization without harming the economy," Steinitz said. He noted that he objects to the high salaries among Israeli executives, but also any attempts to rein in oversized wages through legislation.
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"Throughout the world, including the United States and Europe, there is great opposition to unduly high salaries, but throughout the world there is also opposition to passing laws against this practice," Steinitz said. "Even President Barack Obama backed down from plans to impose legislation in the United States against high pay for executives."
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In Israel, the finance minister continued, there are people whose salaries are so scandalous and unjustified they are essentially robbing their companies' shareholders - "but in business the rule is 'don't be right, be smart.'" Steinitz did not provide any details of his, or his ministry's, plan to fight these exaggerated salaries or whether such a plan even exists. (Finance Minister: Israel's economy being controlled by 30 families is a problem, Haaretz, May 5, 2010
This is the government and the ruling class working Israelis are being asked to uphold through the pact between the classes - Zionism.
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A fatherland where 30 families control the entire economy. A fatherland where 23.6% of the population is below the poverty line: living on less than $7.30 a day. Zionism cannot put food on the table for working class families. It is nothing but a mirage, a national myth that there are common interests between Jewish worker and boss and the enemy is in the Gaza strip and the West Bank. What shared interests can there be between the top 30 capitalist families, who hold the lives and futures of the millions of Israelis as well as the Palestinians in their hands like playthings, and the Israeli working masses who will be expected to pay for the effects of the global economic crisis?
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Already in 2009, Israeli businessmen began to abandon their workers and go into hiding, leaving them with months of unpaid wages and nothing but a store to loot:
The two-day spree shocked and puzzled Israelis, who assume that the rule of law prevails in their society. Yet this and other recent cases of looting have coincided with news that the economy, flattened late last year after half a decade of enviable growth, had slid into recession.
The outbreaks are isolated and few, but labor activists and social commentators warn that many Israelis are becoming desperate.
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"What we're seeing are small stories about collapsing businesses and layoffs that threaten their livelihoods," said Dafna Cohen, a spokeswoman for the Histadrut, Israel's trade union federation. "These small stories are the beginning of a big fire." (In Israel, recession pressures boil over into looting, LA Times, March 19, 2009)
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Class struggle is not abolished by Zionism, it has only been hidden beneath the nationalism. But there are signs it is seething beneath the surface. Another dip, or even a decision to break trade relations by Turkey, where hundreds of Israeli companies operate, could bring these divisions to the surface again. Then a big fire is exactly what we could see.
In the meantime, Israeli imperialism continues to blunder, spending the political capital amassed by Zionism over the past 62 years. This is can't go on forever.
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What is to be done?
After decades, the struggle for national liberation of the Palestinians, this goal has not been advanced one millimetre. This is a hard thing to say, but it is the truth. It is essential that the most advanced elements of the Palestinian youth should think seriously about what is to be done. The recipes of the past have all failed to bring a solution any nearer.
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Neither the endless talks between the leaders, nor the endless stream of meaningless UN Resolutions have brought any tangible result. But the firing of rockets into Israel, the suicide bombings and the deaths of many martyrs have proved equally futile. Even worse, they have been counterproductive. They have served to push the Israeli population even more firmly behind the reactionary Zionist regime.
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World public opinion has been shocked at this latest act of barbarism by Israeli forces. It has rekindled the instinctive sympathy of the workers of the world for an oppressed people. This must serve as the starting point for a worldwide movement. The Marxists will participate energetically in the organizing of a mass struggle against the occupation develops worldwide. But if the understandable frustration of the Palestinians leads to the strengthening of terrorist tendencies amongst the youth, it will undermine all that has been achieved.
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There can never be any possibility of victory for the Palestinian people unless a wedge is driven between the Zionist reactionaries and the Israeli masses. Among a sizeable section of the Israeli workers and youth there is war-weariness. They are tired of an endless and senseless struggle that has destroyed many lives and never leads to a solution. But they can see no way out of this vicious circle of violence.
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There must be many people among the Palestinians who are equally discontented with the role of both the Fatah and Hamas leaderships, but can see no alternative. In the rank and file of the PLO, and especially in the ranks of the PFLP there must be militants who are seeking a revolutionary socialist alternative to the old leaderships.
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The road to solving the problems of the working masses of Israel passes through the overthrow of the top 30 families, the nationalization of their economic assets, and the organization of the economy into a democratic plan administered by the working class as a whole. It just so happens this elite also owns the corporations where Israeli Arabs work. Here we find a real common enemy.
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Not to mention the fact that walls, bombs, settlements, guns: all are produced by enormous corporations owned by these same fat cat capitalists.
The working masses, be they Palestinian, Israeli Arab or Israeli Jew, cannot win any lasting improvement to their conditions without a common movement for the overthrow of capitalism itself.
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The fault line that goes through every capitalist society is present in Israel as well, and the awakening of the Israeli workers and youth would bring the foundations of Israeli imperialism crashing down. A mass movement against Zionist capitalism, bringing together Israeli Arabs and Jews, would be a powerful force. Upon winning power, the Israeli working class would be the only force that could truly immediately abolish the virtually genocidal conditions Palestinians masses are subjected to, offering them a voluntary socialist federation of both peoples.
A revolutionary movement in Israel would also have reverberations in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and across the region, where not one regime is stable and all collude with imperialism while crying crododile tears for the Palestinians.
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A socialist federation of the Middle East would open a real golden age for the masses of the region, freeing them from the bloody chains of Islamism, Zionism and Imperialism. A revolution in life and culture would ensue, focusing the world's attention on the region not because of the blood spilt by today's ruling classes, but because of the enormous achievements and the beacon of hope such a federation would become.
This is the only solution.Home » Middle East » Israel & Palestine
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Peace Activists Murdered by Reactionary Israeli Army — Build a Mass Movement to Break the Sanctions on Gaza!
Jun 1, 2010 By Aysha Zaki, CWI Lebanon
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The following is the translated text of a leaflet (in Arabic) that is being distributed in Beirut today by supporters of the CWI in Lebanon during a mass protest against the massacre of peace activists by the IDF last weekend.
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The Committee for a Workers International (CWI) in Lebanon, and internationally, offers sincerest condolences to family and friends of the activists murdered by the reactionary Israeli army while on a humanitarian aid mission. We salute the courage of all those activists, who organized this aid intervention, and we demand a safe passage through to Gaza for the 750 people from 40 different countries intent on breaking the Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
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The boats that the Israeli soldiers attacked were carrying food, medicines, and materials to build prefabricated homes for the people of Gaza. One and a half million Palestinians remain prisoners of the largest open-air jail on earth, since Israel’s siege on Gaza began in December 2008. The blockade of Gaza has meant unemployment rates of over 50 percent. The World Bank has stated that 90 per cent of water in Gaza is not suitable for human consumption, 80 per cent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day and 70 per cent depend on charity for food supplies. Chronic malnutrition affects 15 per cent of Gaza’s children and its serious consequences for their cognition and growth will be felt for years to come. Israel’s army has demolished 15,000 homes, destroyed schools, factories and services, and even demolished minarets from mosques. The illegal weapons used against the people of Gaza have killed hundreds and wounded thousands of civilians, including children.
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The attack on the freedom boat is just the latest act of the Israeli regime’s violence and more evidence of the mad aggression of the Israeli government. Now there are angry protests in the streets of Gaza, Palestine and all over the world by many thousands of people demanding an end to the Israeli regime’s brutal oppression of Palestinians. The CWI is participating in these protests internationally and is part of building a mass movement against the racist, repressive and vicious Israeli regime. This capitalist government is supported by many regimes, both Arab and Western, in its repression and exploitation of the Palestinian masses and in its continuous military occupations and economic sanctions.
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Arab regimes fail Palestinians, again For Palestinian workers and the poor, this is the time to be united, in an independent mass movement of workers and the poor, inside and outside of Gaza. Such a movement is the only force able to break the siege and to open the borders. It would appeal to workers and the oppressed in the region to join the struggle for liberation and for an end to capitalism and barbarism.
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The Palestinian political factions have show, once again, that they are incapable of leading the Palestinian masses to liberation and workers and the poor, those paying the price for the policies of the ruling elites; need to rise up against the system of colonial wars and mass poverty. All Arab regimes, and all mainstream parties, are unwilling to call for the masses to break the siege on Gaza, as they fear that this will lead to an independent mass movement that will swipe them away from power. They are unstable and unpopular regimes, which are tied to the political and economic pressure of the big corporations.
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The slaughter carried out by the Israeli armed forces on the freedom boats has drawn condemnation around the globe. But statements made by embarrassed UN diplomats and politicians all fall short of forcing an end to the siege, as they all, including the outspoken representatives of Turkey and Lebanon –two countries in conflict with Israel - are ruled by big capital and await a green light from US imperialism.
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Protests erupted on the morning of this brutal slaughter, with hundreds of people in Lebanon, and tens of thousands across the region, taking to the streets, horrified by the senselessness of the Israeli regime. And while many feel that a war is unlikely at this moment in the region, during ‘negotiations’, most people would still not rule out the risk of another Israeli military attack on any resisting force in the region. What is clear is that the weakened Israeli government is trying to re-establish itself as a military might in the region, and for domestic reason, sending a message out that no one can break the sanctions which are aimed at Hamas and which are punishing civilians for supporting Hamas.
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While Hamas’s popularity has been decreasing recently because of their domestic policies (mainly economic but also social), these sanctions and this new slaughter will, if no mass movement is built and no socialist alternative is on offer, lead a number of desperate youth to look to the policies and methods of Hamas. This shows, once again, the urgent need for a socialist alternative to help build a mass workers’ movement to break the siege and for the overthrowing of the brutal capitalist system in the region and internationally.
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We say:
Release the detainees now!
End the sanctions on Gaza - Open the borders!
For a mass movement of workers and the poor in the region against capitalism
For an end to war and poverty – for world socialism
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Article Link
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Enough With the Killing of Demonstrators, Lift the Siege Immediately
By socialistworld.net Jun 1, 2010
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Statement by Tnua’t Maavak Sozialisti / Harakat Nidal Eshtaraki (Socialist Struggle Movement, CWI Israel)
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Below is a statement from the website of Tnua’t Maavak Sozialisti / Harakat Nidal Eshtaraki (Socialist Struggle Movement – the Committee for a Workers’ International in Israel: http://maavak.org.il/maavak/?article=664) on the killing of peace protesters by IDF paratroopers Monday, May 31. We call on everyone to participate in demonstrations and protests.
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It seems that about 10 demonstrators were killed and others wounded last night during the violent raid that the far-right government initiated over the flotilla which sailed in protest against the siege of Gaza. Similarly to previous protest flotillas, the demonstrators did not risk in any way whatsoever the security of the residents of Israel. This time, helicopters, missile boats and commando forces were sent to approach them, and 200 officials of the immigration authority were waiting for them in the Ashdod port in an expectation to deport them from the country.
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The government cynically shakes-off responsibility. But there's no need for a "state commission of inquiry" to understand that the responsibility for the killing lays on the shoulders of the ministers and top officers. While there's a media blackout on many details, we're being presented in the enlisted press a simplistic picture, according to which the IDF soldiers were attacked on one of the boats via different objects. The IDF soldiers should not have been there to begin with, and in reality they were used to for the pronounced political goal of a thuggery liquidation of protest, and this is even outside the official territory of Israel. There should be a rejection emphatically of the use – which is common in Israel – of the military and other "arms of security" for the trampling of the right of protest.
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The ministers, generals, and their kept journalists, attempt to divert the attention from the aggressive, destructive and oppressive policy that the Netanyahu-Barak-Liberman government executes in full gear, including the siege and occupation themselves, as well as the wild and racist incitement against the Arab-Palestinian public in Israel. The Israeli government, which is warmongering and oppresses the Palestinians, harms in that also the long term interests of the residents of Israel.
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The only outlet of such disasters and the rest of the atrocities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in the building of a wide and united social movement of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, against instigation-making and the "divide and rule", against the siege and occupation, against all kinds of oppression and discrimination, for equal national democratic rights for all, and for the toppling down of the corrupt capitalist elites in Israel and the region.
The Socialist Struggle Movement supports the expansion of the protest and will participate in the demonstrations this evening at 19:00 in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, and more demonstrations that are expected in the weekend. We call upon all of you to come and protest along with us, Jews and Arabs, and call:
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No to the pyromaniac government which ignites the region
Protest is not terrorism – lift the siege
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Security is not built on demonstrators' dead bodies
The racist government – security risk
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This is not security, this is disaster – enough with the lies of the government
Generals and ministers – enough with the killing of protestors
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Even with missile boats – you will not silence protestors
Enough with the use of soldiers against civilians
No whitewashing will help – the siege is terrorism
Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies
Jews and Arabs fight against thugs and racists
Invest in education – not in siege and occupation
Yes to reconstruction and to medicines – No to more wars
LIFT THE SIEGE / DISMANTLE SETTLEMENTS / BRING DOWN THE WALL / LIQUIDATE SEPARATION / SMASH RACISM / END THE OCCUPATION!
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Barbaric Slaughter of Peace Activists by IDF - Statement by Joe Higgins, MEP Ireland
By Joe Higgins, MEP Ireland Jun 1, 2010
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Below is a link to an article which describes what really happened on the Mavi Marmara
Ken O'Keefe
On Cowardice and Violence
Reflections by a Former US Marine on the Mavi Marmara
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Flashpoints - June 1, 2010 at 5:00pm

Click to listen (or download)

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Flashpoints - June 4, 2010 at 5:00pm

Click to listen (or download)

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Flashpoints - June 7, 2010 at 5:00pm

Click to listen (or download)

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Capitalists Find New Ways To Dispossess the Working Class And To Further Enrich Themselves

2010-05-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

The capitalists are looking for new ways to fatten up their bottom line and now they are going after home owners who have fallen behind in their utility bills.
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Vicki Valentine of Baltimore Maryland lost her house for an unpaid city water bill of $362.
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In these difficult economic times it is very easy to fall behind on utility and tax bills, and the predatory parasites of capitalism are just waiting for the chance to devour all those who have fallen on hard times.
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What a sick system we are living under. It is well over due for the overthrow of this barbaric economic system and replace it with a more humane one of democratic socialism.
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I am including the article with the link
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The Other Foreclosure Menace
Mortgage Paid Off, Woman Loses Home -- Over a Small Water Bill
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A version of this story appeared in The Baltimore Sun.
One raw day in early February, Vicki Valentine stood by helplessly as real estate investors snatched her West Baltimore home over what began with an unpaid city water bill of $362.
As snow threatened to fall, she watched a work crew hired by the new owners punch out the lock on her front door. A sheriff’s deputy was on the scene while Valentine and her teenage son piled whatever they could into a borrowed car.
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Running out of time, Valentine scrambled to pack up clothing and mementos. The home had been her family’s for nearly three decades, and her father had paid off the mortgage in 1984. “It’s hard to say goodbye to this house,” she said. “It’s like someone forcing you out of something that belongs to you. I don’t get it.”
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Valentine lost the two-story brick row home after the city sold her debt to investors through a contentious and byzantine legal process called a “tax sale.” This little-known type of foreclosure can enrich investors as growing numbers of property owners struggle to pay their bills.
These foreclosed homeowners are not the families making headlines for taking on mortgages they could ill afford. Families ensnared in the tax sale sometimes are unable to overcome relatively small debts owed to local tax collectors.
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Rather than collect the overdue money they are owed, many local governments are selling tax liens. Buyers range from behemoths such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, and some regional banks and law firms, to small-fry investors lured by late-night television commercials promising quick riches. Investors generally bid in an auction for the right to collect delinquent taxes and other municipal debts on property owners, sometimes by paying only a few hundred dollars. When owners can’t pay, investors can pick up property at bargain prices.
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It can be a good deal for everyone except the property owner. Selling the debts to investors can help governments efficiently ease budget woes without having the added expenses of debt collection, foreclosing and being a landlord.
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Investors, meanwhile, can rake in hefty profits. That’s because they can tack on fees and steep interest rates, which can amount to 18 percent annually in Baltimore.
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In Valentine’s case, legal fees and other charges climbed past $3,600 – nearly 10 times her original bill.
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Investors purchased an estimated $30 billion of real estate tax debt held by governments across the country in 2009, double the amount a year earlier, according to the Florida-based National Tax Lien Association. Altogether, 29 states and the District of Columbia can sell tax lien debt to investors.
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Lien sales in Baltimore have nearly doubled since the housing bubble of 2006. On Monday, the city sold 12,689 liens – a probable record. Properties ranged from boarded-up shells and vacant lots to row homes in gentrified neighborhoods and some commercial buildings.

VIDEO: Vicki Valentine's Eviction DayLast February, Vicki Valentine was evicted when she couldn't pay $3,603.41 to rescue her Baltimore home. Valentine's wasn't a typical foreclosure -- the mortgage was paid off. But when she failed to pay a $362.28 water bill, the city auctioned her debt off in a tax lien sale. An investor now owns her home.
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City records show that one in five of these liens on properties is for unpaid taxes or other municipal bills amounting to $1,000 or less. If Baltimore’s 2009 tax sale is any indication, hundreds will stem from delinquent water bills; there were 666 such liens last year.
Although the brisk tax lien trade thrives beneath the radar, largely unnoticed, it has occasionally drawn scrutiny from law enforcement authorities.
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Some of Maryland’s most prominent tax sale investors have been swept up in a criminal investigation into bid rigging at the sales. Federal prosecutors allege that those investors agreed in advance which properties to bid at some auctions, improperly reducing the money earned by municipalities.
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So far, Justice Department prosecutors have secured three convictions in the ongoing investigation. At a May 4 sentencing hearing for two of the defendants, a witness for the government was lawyer John Reiff, part-owner of the company that currently owns Valentine’s lien. He was not charged in the case.
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Investing in liens can be risky, with profit on a particular property anything but certain. Investors generally compensate for such uncertainty by buying in large volumes, sometimes at a clip of thousands of liens each year.
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Two of the investors who pleaded guilty in the bid rigging case made at least $10 million from fees and other costs collected from owners of some 6,000 property liens they bought over six years, according to federal prosecutors.
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Prosecutors said in court filings they suspect bid-rigging occurs in other areas of the country. A JPMorgan subsidiary called Xspand and at least two other companies received grand jury subpoenas last year as part of a Justice Department anti-trust investigation in New Jersey, according to Bloomberg.
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‘Unintended Consequences’
Some state lawmakers have questioned the fairness of the tax sale foreclosure process, which often sticks homeowners with thousands of dollars in legal fees and other costs. But cities and counties in Maryland earlier this year fended off an effort to keep water bills out of the tax sale, arguing that without the threat of losing homes many people would fail to pay their bills.
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Revenue collectors defend their tax sales as a necessary, if sometimes distasteful, means for feeding the public treasury. In aging cities such as Baltimore, there’s also hope that new owners will rehab decaying or abandoned properties, restoring them to the tax rolls.
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Investors say they aren’t the bad guys – they’re providing a service that helps plug holes in municipal budgets. Homeowners should face consequences for failing to pay their bills, they argue, noting that people faced with losing property have many opportunities to redeem it. The mounting fees, they say, reflect the costs involved in navigating complex legal requirements, tracking down property owners and taking them to court to enforce the liens. In Valentine’s case, they noted, a judge approved the fees.
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“We are essentially the city’s bill collector,” said lawyer and tax lien investor Reiff.
Critics of tax sales question the morality of government tax collectors acting to enrich private investors at the expense of property owners with low incomes or facing hard times. They ask whether it's the best way to compel people to honor their debts — especially involving relatively paltry public utility bills.
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After all, when water bills go unpaid, some cities and counties simply shut off service. In Baltimore, officials often leave it on. Another alternative would be to have private collection agencies track down debtors.
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“This is a case where good intentions have led to severe unintended consequences,” said Debra Gardner, of the Public Justice Center in Baltimore, a non-profit advocacy group for minorities and the poor.
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Asked about Valentine’s story, David Vladeck, director the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection in Washington, said it was “just horrifying to me."
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While noting that his comments did not reflect agency policy, Vladeck said he believed more recession-wracked homeowners across the country could face a similar plight. “It’s beyond tragic that this poor woman lost her home.”
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Pleas – and More Fees
Valentine was incredulous when the price to keep her property shot past $3,600. Jobless and lacking the savings to pay, she said she could do little to stave off the day of reckoning.
That day arrived on February 3, when a Baltimore City Sheriff’s Department deputy served her with a court-issued “writ of possession” stripping her claim to the home.
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Valentine, a former mental health counselor and rehab specialist with four children, said she moved back to her childhood home about a decade ago to care for her ailing father, Charles L. Turner. A retired brewery worker, he had Alzheimer’s disease.
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As his condition worsened, he tended to hide bills from the family. (City records confirm that Turner often fell behind in meeting his obligations during the final years of his life and nearly wound up in the tax sale as early as 2000 over unpaid water bills and property taxes.)
When her father died in 2003, Valentine took over the home and stayed there with her son, Dimitrian, now 17. She said she fell into a serious depression in the wake of her father’s deteriorating health and death, and was unable to work or pay her bills on time.
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She has worked only sporadically since his death. Though she made partial payments on the water and sewer account in 2006, she acknowledges her failure to pay a bill of $462.28 in full. She went down to city hall and paid $100, but never took care of the balance.
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When the deadline passed for paying up, the city added 2005-2006 property taxes of $287.92, interest and city tax-sale processing charges. That brought the total she owed to $710.57, according to city records.
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The City of Baltimore washed its hands of Valentine’s debt in May 2006 when it sold the lien to Sunrise Atlantic LLC, an arm of the BankAtlantic in Fort Lauderdale. The Florida bank has bid on tax liens in a range of states, from Florida to Illinois, though it has largely sold off its Maryland lien portfolio and is not implicated in the bid-rigging case. BankAtlantic did not return phone calls seeking comment.
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Unlike mortgage foreclosures initiated by banks, there’s no appealing a tax sale debt once it is sold off; a property owner has no option other than to abide by the investors’ terms and pay the fees. The lien holders also have little incentive to be flexible about repayment terms.
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Maryland law gives property owners six months to redeem a tax lien with only minimal added costs. But if they don’t pay by then, lien holders can sue to seize the property and stick the homeowner with a slew of fees, including legal bills incurred in taking the matter to court. Sunrise Atlantic filed such a case on Valentine’s home in Baltimore City Circuit Court in December 2006, records show.
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More than a year later, the court awarded the property to Sunrise Atlantic.
At that point, Valentine sent a handwritten letter to the court, begging for mercy and more time to repay.
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In the letter, dated Feb. 9, 2008, Valentine described being unable to work because of depression and other problems. “For now, this is the roof over my son and my head. I am trying to get the money together to catch up on my delinquent bills.” She added: “Please allow more time to pay all bills connected with the foreclosure of said property.”
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But the longer she waited and the more she protested, the more legal fees and other charges she incurred.
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In 2008, Baltimore attorney Anthony De Laurentis, who represented Sunrise Atlantic, submitted itemized charges to the court: $305.91 in interest on the lien; a $1,500 bill for responding to Valentine’s requests to cut the fees and other legal work; more than $1,000 in assorted expenses, including $325 for a title search of the property and $79 for photocopies, according to court records.
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The price list passed muster with a judge, who on Sept. 19, 2008 ordered that Valentine pay $3,603.41 – or forfeit her property.
She asked for another hearing, which delayed the process for more than a year.
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While the case dragged on, the Florida bank started divesting its tax lien certificates from Maryland, eventually transferring the lien on Valentine’s home to a firm called Montego Bay Properties. Part of the firm is owned by a trust set up to benefit members of the family of lawyer De Laurentis. Reiff, one of De Laurentis’ law partners, also owns part of the firm.
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In an interview in their Baltimore office, De Laurentis and Reiff said 90 percent or more of property owners eventually pay whatever is necessary to keep their homes.
They said most of the properties they take over are vacant and thus nobody is displaced. They also said they had repeatedly tried to settle the matter with Valentine and showed Investigative Fund reporters a thick file of court papers and other records as well as notes of more than a dozen contacts with her to make arrangements to clear the debt.
“We bent over backwards for her,” Reiff said, adding that his staff had tried for more than two years to “work something out” to no avail.
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Feds Say Bids Rigged
Though Valentine had no way of knowing it, some investors rigged the 2006 Baltimore tax sale auction that led to her eviction, federal prosecutors alleged in court.
The roots of that conspiracy run deep, prosecutors said. For years, a handful of Baltimore real estate lawyers and their investment partners quietly dominated Maryland tax sale auctions, with few questions asked about their bidding tactics or collection policies.
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That changed after The Baltimore Sun used city records and court filings to report in March 2007 that hundreds of mainly low-income city residents had been kicked out of their homes over small unpaid bills, ranging from water and sewer charges to minor environmental citations. Some people were driven from family property because they couldn’t afford to pay thousands of dollars demanded by lien holders.
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The Baltimore newspaper also documented for the first time that while dozens of parties bid in Baltimore tax auctions in 2006 and 2007, just three investment groups had won about two-thirds of the liens.
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Prosecutors went on to charge three men with conspiring to rig bids at 21 auctions in Baltimore and four other jurisdictions, including Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in the suburbs of Washington D.C. between 2002 and 2007. All three have since pleaded guilty. No other charges have been filed.
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Another investment group involved in the conspiracy was DRT Fund, according to court filings by federal prosecutors. DRT is owned in part by De Laurentis and Reiff. DRT participated in a dozen of the 21 fixed auctions, though not the Baltimore City auction in 2006 in which Valentine’s lien was sold, according to court filings.
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The Justice Department filed no charges against DRT, which came forward in the fall of 2007 and “fully and truthfully reported their own wrongdoing and that of their co-conspirators and terminated their part in the conspiracy,” prosecutors wrote in court papers filed last month.
DRT went on to sign an amnesty agreement with the Justice Department that commits it to “pay restitution to any person or entity injured as a result of the bid-rigging activity being reported in which it was a participant,” court records state.
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Neither De Laurentis nor Reiff would discuss DRT’s settlement with the Justice Department.
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Water Bill Woes
Some lawmakers have tried for years, with modest success, to rein in the tax-sale fees that can steamroll low-income homeowners. Maryland legislators passed a bill in 2008 that raised the minimum lien sold from $100 to $250. But a bill to prohibit cities and counties from selling delinquent water bills to investors failed in the state Senate earlier this year by a single vote.
Legislators also rejected a bill that would have prevented the sale of any lien of less than $750, as happens in some other locales outside of the state.
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Both bills failed, lawmakers said, largely due to fierce opposition from tax collectors and officials in Baltimore, which conducts the largest tax sale in the state.
Andrea Mansfield, of the Maryland Association of Counties, testified that the tax sale process provides “a much-needed device to ensure that property owners remit payment for their fair share of taxes and charges connected to public services.”
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Eliminating water bills from the tax sales would result in more “deficient accounts,” and lead to “increased rates on citizens who properly pay,” she wrote.
Sen. James Brochin, a Democrat from Baltimore County who co-sponsored the legislation that would have banned the sale of delinquent water bills to investors, vehemently disagrees. “It's just disgusting. It's highway robbery. It's dead wrong. It's immoral," he said.
While city officials publicly defend the practice, he said, in reality “they're humiliated and embarrassed by it. Deep down they know how immoral it is."
Baltimore’s mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, declined requests for an interview on the topic with the Investigative Fund.
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City officials were more talkative earlier this year when they sought to block lawmakers from banning the sale of water bill liens. Mary Pat Fannon, a lobbyist for the mayor’s office, said in prepared testimony for a February 5 hearing that the city had begun offering repayment plans for water bills to help homeowners avoid tax sale.
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She said that the 666 water bill liens sold by Baltimore City in 2009 was way down from the 1,129 sold to investors the previous year and credited the repayment plans for the reduction.
And she went further, testifying that nobody had lost a home due to an unpaid water bill from either sale in 2008 or 2009. What Fannon neglected to mention: Because of the lengthy transfer process in the courts, it was too early for those groups of property owners to begin losing their homes. Most tax sale lawsuits have taken longer than two years to resolve through the courts.
Fannon also said that without the tax sale, the city would need to file debt collection lawsuits against each delinquent property owner, which she said “would be very expensive, time consuming and flood the courts.”
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Two days before Fannon’s testimony at the state capital, Valentine stood watching as her belongings piled up on the sidewalk in Baltimore.
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A Neighborhood’s Decline
More than three years after Valentine’s small debt drew her into the tax sale, neither the city nor the investors seem to have won much.
The property is unlikely to be fixed up any time soon. Instead, it adds to a sense of decay that permeates some parts of urban Baltimore. On Valentine’s old block in the Sandtown neighborhood, all but a handful of houses, abandoned long ago, are boarded up.
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Such decline has summoned other ills. “Drugs moved in and replaced the good with the bad,” said Valentine, who is living temporarily with her mother. Many of her possessions are in storage.
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De Laurentis and Reiff now hold a “writ of possession” for a property that’s in need of substantial repair. Though the home is assessed at $46,000, in such dilapidated condition the investors said they probably would have trouble selling it for more than $16,000.
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In addition, investors could be on the hook for a $7,000 water bill of their own. Just how that happened is unclear; there may have been an undetected leak in Valentine’s home. Last month, the city finally turned off the water.
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If the investors take the final step to secure a deed to the property, they would have to pay the city roughly $6,300, which the city is then supposed to turn over to Valentine. The law entitles original property owners to receive at least some compensation.
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De Laurentis and Reiff say they’re still willing to work with Valentine to resolve the matter. Reiff said he gave her a key to the new lock so she could have more time to remove her belongings as a good faith gesture.
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“We'll definitely work something out with her,” Reiff said.Read more: http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2010/05/other-foreclosure-menace#ixzz0otR5Tz8W Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives
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Article Link

We've Seen the Likes of the Teabaggers Before: Capitalism and it's Proto-Fascist Movements

2010-05-18T15:19:00.000-07:00
Question:What do Joseph McCarthy, Mikey Spillane and the Beatles have in common?
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Answer: They were all part of the communist hysteria that took place in the 1950s an 60s.

Although McCarthy and Spillane were the perpetrators, and the Beatles were the victims of this vicious propaganda
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It always amazes me how some people can listen to the likes of Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, and Rush Limbaugh, and buy into their myth making and distortions of reality, without questioning the contradictions in their convoluted rhetoric.
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Such as Obama is a socialist! And his policies are leading to communism!!! Ahhhh!!! This statement has some very big contradictions in it. __
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I had heard this from a few people I had met who purportedly listen to this proto fascist Glen Beck. I proceeded to ask them what made Obama a socialist?
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They said something about his healthcare plan was going to lead to socialism... I asked them how would that happen since his plan was going to further enrich the insurance companies, since his bill would mandate that we all need to buy insurance from these private for profit insurance companies.
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And then I asked them if they liked the idea of Social security, and medicare, and most said they did. So I explained that these programs were socialists in nature since they were public not for profit programs...
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Well some of them really looked a bit confused, and appeared to have been gotten off guard, since they really couldn't respond to the obvious contradictions in some of their beliefs.
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I don't know if I changed any minds, but maybe I shook up some brain cells, which could lead to further questioning of some of this proto fascist rhetorical propaganda.
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Well any way I found an article on Counterpunch, by William Blum in which he writes about some of the other earlier proto-fascist movements, and committees who were in many cases created, supported and funded by the US government. The purpose of these movements and political organizations is basically to undermine, and eliminate any threat to the ruling elites and their capitalist system. I will post the article with the link.
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There was also a discussion about this article on Socialist Alternative radio this past Friday . The archives for the program are on the right side of my blog...
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Terminally Stupid People Have Always Been With Us
We've Seen the Likes of the Teabaggers Before
By WILLIAM BLUM
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If you shake your head and roll your eyes at the nonsense coming out of the Teabagger followers of Sarah “Africa is a country” Palin and other intellectual giants like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh ... If you have thoughts of moving abroad after the latest silly lies and fantasies like “Obama the Marxist” and “Obama the antichrist” ... If you share Noam Chomsky’s feeling: "I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime” ... keep in mind that the right wing has long been at least as stupid and as mean-spirited. Consider some of the behavior of the same types for half a century during the Cold War with its beloved -- albeit imaginary -- "International Communist Conspiracy”.
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* 1948: The Pittsburgh Press published the names, addresses, and places of employment of about 1,000 citizens who had signed presidential-nominating petitions for former Vice President Henry Wallace, running under the Progressive Party. This, and a number of other lists of “communists”, published in the mainstream media, resulted in people losing their jobs, being expelled from unions, having their children abused, being denied state welfare benefits, and suffering various other punishments.
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* Around 1950: The House Committee on Un-American Activities published a pamphlet, “100 Things You Should Know About Communism in the U.S.A.” This included information about what a communist takeover of the United States would mean:
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Q: What would happen to my insurance?
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A: It would go to the Communists.
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Q: Would communism give me something better than I have now?
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A: Not unless you are in a penitentiary serving a life sentence at hard labor.
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* 1950s: Mrs. Ada White, member of the Indiana State Textbook Commission, believed that Robin Hood was a Communist and urged that books that told the Robin Hood story be banned from Indiana schools.
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* As evidence that anti-communist mania was not limited to the lunatic fringe or conservative newspaper publishers, here is Clark Kerr, president of the University of California at Berkeley in a 1959 speech: “Perhaps 2 or even 20 million people have been killed in China by the new [communist] regime.” One person wrote to Kerr: “I am wondering how you would judge a person who estimates the age of a passerby on the street as being 'perhaps 2 or even 20 years old.' Or what would you think of a physician who tells you to take 'perhaps 2 or even twenty teaspoonsful of a remedy'?”
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* Throughout the cold war, traffic in phoney Lenin quotes was brisk, each one passed around from one publication or speaker to another for years. Here's U.S. News and World Report in 1958 demonstrating communist duplicity by quoting Lenin: “Promises are like pie crusts, made to be broken.” Secretary of State John Foster Dulles used it in a speech shortly afterward, one of many to do so during the cold war. Lenin actually did use a very similar line, but he explicitly stated that he was quoting an English proverb (it comes from Jonathan Swift) and his purpose was to show the unreliability of the bourgeoisie, not of communists.
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“First we will take Eastern Europe, then the masses of Asia, then we will encircle the United States, which will be the last bastion of capitalism. We will not have to attack. It will fall like an overripe fruit into our hands.” This Lenin “quotation” had the usual wide circulation, even winding up in the Congressional Record in 1962. This was not simply a careless attribution; this was an out-and-out fabrication; an extensive search, including by the Library of Congress and the United States Information Agency failed to find its origin.
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* A favorite theme of the anti-communists was that a principal force behind drug trafficking was a communist plot to demoralize the United States. Here's a small sample:
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Don Keller, District Attorney for San Diego County, California in 1953: “We know that more heroin is being produced south of the border than ever before and we are beginning to hear stories of financial backing by big shot Communists operating out of Mexico City.”
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Henry Giordano, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1964, interviewed in the American Legion Magazine: Interviewer: “I've been told that the communists are trying to flood our country with narcotics to weaken our moral and physical stamina. Is that true?”
Giordano: “As far as the drugs are concerned, it's true. There's a terrific flow of drugs coming out of Yunnan Province of China. ... There's no question that in that particular area this is the aim of the Red Chinese. It should be apparent that if you could addict a population you would degrade a nation's moral fiber.”
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Fulton Lewis, Jr., prominent conservative radio broadcaster and newspaper columnist, 1965: “Narcotics of Cuban origin -- marijuana, cocaine, opium, and heroin -- are now peddled in big cities and tiny hamlets throughout this country. Several Cubans arrested by the Los Angeles police have boasted they are communists.”
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We were also told that along with drugs another tool of the commies to undermine America's spirit was fluoridation of the water.
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* Mickey Spillane was one of the most successful writers of the 1950s, selling millions of his anticommunist thriller mysteries. Here is his hero, Mike Hammer, in “One Lonely Night”, boasting of his delight in the grisly murders he commits, all in the name of destroying a communist plot to steal atomic secrets. After a night of carnage, the triumphant Hammer gloats, “I shot them in cold blood and enjoyed every minute of it. I pumped slugs into the nastiest bunch of bastards you ever saw. ... They were Commies. ... Pretty soon what's left of Russia and the slime that breeds there won't be worth mentioning and I'm glad because I had a part in the killing. God, but it was fun!”
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* 1952: A campaign against the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization because it was tainted with “atheism and communism”, and was “subversive” because it preached internationalism. Any attempt to introduce an international point of view in the schools was seen as undermining patriotism and loyalty to the United States. A bill in the US Senate, clearly aimed at UNESCO, called for a ban on the funding of “any international agency that directly or indirectly promoted one-world government or world citizenship.” There was also opposition to UNESCO's association with the UN Declaration of Human Rights on the grounds that it was trying to replace the American Bill of Rights with a less liberty-giving covenant of human rights.
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* 1955: A US Army 6-page pamphlet, “How to Spot a Communist”, informed us that a communist could be spotted by his predisposition to discuss civil rights, racial and religious discrimination, the immigration laws, anti-subversive legislation, curbs on unions, and peace. Good Americans were advised to keep their ears stretched for such give-away terms as "chauvinism", "book-burning", "colonialism", "demagogy", "witch hunt", "reactionary", "progressive", and "exploitation". Another “distinguishing mark” of “Communist language” was a “preference for long sentences.” After some ridicule, the Army rescinded the pamphlet.
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* 1958: The noted sportscaster Bill Stern (one of the heroes of my youth) observed on the radio that the lack of interest in "big time" football at New York University, City College of New York, Chicago, and Harvard "is due to the widespread acceptance of Communism at the universities."
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* 1960: US General Thomas Power speaking about nuclear war or a first strike by the US: "The whole idea is to kill the bastards! At the end of the war, if there are two Americans and one Russian, we win!" The response from one of those present was: "Well, you'd better make sure that they're a man and a woman."
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* 1966: The Boys Club of America is of course wholesome and patriotic. Imagine their horror when they were confused with the Dubois Clubs. (W.E.B. Du Bois had been a very prominent civil rights activist.) When the Justice Department required the DuBois Clubs to register as a Communist front group, good loyal Americans knew what to do.
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They called up the Boys Club to announce that they would no longer contribute any money, or to threaten violence against them; and sure enough an explosion damaged the national headquarters of the youth group in San Francisco. Then former Vice President Richard Nixon, who was national board chairman of the Boys Club, declared: “This is an almost classic example of Communist deception and duplicity. The 'DuBois Clubs' are not unaware of the confusion they are causing among our supporters and among many other good citizens.”
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* 1966: “Rhythm, Riots and Revolution: An Analysis of the Communist Use of Music, The Communist Master Music Plan”, by David A. Noebel, published by Christian Crusade Publications, (expanded version of 1965 pamphlet: “Communism, Hypnotism and the Beatles”). Some chapters: Communist Use of Mind Warfare ... Nature of Red Record Companies ... Destructive Nature of Beatle Music ... Communist Subversion of Folk Music ... Folk Music and the Negro Revolution ... Folk Music and the College Revolution
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* 1968: William Calley, US Army Lieutenant, charged with overseeing the massacre of more than 100 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai in 1968, said some years later: "In all my years in the Army I was never taught that communists were human beings. We were there to kill ideology carried by -- I don't know -- pawns, blobs, pieces of flesh. I was there to destroy communism. We never conceived of old people, men, women, children, babies."
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* 1977: Scientists theorized that the earth's protective ozone layer was being damaged by synthetic chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons. The manufacturers and users of CFCs were not happy. They made life difficult for the lead scientist. The president of one aerosol manufacturing firm suggested that criticism of CFCs was “orchestrated by the Ministry of Disinformation of the KGB.”
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* 1978: Life inside a California youth camp of the ultra anti-communist John Birch Society: Five hours each day of lectures on communism, Americanism and “The Conspiracy”; campers learned that the Soviet government had created a famine and spread a virus to kill a large number of citizens and make the rest of them more manageable; the famine led starving adults to eat their children; communist guerrillas in Southeast Asia jammed chopsticks into children's ears, piercing their eardrums; American movies are all under the control of the Communists; the theme is always that capitalism is no better than communism; you can't find a dictionary now that isn't under communist influence; the communists are also taking over the Bibles.
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* The Reagan administration declared that the Russians were spraying toxic chemicals over Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan -- the so-called "yellow rain" -- and had caused more than ten thousand deaths by 1982 alone, (including, in Afghanistan, 3,042 deaths attributed to 47 separate incidents between the summer of 1979 and the summer of 1981, so precise was the information). Secretary of State Alexander Haig was a prime dispenser of such stories, and President Reagan himself denounced the Soviet Union thusly more than 15 times in documents and speeches. The "yellow rain", it turned out, was pollen-laden feces dropped by huge swarms of honeybees flying far overhead.
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* 1982: In commenting about sexual harassment in the Army, General John Crosby stated that the Army doesn't care about soldiers' social lives -- “The basic purpose of the United States Army is to kill Russians,” he said.
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* 1983: The US invasion of Grenada, the home of the Cuban ambassador is damaged and looted by American soldiers; on one wall is written "AA", symbol of the 82nd Airborne Division; beside it the message: "Eat shit, commie faggot." ... "I want to fuck communism out of this little island," says a marine, "and fuck it right back to Moscow.”
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* 1984: During a sound check just before his weekly broadcast, President Reagan spoke these words into the microphone: “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I have signed legislation to outlaw Russia, forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” His words were picked up by at least two radio networks.
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* 1985: October 29 BBC interview with Ronald Reagan: asked about the differences he saw between the US and Russia, the president replied: “I'm no linguist, but I've been told that in the Russian language there isn't even a word for freedom.” (The word is “svoboda”.)
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* 1986: Soviet artists and cultural officials criticized Rambo-like American films as an expression of “anti-Russian phobia even more pathological than in the days of McCarthyism”. Russian film-maker Stanislav Rostofsky claimed that on one visit to an American school “a young girl had trembled with fury when she heard I was from the Soviet Union, and said she hated Russians.”
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* 1986: Roy Cohn, who achieved considerable fame and notoriety in the 1950s as an assistant to the communist-witch-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy, died, reportedly of AIDS. Cohn, though homosexual, had denied that he was and had denounced such rumors as communist smears.
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* 1986: After American journalist Nicholas Daniloff was arrested in Moscow for “spying” and held in custody for two weeks, New York Mayor Edward Koch sent a group of 10 visiting Soviet students storming out of City Hall in fury. “The Soviet government is the pits,” said Koch, visibly shocking the students, ranging in age from 10 to 18 years. One 14-year-old student was so outraged he declared: “I don't want to stay in this house. I want to go to the bus and go far away from this place. The mayor is very rude. We never had a worse welcome anywhere.” As matters turned out, it appeared that Daniloff had not been completely pure when it came to his news gathering.
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* 1989: After the infamous Chinese crackdown on dissenters in Tiananmen Square in June, the US news media was replete with reports that the governments of Nicaragua, Vietnam and Cuba had expressed their support of the Chinese leadership. Said the Wall Street Journal: “Nicaragua, with Cuba and Vietnam, constituted the only countries in the world to approve the Chinese Communists' slaughter of the students in Tiananmen Square.” But it was all someone's fabrication; no such support had been expressed by any of the three governments. At that time, as now, there were few, if any, organizations other than the CIA which could manipulate major Western media in such a manner.
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NOTE: It should be remembered that the worst consequences of anti-communism were not those discussed above. The worst consequences, the ultra-criminal consequences, were the abominable death, destruction, and violation of human rights that we know under various names: Vietnam, Chile, Korea, Guatemala, Cambodia, Indonesia, Brazil, Greece, Afghanistan, El Salvador, and many others.
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William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Rogue State: a guide to the World's Only Super Power. and West-Bloc Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir .
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He can be reached at: BBlum6@aol.com
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Article Link

Karl Marx on Capitalism, War, Communist Manifesto, and Other things of Relevance

2010-05-18T08:53:00.000-07:00
I am posting some excerpts from "Karl Marx in Soho" by Howard Zinn.

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De-regulation Disaster in Oil Industry — Public Ownership and Workers Control Needed

2010-05-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

I have listened and watched in horror at this corporate oil disaster, with many descriptions, (both visual and verbal )about what happened. And there was also a good interview with an oil rig surviving worker named
Mike Williams who described BPs drive for profit making which caused this disaster.
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Antonia Juhasz who is a liberal policy-analyst, author and activist, working for Global Exchange,who also has a pretty good video about the oil industry on YouTube, which I will post.
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But there isn't any mention in any of this critical commentary about what the real solution for these types of disasters would be, which is to nationalize these companies and put them in democratically controlled public ownership. It is not just the fault of any individual, or any one corporation, but the fault lies with the system which breeds these types of disasters...It is the whole capitalist system which is at fault...Capitalism will always put profits before people, the environment, and all other living things...that is the nature of the system...
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Why should energy policy rely on the profiteering of corporations? It should be something we all have a stake in, and not for profiteering purposes either, but for a real sustainable energy policy that takes all, living things, and environmental issues into consideration. I am posting some articles and links related to this.
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The Socialist Alternative Radio Program from05/14/20 has some discussion about this topic as well. The archives are posted on the right side of my blog.
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De-regulation Disaster in Oil Industry — Public Ownership and Workers Control Needed
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May 11, 2010 By Justin Harrison

On April 20, 2010, a scant 27 days after the five year anniversary of the BP Texas City refinery explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170, the state of the art deepwater drilling rig Deepwater Horizon leased by BP, exploded, burned and sank into the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 workers and injuring 17. Raw crude oil from the uncapped exploratory well that the Horizon was drilling began pouring into the ocean at an undetermined rate.
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While attempts to slow and contain the spill are underway, a debate is raging among the ‘experts’ about just how bad this spill really is. Estimates of the spill range from 5,000 to 60,000 barrels a day. At the lowest estimates it will take 54 days from start of spill to equal the Exxon Valdez spill, previously the worst oil spill in US waters. If the higher estimates are correct, we have already far surpassed it.
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Some fear that due to the incomplete casing and the tremendous pressures involved there may be further failures of the wellhead structure. If that happens this spill could equal or surpass the 1979 Ixtoc 1 well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. In that spill it took nine months before relief wells could bring the flow of oil under control, resulting in the largest release of oil in the world (100 million gallons) until the Gulf War.
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BP, Transocean, and the US Coast Guard and Navy have sent surface ships to skim oil from the water, and submarines to try to shut off the valves on the sea floor and inject toxic dispersants into the leaking oil plume. The latest attempt to stop the oil flow by dropping a metal containment dome onto the largest leak 1 mile down on the sea floor has also failed. A much smaller dome is now being prepared, but BP officials acknowledge that even if it works – a big if – it will only capture some of the leaking oil. There does not appear to be a clear plan to fully contain the oil leak.
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Whatever the exact numbers, there is no debate that an environmental catastrophe is taking place. This spill is poisoning some of the most productive marine environments in the world. The Coastal wetlands are particularly vulnerable and impossible to clean. The spill comes just as many animal species are preparing their annual migrations through the Gulf, and there remains the possibility that the surface oil could be swept up by the Gulf Stream and make its way up the Atlantic coast.
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The dispersants that BP is injecting into the oil plume are also considered toxic. The effect of the dispersants, essentially detergent soaps, is simply is to keep more oil from rising to the surface. They do not remove any oil from the ecosystem, and many suspect they do more harm than good.
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Putting profits before safety
The Deepwater Horizon was owned and operated by Transocean, which bills itself as “the world's largest offshore drilling contractor and the leading provider of drilling management services worldwide.” It is registered as a seagoing vessel flagged in the Marshall Islands. BP was paying Transocean approximately $500,000 a day for the use of the Deepwater Horizon to drill and set wells in the “Macondo Prospect,” the area of ocean floor that BP had leased from the US Government. Transocean was further subcontracting out work to Halliburton to “case” the well. It was during this operation that the blowout occurred.
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Of the 126 individuals on board, 79 were Transocean employees, six were from BP, and 41 were from other contractors. Flagging vessels to neo-colonial governments and the breakdown of the workforce into subcontracted groups allows companies like BP to better control their costs, escape regulation, limit their liability, and drive down wages and working conditions by passing the responsibility for production goals onto the contractor. Subcontracting also results in a loss of coordination and cohesion between work groups, as anyone who has worked in a similar situation knows.
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Working the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most hazardous occupations in the US. Between 2006 and 2009 there were 632 reported fires, explosions or other accidents that resulted in the deaths of 30 workers and 1296 injuries. Many injuries suffered by oil field workers are “life changing.” Limbs are crushed or severed by heavy machinery. Fires cause disfiguring burns. Explosions tear workers apart causing injuries similar to those suffered by combat veterans. A constant push for productivity increases and profits, long hours and fatigue, 24/7 shift work, and a “macho” attitude toward safety encouraged by management, result in a lethal work environment. Workers are a disposable part of the machine.
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The 115 workers on the platform who made it to the lifeboats are lucky to be alive. In interviews they have reported that none of the supposedly state of the art safety equipment or alarms gave them any warning. A 300 foot geyser of oil and seawater shot out of the well and a cloud of highly flammable gas settled over the rig. When this gas found a source of ignition, probably a generator or drill motor, it ignited in a tremendous explosion. The 11 workers whose bodies have not been found were probably obliterated in this initial explosion.
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The very nature of deep water drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico is technically challenging. Mark Riding - Offshore Magazine 5-1-2010 writes, “These formations are characterized by a very narrow margin of safety between the pore pressure gradient and the fracture pressure gradient. Drillers must walk a virtual tightrope between losing circulation and risking a blowout.” __
You would think that with this acknowledged risk that special attention would be paid to safety devices, but BP like the rest of the oil industry, fights the introduction of safety equipment claiming that it slows production and is unnecessary.
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The “drill baby drill” lobby insists that we have the technology to cleanly extract oil, but what good does the technology do you if you don’t use it? Drillers and production platforms routinely disable safety alarms and fail to install or maintain necessary equipment that could prevent these disasters. In addition to a shut off valve at the well head, oil wells are supposed to have a “Blow Out Preventer,” an emergency device that cuts and seals the well. There are supposed to be manual and automatic controls to actuate this device. Three layers of redundancy is considered “prudent” in the industry.
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A device called an Acoustic Shutoff which costs about $500,000 according to press reports, the cost of a single day’s operation of the Deepwater Horizon, would have enabled the remote shutoff of the leaking well by sending a sonar signal. While this would not have stopped the initial explosion, it would have stopped the fire and oil spill. This device is required by many nations, including Norway and Brazil, but not the US.
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The Department of the Interior's Minerals and Management Service (MMS) is the federal agency responsible for enforcing safety regulations on offshore oil rigs. It is trying to recover its image after being rocked by a series of scandals which included bribery, and sex and drug orgies that included MMS inspectors and industry representatives ( NYT 9-11-2008). Even this captive agency was driven by the conditions in the Gulf oil fields to propose new rules to improve worker safety last year.
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They estimated it would cost the oil
companies about $4.6 million in start-up costs and $8 million in annual costs to maintain an adequate safety program. BP, Transocean and other industry leaders lobbied to cripple any new regulations and as usual where 100% effective. These companies main concern is uninterrupted production and ever-higher profit margins. The lives of their workforce and the environment come last.
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Workers’ control
The Deepwater Horizon disaster shows that private industry is incapable of policing itself and producing oil and gas cleanly and safely. It has put the Obama administration’s plan to push for more offshore drilling on hold. Studies will be done. After time, a report will be released detailing the technical and procedural mistakes before the explosion. Alarms were disabled, someone was asleep, procedures weren’t followed, etc. BP and Transocean may even be fined for failure to follow accepted safety practices. A widow here and a father there may win a wrongful death civil suit against the employers. And after the shock passes, after the studies and debates and pithy words at memorial ceremonies, they will reintroduce plans to expand offshore drilling with ‘new improved’ safety guidelines.
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But who will enforce these guidelines? Will it be the same group of private industry managers who are literally in bed with the Government inspectors? Clean and safe oil, coal and gas will only come from having public ownership of the energy industry and with democratically elected committees of workers exercising direct control over production techniques and enforcing safety procedures.
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This must be combined with full union rights for energy workers enabling them to control their work, putting workplace safety and the environment before production quotas and profits. The struggle against future disasters must be linked to a movement for public ownership of the energy industry, and a comprehensive plan, as part of an overall plan of economic production, to transition to renewable, non polluting energy sources.
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Article Link
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Other articles
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Peak Oil and Profits Behind Deepwater Disaster
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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Disaster: Stop the Polluters! — Nationalise the Oil and Gas Giants
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Antonia Juhasz: "The Tyranny of Oil"

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60 minutes interview with rig worker Mike Williams Part 1

Watch CBS News Videos Online
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60 minutes interview with rig worker Mike Williams Part 2

Watch CBS News Videos Online
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Antonia Juhasz Link

Workers’ unity needed to fight attacks on workers across Europe

2010-05-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

Check out what Joe Higgins who is the Irish Socialist member of the European parliament has to say about the attacks on workers in Greece and through out Europe...
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It is a shame that we here in the US do not have any major political activists like Joe Higgins who have the guts to be as revolutionary as this...
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That means we need to start organizing to build such a party..This means that the Unions in the US need to break from the dead end alley that the Union leadership has led it's union members into, by supporting the democratic party, which is only the other side of the twin parties of capitalism, of which the republican and democratic parties are two sides of the same coin...
Joe Higgins, Member of the European Parliament, Socialist Party (CWI Ireland)

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The dictatorship of the financial markets continues apace and those currently being crushed by its dictat are the workers, the pensioners and the poor of Greece.
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For months now, the dictatorship’s hit squads – Hedge Funds, predatory investment banks and bondholders, aided and abetted by their scouts in the Rating Agencies – have laid siege to the Greek economy. The battle plan was simple enough – create sufficient uncertainty, suspicion and instability to enable them to gouge the Greek Government with levels of interest on their loans that massively increases their usurious profits which is, of course, the main object of the siege in the first place.
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In all wars, it is the civilian population which suffers most and this is no exception. Hence the massive booty being accumulated by the aggressors is to be paid for by savage cuts in public sector wages, in pensions and tax increases.
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The observation that truth is the first casualty of war also holds true here. And so we have splashed across the European media gross distortions and downright lies. Numerous articles would have us believe that Greek workers can retire on full pension at 53 or thereabouts and that public sector workers are living in clover as they receive fourteen months pay in every twelve months period. The truth is quite different.
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The so called “thirteenth” and “fourteenth month” are two extra annual payments to Greek public workers. They were designed to raise very low wages to something more realistic, rather like somebody on the miserable minimum wage in Ireland relying on a shift allowance or a Christmas bonus, to make things a bit better.
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The distortion about the retirement age arises from the fact that tens of thousands of Greek workers have been made redundant in privatisations and “rationalisations” over the last ten years. Very many of these workers will not work again because the jobs are not there for them, and so it was enforced retirement. This, however, has been spun as being the same as voluntary retirement on a state pension at a relatively low age. In fact ,the official male retirement age in Greece is 65 now and rising to 67 as part of the current onslaught.
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Some of this misrepresentation is lazy journalism but some arises from a deliberate distortion of the truth with the aim of creating a belief throughout the EU that the savage programme of cuts now being inflicted is deserved and necessary. Low paid public sector workers in Ireland will readily understand the nature of the propaganda campaign being employed against their Greek counterparts since they have been the butt of something very similar themselves.
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Certainly successive Greek governments share responsibility for the current situation. They railroaded the Greek people into the Eurozone, distorting the economic realities to do so. They have presided over massive tax evasion by Greek big business and allowed the wealthiest institution in Greece, the Orthodox Church, a completely tax free status. But these were not the responsibility of the Greek working class which is now presented with the bill.
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The utter capitulation to the “markets” of the EU Commission and all the governments of the Member States gives the lie to their high flowing rhetoric about the EU being a tireless champion of democracy, justice and fairness, so called “European values.” In fact, governments that are supposed to be sovereign, bend in abject submission to the financial sharks, satisfying their economic bloodlust. Greek Prime Minister Papandreou, even as he denounced their speculation, was running up the white flag of surrender as he caved in to their demands that the ordinary people of Greece must be hammered to pay for their profits.
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The EU Council of Finance Ministers and the EU Commission, rather than being champions of democratic rights, have acted as enforcers for the markets. They are the ones demanding that the most savage programme of cuts in services and living standards is implemented by the Greek government. The €110 billion ‘bail out’ package is being portrayed as a gift to Greece. In fact as the EU Economics Commissioner Olli Rehn pointed out the interest paid by the Greek people will in all cases ‘be higher than the interest paid’ by the lending country where it borrows the loan.
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And so “the markets” hope to enjoy three years of super profits sweated from the Greek people. Now they will move on to Portugal, to Spain and, yes, to Ireland. Which is another reason why we should not let the Greek working people be isolated in their fight back. Only a few days ago on May 1st, international workers’ day, in many European cities the banners proclaimed “workers unite.” It really is time we began to give that slogan a concrete expression in challenging the dictatorship of the markets.
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DO YOU AGREE? SUPPORT JOE & THE SOCIALIST PARTY?
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Joe Higgins Link
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The myth of the “lazy Greek workers”

2010-05-07T00:21:00.000-07:00

I think it is also important to post this article about the Greek working class since the big business media in Europe and here in the US has been attempting to smear the working class in Greece... This is part of the divide and conquer tactics of the capitalist class... They start with the weaker Link and then they go on to attack the rest of us, by taking us on a section at a time...We must not fall for their deceptive tactics...

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The myth of the “lazy Greek workers”
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Written by Editorial Board of “Marxistiki Foni” Tuesday, 04 May 2010
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Since the crisis in Greece has hit the headlines there have appeared in the bourgeois media many stories about how Greece has too many civil servants, how the working week is very short, how people retire early on fat pensions, and so on, as if this were the cause of the crisis. Facts and figures, however, can be very stubborn things and they tell a completely different story.
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During the last few days we have witnessed an unprecedented smear campaign against the Greek working class by the European bourgeois media, in particular by the tabloid press, which is specifically aimed at working class people. This campaign is aimed at deceiving the European workers and its objective is clearly to prevent them from assuming internationalist action of class solidarity towards the working class of Greece, which is being brutally attacked by both Greek and foreign capitalists.
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The first myth being promoted in this campaign goes more or less like this: “these lazy Greek people, who constantly go on strike without any reason, then come running to the Europeans to finance their own laziness”.
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The rank-and-file of the European Left and of the workers’ movement internationally must be told the truth, but unfortunately this will not be forthcoming from the main media outlets. Let us look at some facts. According to Eurostat, Greek workers work on average longer hours than the rest of Europeans. They work a 42-hour week, while the average working week in the 27 member states of the EU is 40.3 hours and within in the “Eurozone” it is 40 hours. So that is myth number one dispelled.
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Again, according to Eurostat, Greece also has the most underpaid private sector employees compared to the rest of the “Eurozone”. In Greece, the average gross monthly wage, including social security and taxes, is 803 euros [about £700 or US$1063], while the lowest gross salary in, for example, Ireland is 1300 euros, in France 1250 euros and in the Netherlands 1400 euros. So myth number two doesn’t stand up to any serious analysis of the real figures.
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Another idea being bandied about is that if it were not for the EU and the IMF stepping in and imposing strict measures, the Greeks would have happily continued to live on ever-increasing wages. However, according to the Labour Institution of the GSEE [the Greek general confederation of private sector unions], the austerity programmes already imposed by recent governments in Greece even before the current crisis had erupted had already cut the real average wage in the private sector to 1984 levels.
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What about the age of retirement and pension levels? If we were to believe the bourgeois media Greeks live in a kind of workers’ paradise, where they can all retire early and nice big pensions. Again, facts and figures are stubborn things and they give a completely different picture. The average age of retirement in Greece is 61.4 years, a little higher than the European average of 61.1 years.
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And what about these fat Greek pensions? According to the GSEE Labour Institution, the average pension in Greece is 750 euros per months [£650 pounds or US$990], while in Spain this figure reaches 950 euros, in Ireland 1700 euros, in Belgium 2800 euros and in the Netherlands 3200 euros. Moreover, this figure was calculated before the implementation of the new government measures, which increase the age of retirement from 65 to 67 years while at the same time cutting pensions by 30 to 50%.
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Furthermore, according to the annual report of the joint GSEE-ADEDY trade union confederations on the economy and employment levels in 2009, of the current four and a half million labour force, more than a million work without any social security or other forms of legal protection. According to the report of the Commission for Social Security, established by the Greek Ministry of Labour, this figure reaches 30% of the overall workforce, while in the rest of the EU the percentage of workers in these conditions are only between 5 and 10% of the total.
And whose fault is that?
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Contributions are supposed to be calculated by the bosses, who pay a part themselves and the remainder is paid by the workers out of their wages. But that would mean declaring the workers legally and paying taxes on the profits made. The bosses prefer to hire a sizeable number of workers illegally, in the “black economy”, and thus save on both taxes due to the state and contributions. If the bosses had paid all taxes due in recent years, and if they had paid what they are supposed to pay into social security funds, the situation would not be anywhere as bad as it is today.
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It is the Greek capitalists and the foreign investors who have profited from this situation. But who are they blaming? The Greek workers and poor, of course!
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On top of all this, in Greece there is also the phenomenon of around 300,000 “false self-employed workers”. These are workers who have in reality been forced to set themselves up as self-employed. In reality they work for a boss who can freely assign the manner, the time, the place of work, and the working conditions and thus this form of working is essentially employment by a boss, but with the added advantage that he can sack them whenever he wants, as formally he is the workers’ “client”.
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Bosses prefer this method of employment because these workers are not treated legally as employees; they don’t have the same legal rights as the rest of the working class, such as monthly salaries, paid holidays, etc. Employers can fire them freely, even without any compensation. We must also add to the list the 200,000 “part-time” employees, most of whom work full-time but are being paid half-time.
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In the smear campaign, there have been many reports concerning the supposedly “excessive” number of civil servants in Greece. According to reports of the ILO (International Labour Organization), civil servants in Greece represent 22.3% of the total workforce, while in France the percentage is 30%, in Sweden 34%, in the Netherlands 27%, in the UK 20% and finally, in Germany 14%. So we can see that Greece is actually below the average. The most important fact, however, that has to be borne in mind is that 300,000 of the public sector employees are working under temporary contracts, which means they have far lower wages and much fewer rights.
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Instead of civil servants’ wages going up in recent years, we have seen the opposite phenomenon. As a result of the constant cuts carried out since 1990, according to an ADEDY report [the civil servants trade union confederation], the total real income of civil servants has fallen by 30%. During recent years, governments have preferred to grant “allowances” to civil servants instead of real wage increases. These allowances have neither been included in the annual pay rises nor are they taken into account when calculating pension levels upon retirement.
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The bourgeois propaganda also continues to attacking the so-called “13th and 14th month’s salary”, in an attempt to create the impression that Greek workers enjoy higher wages than their European counterparts. In reality, these extra “salaries” are bonuses for Christmas (the 13th salary), Easter and allowances (14th salary), which were given separately as a method of fragmenting total annual income, in order to facilitate commercial and tourist growth during “peak periods” (i.e. holiday periods), in a country whose economy is based mainly on commerce and tourism. With the new recent measures taken by the government, civil servants and pensioners lose both of these salaries.
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What must also be noted is that all the wage levels, all the facts and figures about the Greek workers’ wages listed above include these extra “salaries”.
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The myth of the “opulent” Greek workers is ultimately destroyed if we look at the massive increase in the cost of living in Greece. While the wages and salaries are among the lowest in the Eurozone, the prices of basic goods keep soaring. Let us take a look at a few examples. In Greece a packet of cereals costs on average 2.86 euros, while the same packet costs 1.89 euros in the UK (51% cheaper than in Greece) and in France 2.25 euros (27% cheaper). Greeks buy a toothbrush for 3.74 euros while in the UK the same toothbrush is sold for 2.46 euros (52% cheaper). A pack of soft drinks that costs 3.1 euros in Greece, costs 2.76 in Belgium, 2.3 in France and 2.68 in UK. The most prominent examples are a cup of coffee or tea: in Greece the average price is between 3 and 3.5 euros, more than twice the average in most European countries.
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Of course, during the same period, there are some Greeks that could be accused of living in opulence, indeed at record levels, compared to both Europe and globally. But these are not to be found among the Greek working class. During the first half of the past decade Greek capitalists were constantly in the three top places in the league table of profitability globally, while Greek bankers even now are enjoying the highest rates of interest in Europe. This is not by chance. Their profits have been based on the fact that they had at their disposal a workforce that has been on some of the lowest wages in Europe. Added to that they had a sizeable section of this workforce employed in the “black economy”, where they were able to save huge sums on taxes and social security contributions.
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The smear campaign of the capitalist press throughout Europe is thus based on nothing but lies. The truth must be explained within the labour movement in every European country and beyond. Real wages are far lower, the working week is longer than average, the age of retirement is higher than average, but one thing has indeed been higher: the profits made by the Greek and foreign capitalists in Greece.
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This does not mean that workers in the rest of Europe are living that much better. What is being done to the Greek working class, tomorrow will be done to the Portuguese and the day after to the Italian, the Belgian, the British workers and so on. Already in Ireland we have seen what the capitalist are capable of. Greece provides merely a foretaste of what is coming very soon in the rest of Europe.
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What the bourgeois media is trying to do is to play off one working class against another. They are putting the blame for the present crisis of the euro on the Greek workers, using them as a scapegoat. This is all in preparation for the attacks they are preparing across the whole of Europe. Tomorrow, no doubt, we will hear about the lazy Portuguese, the lazy Italians. In Britain no doubt, the campaign about social security “scroungers”, i.e. unemployed workers, will be stepped up, and finally the day will come when the German capitalists will discover that German workers too are “scroungers”, that they have lived it up for too long and some “sacrifices” need to be made.
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The European working class must not allow this campaign to go unanswered. It is the duty of the labour movement organisation in all European countries to counter this campaign and tell the truth and put the blame for this crisis where it lies, at the door of the European and world capitalist class.
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The workers of Europe must act in solidarity with the Greek working class, which is being cruelly attacked by the EU and struggle together against this attempt to first divide the workers and then to pass the burden of the crisis to the European workers as a whole. This will involve a European-wide struggle. In all countries similar conditions are being created. In all countries the attack is the same.
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What is required is international solidarity across borders, a struggle for a socialist Europe that will finally make those who are responsible for the crisis pay, by expropriating those who are truly lazy, those who produce nothing, those who live off the sweat of the working class, the industrialists, the bankers, the financial speculators, the ship-owners and the owners of the huge commercial chains.

Greece:The struggle must continue and intensify!

2010-05-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

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Although the big business media here and in Greece is playing up the tragic death of 3 bank workers for the sake of the capitalist class, the struggle against the tyranny of the free market must continue.
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It appears that the EU itself is nothing more than a vehicle for imposing austerity measures on the European working class, so as to, bolster the profits of the ruling classes, by making workers pay for the profit taking and tax relief of the capitalists, starting with the so-called economically weaker nations like Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, and Spain.
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The working class must fight against this and also struggle for an economic system that represents their needs, and not those of the ruling classes.
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Hopefully the deaths of 3 workers who were intimidated by their boss to come to work on a day of general strike will not weaken the mass struggle taking place in Greece.
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It appears by a report by another bank coworker that the bank workers wanted to leave early to go home, but they were not allowed to, and were told if they did so they would be fired, even though the bank itself was NOT open for business ( THE EMPLOYEES WERE TOLD TO LOCK UP THE DOORS, AND STAY INSIDE, AND THEY WEREN'T ALLOWED ANY INTERNET ACCESS TO BE ABLE TO SEE WHAT WAS GOING ON AROUND THEM), the owner was not present and the workers under intense pressure were forced to stay...And there wasn't any type of fire safety system set up at this bank ...How deplorable!!! The bank owner should be held responsible for this, and criminally charged!!!
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Of course this does not excuse the violence that took place, and by some reports, it may have been caused either by a small group of misguided anarchists, or by government agent provocateurs. The violence has been condemned by the main parties on the left, and workers should not be led down this kind of blind alley of violence, because it only emboldens the capitalist class, and their political puppets with harsher crackdowns on worker demonstrations and other actions, and it also discourages other workers from taking part in authentic political actions.
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I am including articles and links about this...
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The working class in the US needs to take some lessons about resistance from the European working classes, who have a much stronger legacy of struggle...
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The struggle must continue and intensify!
www.socialistworld.net, 06/05/2010 website of the committee for a workers' international, CWI
Refuse to pay the debt, nationalize the banks!
Press Statement from Xekinima (CWI in Greece)
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Yesterday, workers across Greece took part in a huge general strike in angry opposition to a new ‘austerity cuts package’. The strike hit all public and private sectors and closed down airports, docks and stopped all public transport. In Athens over 200,000, possibly 300,000, marched in the biggest ever trade union protest.
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The planned vicious cuts, estimated at 30bn euros, which includes wage freezes and cuts, pension cuts and VAT hikes, will be carried out by the "socialist" PASOK, government in return for a huge 110bn euro bailout from the EU, IMF and European Central Bank to try to deal with Greece’s huge national debt.
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During huge demonstrations in Athens yesterday, a branch of the Marfin bank in central Athens was firebombed, killing three bank workers. Socialists everywhere will condemn these deaths of innocent workers – forced by their bosses to work during yesterday’s strike. Supporters of Xekinima (the CWI in Greece) tried to help the trapped bank workers and have appeared on Greek television explaining that demonstrators attempted to save the workers’ lives.
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Below, we publish a slightly edited version of a press statement issued today by Xekinima (the CWI in Greece), which comments on the bank workers’ tragic deaths, the magnificent strike action and also on the next steps that need to be taken by the Greek workers’ movement.
Socialistworld.net
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Yesterday’s magnificent mobilization in Athens and others cities of Greece was unprecedented. Athens “sunk” (as the demonstrators commented to one another) under the weight of hundreds of thousands of protesters. This was the biggest trade union mobilization since the fall of the military junta in 1974. The general strike and mass demonstration was taken to send a message of the most determined resistance against the cuts package measures agreed by the Greek government, IMF and the EU.
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More and more workers understand that these measures have nothing to do with the “interest of the Greek people” as the government claims and that they are instead aimed at forcing Greek workers to pay the debts of the government to the Greek and foreign bankers. These debts were created by a conscious policy of continuous transfers from the state budget (through tax relieves and other means) to the capitalists to maximize their profits and to help the Greek bosses exploit cheap labour in the Balkans over the last two decades!
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Yesterday’s magnificent response of the working class must represent the beginning of new great struggles. The overturning of the plans of the government, the IMF and the EU is possible! __
Unfortunately, however, yesterday’s historic day has been blackened by the tragic death of the three workers in Marfin bank.
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We express our huge sorrow and, at the same time, immense anger, over the death of the three bank workers.
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Of course, overall responsibility for an upsurge in street conflict lies, to start with, with the "socialist" PASOK government because the policies that it applies lead society into complete instability and, as a result, violence is entirely inevitable. Responsibility equally lies with the owners of the MARFIN bank who, as is becoming clear, forced their workers to work on the day of a general strike, under conditions of great danger as the bank was on the way of the demonstration and clashes with the police were expected. At the same time, it seems that there was not proper fire safety or any emergency exits in the bank building.
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These facts, however, do not acquit the supposedly “anti-statists” anarchist groups from their criminal responsibilities. We condemn, in the most decisive manner, the criminal irresponsibility of the so-called “anti-statists”, anarchist groups. This event would have happened sooner or later – they would have caused the loss of workers’ lives due to their immeasurable irresponsibility. It is not the first time that these groups have thrown petrol bombs into areas where there are workers who have had to run for their lives! Some of these groups explain their activities by reference to anarchist ideology. Some others are simply secret police agents who consciously act as provocateurs – this has been proven by plenty of photographic evidence (but this does not seem to cause any rethinking of their actions in the minds of these anarchist groups!).
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Service to the capitalist state
The actions of these groups provide the best service to the capitalist state, which they claim they want to destroy! The state exploit the actions of these groups, which provoke disgust and anger from the working class, to justify state reppression. The methods of these highly irresponsible groups diverts the attention of the working class movement from how to intensify class struggle to mainly discussing their criminal activities! Finally, these groups are characterised by immense arrogance; they speak in the name of ‘revolution’, thus confusing immense convulsions of society and the masses with their individual personal mad “rebellions”.
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Therefore the first task to which the organised workers’ movement and particularly the mass parties of the Left should respond to, is the defence of the rallies and mass actions of the working class, by all means, from these “anti-state” groups. The KKE (communist party), SYRIZA (left coalition) and the far left groups have a responsibility to organize united rallies including common stewarding and protection.
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But yesterday’s actions by the parties of the Left - organising separate marches – is absolute irresponsibility In relation to the interests of the workers’ movement.
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The central question at this moment for the working class is how should the struggle develop?
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Greek workers and pensioners know that the meassures of the government means a reduction in the living standards of the huge majority of people, by 20% to 30%. There is no doubt that workers are willing to fight against these measures. It is worth losing 5, 10, 15 days’ wage to counter these cutbacks and workers are willing to do it. But a precondition for this is that the leadership of the trade union movement and the parties of the left call for such a decisive course of action.
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In our opinion, the proposals that ought to be made by the left parties and the organised working class today are:
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* The immediate calling of a 48 hour general strike, with repeated general strikes, if necessary, combined with strike action by different sections of the working class. This needs to be combined with the building of commitees of action democratically elected on a rank and file basis.
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* For workplace occupations, in, for example, the mass media, the docks, bus and train depots etc, run through democratically-taken decisions by workers at general meetings. These occupations should be combined with long occupations of colleges and blockades of national roads by the small farmers’ movement.
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* For unified mass rallies of the left parties, which should be stewarded and protected from provocative anarchist actions and provocateurs
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* The central political demand must be that those who caused the crisis must pay it. This means refusing to pay the debt owed to the bankers, in Greece and abroad, and for the nationalization of the banking system, under workers’ control and management, as an immediate first step.
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* This struggle must aim to co-ordinate with the struggles of the workers of the rest of Europe, who today look upon the Greek movement with hope and expectations. Starting with the workers of southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, etc) and Ireland, who are facing the same attacks, we must fight together to overturn the policies of the EU and the IMF, against a capitalist Europe and for a workers’ Europe, a United Socialist Confederation of Europe.
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For the left to be consistent with its principles and declarations, it has to openly and clearly state that the capitalist system is inhuman and barbaric. And that the only way for the workers to live a better life is to fight for the nationalization of all major companies, under workers’ control and management, as the only way to have real productive investement to end unemployment and poverty and to plan the economy for the needs of society, as a whole.
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The struggle for the overthrow of the dictatorship of the market, the ending the barbarity of capitalism, and the struggle for an alternative socialist society, based on workers’ democracy (not the caricature of Stalinism), must become the banner of the left parties. This can inspire the movement of the working class during the turbulent times we have entered in Greece, Europe and globally.
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Article Link
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Greece: An earth shattering strike while reaction takes advantage of three murders
Written by Marxistiki Foni Editorial Board Thursday, 06 May 2010
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The constant attacks on the Greek working class over recent months have finally brought the situation to boiling point. The workers have had enough! They are not prepared to pay for a crisis which is not of their making. Yesterday Greece was totally paralysed as the workers and youth came out massively in protest. The tragic killing of three bank workers, however, is being used to distract attention away from this impressive show of strength by the Greek working class.
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Yesterday, Greece officially entered a new era of class struggle. The incessant attacks against the living standards of the working class on the part of the capitalists have provoked a massive and militant movement.
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Yesterday’s general strike was the first act of this movement. Greece was paralyzed, but not only in the public sector as in the previous general strikes of February and March, but also in the private sector. Over 150,000 workers participated in the strike in Athens, which was characterized by a great feeling of radicalisation and anger. Many of those taking part in the Athens strike said that this mobilisation was equalled only by the great general strike against the “Yiannitsi measures” (in 2001, the PASOK government proposed a law against social security, which was ultimately withdrawn due to a massive general strike). Huge and militant demonstrations took place in 68 cities in total, of which the demonstrations in Thessaloniki, Patras, Herakleion and Ioannina were especially massive.
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The immense anger towards the latest offensive against the living standards of the working class was expressed in the mobilisations organised by GSEE-ADEDY (the main trade union confederations) and by PAME (the Communist Party’s faction in the trade unions) in slogans such as “No sacrifices for the plutocracy” and “PASOK-New Democracy: austerity – unemployment – terrorism”.
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The growing anger against the trade union bureaucracy was reflected in the constant and intense booing during the speech given by the GSEE president, Υannis Panagopoulos, during the GSEE-ADEDY rally in central Athens. It is also to be noted that during the protests, we witnessed a spontaneous, aggressive mood against the oppressive police forces, the banks and public buildings among many protesters, which clearly shows that “boiling point” has been reached in the mass consciousness.
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However, unfortunately, this decisive fact of massive and militant demonstrations in Athens and all over the country was overshadowed by the tragic killing of three employees, a man and two women, in a branch of the “MARFIN” bank due to arson caused by “Molotov cocktails”. This was a criminal act against young white-collar workers, working in a branch where the bosses’ terror is huge and where the workers are forced to work under the fear of losing their jobs. These unfortunate workers could not get out of the building, due to the criminal indifference of the bank manager, who did not guarantee either fire safety measures or an emergency exit.
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Moreover, questions have been asked as to the reason for the passive stance of the police which, despite its large presence in the demonstration, did not take measures to stop the burning of a bank, which was working normally in the centre of Athens and was situated near the route of a demonstration mainly directed against the predatory role of the banks.
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No one can say with absolute certainty whether this act of arson was an expression of blind, criminal and desperate violence on the part of the anarchists or a well organised provocation by the forces of state oppression, in order to slander the workers’ movement. If we take account of the general make up of the demonstrations, together with the tragic deaths in “MARFIN”, the many attacks on stores in Thessaloniki and the accusations made by the General Secretary of the KKE (the Communist Party) about provocation by members of the fascist “Chrysi Avgi”, organisation who were holding PAME banners, it is possible that an extensive plan of provocations was orchestrated by the State.
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However, even if these events were not an organised act of provocation, they objectively acted as one. They catastrophically undermine a grand movement at its birth, because they serve to overshadow the event of the mass general strike, they terrorise workers, preventing them from participating in the movement, while at the same time sanctifying the forthcoming escalation of police violence.
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The government and the bourgeois media were eager to exploit this “manna from heaven”. They brought up again the issue of “a general condemnation of violence and chaos”, incriminating, indirectly but clearly, the movement itself and the Left. The government, as a means of isolating the movement, re-proposed the immediate calling of a conference of the leaders of the political parties due to this “critical moment of the motherland”, as it had done a few days ago, but which was cancelled due to public wrath.
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The leaderships of the Left should not fall for this bourgeois trap and should not attend any conference with the government and the right-wing parties, which support the government’s measures. The participation of the KKE or the SYRIZA leadership in such a conference would be an act of subversion against this mighty workers’ and youth movement. On the contrary, they must concentrate their power in order to escalate the struggle. The message that yesterday’s protesters sent was that the workers want to fight and this message must be heard by every left party leadership. Yesterday’s general strike must become the first step towards a plan of struggle, which will be discussed in every workplace and should escalate to a 48-hour general strike during the following days, followed by the perspective of an all out strike until the government backs off.
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At the same time, these events tragically underline the imperative need to disassociate the workers’ movement and the Left from the anarchists, who with their irresponsible and desperate actions become the breeding ground for provocations of every type whose aim is the undermining of the real mass movement. Every anarchist group which practices blind and desperate violence, must be kept away from the mass workers’ and youth movement through decisive and organised measures.
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Letter by a Greek bank worker
Translation by occupiedlondon.org
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I feel an obligation toward my co-workers who have so unjustly died today to speak out and to say some objective truths. I am sending this message to all media outlets. Anyone who still bares some consciousness should publish it. The rest can continue to play the government’s game.
The fire brigade had never issued an operating license to the building in question. The agreement for it to operate was under the table, as it practically happens with all businesses and companies in Greece.
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The building in question has no fire safety mechanisms in place, neither planned nor installed ones – that is, it has no ceiling sprinklers, fire exits or fire hoses. There are only some portable fire extinguishers which, of course, cannot help in dealing with extensive fire in a building that is built with long-outdated security standards.
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No branch of Marfin bank has had any member of staff trained in dealing with fire, not even in the use of the few fire extinguishers. The management also uses the high costs of such training as a pretext and will not take even the most basic measures to protect its staff.
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There has never been a single evacuation exercise in any building by staff members, nor have there been any training sessions by the fire-brigade, to give instructions for situations like this. The only training sessions that have taken place at Marfin Bank concern terrorist action scenarios and specifically planning the escape of the banks’ “big heads” from their offices in such a situation.
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The building in question had no special accommodation for the case of fire, even though its construction is very sensitive under such circumstances and even though it was filled with materials from floor to ceiling. Materials which are very inflammable, such as paper, plastics, wires, furniture. The building is objectively unsuitable for use as a bank due to its construction.
No member of security has any knowledge of first aid or fire extinguishing, even though they are every time practically charged with securing the building.
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The bank employees have to turn into firemen or security staff according to the appetite of Mr Vgenopoulos [owner of Marfin Bank].
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The management of the bank strictly bared the employees from leaving today, even though they had persistently asked so themselves from very early this morning – while they also forced the employees to lock up the doors and repeatedly confirmed that the building remained locked up throughout the day, over the phone. They even blocked off their internet access so as to prevent the employees from communicating with the outside world.
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For many days now there has been some complete terrorisation of the bank’s employees in regard to the mobilisations of these days, with the verbal “offer”: you either work, or you get fired.
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The two undercover police who are dispatched at the branch in question for robbery prevention did not show up today, even though the bank’s management had verbally promised to the employees that they would be there.
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At last, gentlemen, make your self-criticism and stop wandering around pretending to be shocked. You are responsible for what happened today and in any rightful state (like the ones you like to use from time to time as leading examples on your TV shows) you would have already been arrested for the above actions. My co-workers lost their lives today by malice: the malice of Marfin Bank and Mr. Vgenopoulos personally who explicitly stated that whoever didin’t come to work today [May 5th, a day of a general strike!] should not bother showing up for work tomorrow [as they would get fired].
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- An employee of Marfin Bank [greek original]

Shilling for ObamaCare: Frontline Fronts for Corporations, Not the Public

2010-04-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

In a recent article on CounterPunch Magazine Dr. Margaret Flowers writes that
"Frontline’s "Sick Around America," the producers did a disservice by the failure to educate the public about the bigger picture of the health care situation in this nation and the range of possible solutions.
Curiously, just as it was in the health “debate,” single payer, improved Medicare for All, was also excluded from the film."
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I watched this propaganda piece and I totally have to agree with Dr. Flowers. Frontline happened to go to all the countries which happened to have some kind of corporate solution to health care, but for one exception which was Britain, which has a national health service, that is like a medicare for all. But they mostly focused on countries like Japan, Germany, and Switzerland, which have private insurance systems, and although there are government controls on cost, and are not supposed to be for profit, private industry will always find a way to make a profit some way, and that is why the cost of such plans are rising and Switzerland is only 2nd to the US in the cost of health care.
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Yes there are problems in the national health care systems in countries like Canada, Britain, and Sweden, but that is because they have been cutting back on health care funding and reverting to some sort of privatization schemes, basically following a neo-liberal model of reform...

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I also must say I am not surprised by the type of programming on Frontline, since that program basically has always had a pro-corporate, pro US imperialist point of view with their programs.
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And as a matter of fact PBS and NPR for the most part except for a few exceptions are pro corporate, pro US imperialist programing...That's why I consider PBS to be (Propaganda Broadcasting Stations) And NPR (National Propaganda Radio) They are both sponsored and under written by many corporate sponsors...
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I will post the article along with a link to her interview on the Bill Moyers Journal Program
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Also a link to an article about Sweden
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Shilling for ObamaCare
Frontline Fronts for Corporations, Not the Public
By Dr. MARGARET FLOWERS, M.D.
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It was with a sense of déjà vu that I watched the latest Frontline documentary about health care. “Obama’s Deal” endeavored to reveal the significant influence of health industry dollars on our political process; however, as in Frontline’s "Sick Around America," the producers did a disservice by the failure to educate the public about the bigger picture of the health care situation in this nation and the range of possible solutions.
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Curiously, just as it was in the health “debate,” single payer, improved Medicare for All, was also excluded from the film. The major point of the influence of health industry dollars on the reform process which should have been mentioned is that these dollars were spent in order to restrict the debate and protect industry profits. The lucrative status quo would have been threatened if single payer had been openly discussed because a publicly-financed national health program can provide high quality universal health care and control health care costs, something that a private insurance based system cannot accomplish.
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After watching this film, viewers would have no idea that single payer exists or know that there is a strong movement for it. Considering that there have been attempts to push for a national health program for over 100 years in this nation and that, because of a strong grassroots movement, single payer legislation was nearly introduced on the floor of the House in November and was actually introduced on the floor of the Senate for the first time in this nation last December, the omission appears to be intentional.
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Those of us in the single payer movement are accustomed to being censored by the corporate media. The reason for our exclusion is known: health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations advertise heavily on these airwaves and wield considerable power over the programming. This was described clearly by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’s August 2009 piece titled “Single-Payer & Interlocking Directorates: The corporate ties between insurers and media companies” by Kate Murphy.
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The producers at Frontline carefully cut single payer out of the film. When the host, Mr. Kirk, interviewed me for “Obama’s Deal,” we spoke extensively of the single payer movement and my arrest with other single payer advocates in the Senate Finance Committee last May. However, our action in Senate Finance was then misidentified as “those on the left” who led a “counterattack” because of “liberal outrage” at being excluded.
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This occurred despite an email exchange following the release of the preview in which I specifically requested that the producers identify that we are a nonpartisan group fighting for single payer: a health reform model based on evidence of what is effective here and abroad and on health policy principles. This mischaracterization unfortunately mirrors the way in which the health industry has portrayed the single payer movement (verified by Wendell Potter, a former Cigna executive).
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“Obama’s Deal” contained a segment on those who oppose health reform, but nowhere were single payer advocates given a chance to explain their proposal or motivations. Neither was it noted that the hatred and fear seen at the summer Town Halls and that factored in the election of Scott Brown were assisted by the stealth organizing efforts of ultra-conservative Dick Armey of FreedomWorks and others.
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We have the resources in this nation to achieve the same high quality health outcomes and health security that exist in other advanced nations. One reason for our failure is the intentional misinformation and omission of information in corporate media. Our public media does a disservice by leaving out the full picture of our broken political process, its effect on the health and economic wellbeing of our people and the truth of what we can achieve.
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Margaret Flowers, MD is a pediatrician who serves as the Congressional Fellow for Physicians for National Health Program.
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Article Link
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Bill
Moyers Journal
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Is Sweden Socialist? — The Rise and Fall of the Swedish Model
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Tea Partiers Meet Real Socialists At A Tea Party Rally

2010-04-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

I just listened to a report about a tea party rally in which real socialist from Socialist Alternative
attended.
The members of socialist alternative had some signs that a number of tea partiers liked, but they were confused because they thought that socialists agreed with the bank bailout, and other things on the Obama agenda like the Obama health insurance plan... the members of socialist alternative had discussions with them about their beliefs and what socialism really stands for...
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The members of Socialist Alternative said that many of these people were just regular folks who were being misguided by the likes of Glen Beck and Sarah Palin...
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For more about this check out this weeks program on the download link below...
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I will post the program on the right side of my blog when I get a chance...

Socialist Alternative Radio 04/16/10
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WMFO

Blasted in a West Virginia Mine: First by Explosion, Then by Lies

2010-04-13T03:07:00.000-07:00

The mining disaster at the non-union Massey mine is but only another example of the exploitative, and bloody capitalist system, Which as Marx said was born dripping of mud and blood. Under capitalism human lives do not matter, and the bottom line is the ruling class mantra, where human beings, and everything in the natural world is sacrificed at the alter for the insatiable profit driven capitalist god...

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And of course the media coverage of this was appalling. The only person I saw being interviewed was the CEO Criminal of Massey Blankenship himself who
should be in prison instead of giving a PR spin on every network about his murderous policies...

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I am including a video in which he demagogically proclaims that he is on the side of the workers,
and that global warming is not real. His propaganda is twisted and deceitful. He plays on the miners need to make a living, with scare tactics, which makes them fear of losing their jobs.
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He demagogically proclaims that immigrants, and and regulations, etc., are to blame for the loss of mining jobs. There are so many lies and twisted logic in his speech that it would take me hours to unravel... Just see it for yourself...
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The video does a good job in revealing how much of a scumbag this Blankenship ass really is, but I must say that I do not agree with the entire content of the video, since those who made it are placing blame on the miners for not being able to understand about so-called green jobs, etc at the end of the video...( This kind of blame game alienates and makes enemies out of the workers instead of making them allies against the scumbag corporation)There must be an understanding that workers have to be fully compensated, and payed for any layoff period, as well as retrained, and guaranteed employment after the training, but this type of transition can not really be possible under capitalism, since such a system never guarantees anyone a job...That is why we need to struggle for democratic socialism, where such things can be possible...But in the meantime, a struggle for safer, and cleaner working conditions must be pursued...
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Of course it is not just one corporate criminal like Blankenship which is to blame for horrible disasters like this, but the entire capitalist system which breeds corporate criminals like him.
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I am Also including an article about that...
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There is a song about mining By Anne Feeney Titled " How Much for the Life Of a Miner"? Which could also be titled " How Much For the Life of a Worker"? Check out her website there is alot of other good stuff there as well...
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Blasted in a West Virginia Mine: First by Explosion, Then by Lies
Posted by Mike E on April 7, 2010
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by Mike Ely
When hundreds of miners are trapped in pitch black waters 5 kilometers below the surface in China — the U.S. media has a tsk-tsk tone that suggests how little human life is valued “in the Orient,” and that (subliminally) reminds the viewers that this supposed cheapness of life in China has sucked the manufacturing heart out of the United States.
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And it is said (over and over) that “if only” the Chinese had regulation and inspection (read: like the U.S.) then disasters like this would be averted.
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Then comes the devastating mine blast at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in southern West Virginia. At least 25 dead. An ignition of methane gas and coal dust sent a shockwave sweeping through the tunnels with a force that wrenched railroad rails from the ground and left them twisted in its wake. Mere human beings were simply incinerated or shattered. And then the tunnels were left silent and dark, filled with smoke and the deadly carbon monoxide that follows explosions like this. After the counting was done, four men were still missing. And outside, the families of the grieving and those worried sick.
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Few human activities are as regulated as mining in the U.S. The books of law and procedure are massive. After many thousands of deaths and injuries, after waves of technological invention — it is well known how to avoid disaster. The methane, even in a gassy mine, can be blown out of the workings by directed air flow. Sparks can be denied explosive materials. Coal dust can be sprinkled with water (as it flies in the air), and removed (when it falls to the ground).
And yet, there it is: at least 25 dead in a deadly and horrifying blast.

Theater, Cameras and More Paper
Once again the officials will call for new regulations. Governors, senators, and mine officials will step before the cameras with solemn faces and embrace the newly-made widows. Some laws will pass. Miners will be required to attend lectures. And so on, and so on… The system will display concern and paper reform.
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Few human activities are as regulated as mining in the U.S. The books of law and procedure are massive. After many thousands of deaths and injuries, after waves of technological invention — it is well known how to avoid disaster. The methane, even in a gassy mine, can be blown out of the workings by directed air flow. Sparks can be denied explosive materials. Coal dust can be sprinkled with water (as it flies in the air), and removed (when it falls to the ground).
And yet, there it is: at least 25 dead in a deadly and horrifying blast.
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I watched Homer Hickam, Jr., author of Rocket Boys, on CNN as a coalfield expert, and heard him claim to the world that every miner has the power to shut down the mine, at any time, without fear for his job. Sure they do, you liar.
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The simple fact is that Massey’s Upper Big Branch (like in the flooded Wangjialing coal mine) is governed by capitalism. And the rules and laws will be ignored over and over again. Those who report violations will be targeted and often fired. (I’ve been there personally, including for refusing to keep silent about an unreported gas explosion that licked us with flames.)
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The routine of everyday life will (loosely, loosely) conform to a minimum of safety — but it will always break down under pressure of production.
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The simple rule of capitalism is that, ultimately, human social production is privately owned. Society is shattered into competing centers of profit. And that competition (especially in raw material like coal) is not about packaging, or advertising, or unique features but cheapness and efficiency of production. The drive for production is refracted through a thousand decisions at a dozen levels — from the board rooms to the working mine face. (Here is a revealing memo from Massey.) And the daily result is crippled workers, exhausted bodies, diseased lungs and then in shocking moments that long line of blackened bodies lifted from below, passing by their heart-sick and angry families.
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And that story — of capitalism’s role in this — will simply be suppressed or denied, as the media (once again) focuses on the religious faith of mining communities (made quaint urbane TV anchors) and the practiced outrage of indifferent officials (who are wholly owned by energy monopolies).
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Here is an example of media suppression:
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I have (as you can imagine) watched the coverage of Upper Big Branch closely. I was heartened to see over a hundred miners were lifted half-dead from Wangjialing. I watched endless discussion of loss and community grieving, and a few about Massey’s safety violations.
But if you had sat alongside me listening to those news report, you would not have known what every single miner in southern West Virginia knows:
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Massey was the national flagship of union breaking.
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Until the 1980s, southern West Virginia was the heartland of the United Mine Workers. It was unthinkable that a non-union mine could operate there (as they did in the fringes of the coalfields, in Harlan county Kentucky or in the far West). But as the combination of government, police, strip mining and exhaustion broke the miners’ movement of the 1970, Massey dared to open a mining complex in Raleigh County, in the heart of the UMWA’s stronghold.
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When I passed through there (as a journalist in the 1980s I literally could not believe that just outside of Beckley there was a massive non-union operation. There were waves of picketing there over this outrage. I visited the pickets who kept vigil at those Massey mine entrances. I heard how Massey was hiring as other mines closed, and how they (craftily, craftily) paid some above union scale…. And I saw the worry and anger in the eyes of union men and women who understood too clearly what it would mean, for their region, for themselves, for the future dead, if this was allowed, and if their generations of struggle were reversed.
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There are (of course) also disasters in union mines. There were three dead carried out of the Keystone mine where I worked in the 1970s. There are violations daily, and dangers constantly. But it has to be said that the rise of non-union conditions is part of the transformations that have touched everyone — and worsened conditions generally.
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But more to the point: Look at the news coverage. Think about
what it took to avoid reporting this simple history of Massey’s militant anti-unionism. Think of how many people told each news reporter that Massey was hated as a spearhead of de-unionization. Think of how decisions had to be made in the news organizations NOT to feature that fact, or draw the simple conclusions.
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The news media repeatedly described how working people in this area have nowhere else to go but underground — but who describes how that captivity has been reinforced and exploited (for generations!) by those ice-cold masters of finance?
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Conditions in the mines are caused by capitalism.
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Even the de-unionization is tied to that famous free mobility of capital (that freedom which shifts investment from militant costly underground mines and into the “problem free” obscenity of strip mines).
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Capitalism is at fault in China and it is at fault Upper Big Branch.
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And more horrors and disasters of capitalism are happening a stone’s throw from wherever you sit, reading these words. And where you sit, wherever that is, there are blinding truths and profound interconnections that are actively suppressed and denied — all so that the profitable death and routine discarding of human beings seems normal and permanent.
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When working people are trapped and killed underground, I cannot sleep. I often can’t even find my way to this keyboard until the initial emotions have quieted, and those first tears are dried.
But I want to say something simple and perhaps obvious (in the wake of Upper Big Branch and Wangjialing — and in the wake of drone murders in Afghanistan, and police murders on countless streets of America):
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We must raise our voices more forcefully and skillfully to expose the workings and nature of this capitalist system, we must find the ways (together!) to break through the cunning white noise of the media machinery, and to honor our dead while defiantly indicting their killers.
————————————————————————-
Mike Ely is participant of the Kasama Project (http://kasamaproject.org/) and was an activist in the miners wildcat strike movements of the 1970s. Mike has written repeatedly on miners and radical politics — and those essays were recently gathered here [http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/07/mike-ely-writings-on-coal-miners-disasters-strikes-god-the-future/]
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Mike ElyBlasted in a West Virginia Mine

Mike Ely Website

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Kyrgyzstan: Revolutionary uprising overthrows government in one day — Government of “people’s confidence” declares it has taken power

2010-04-13T02:41:00.001-07:00

I must say that I am not at all familiar with what has been happening in Kyrgyzstan, but it appears that the people have put forth a revolution that began from below, but it now seems to have been taken over from above by former members of the Bakayev regime, which was just thrown out, so unless there is an organizing for an actual workers party, led by the working class, with a real socialist programme for real revolution, not that much will change...
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But these kind of revolutionary actions reveal for many of us who really holds the power. It is those of us in the working class which comprise the majority of any capitalist society....
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I am posting 2 articles with links that have more detailed accounts of what has occurred in this nation...
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Kyrgyzstan: Revolutionary uprising overthrows government in one day — Government of “people’s confidence” declares it has taken power

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Apr 8, 2010 By Rob Jones and Ainur Kurmanov and Zhenya Otto

Report compiled by Rob Jones, Ainur Kurmanov and Zhenya Otto, and eyewitness from Bishkek
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In a remarkable 24 hours, mass protests broke out in Talaz, in northern Kyrgyzstan, quickly spreading throughout the country. The capital, Bishkek, was quickly rocked by a mass uprising, which the authorities tried to put down using snipers and armored personnel carriers. Despite dozens shot dead, the masses just surged forward, attacking government buildings, seizing weapons to resist the riot police, before the latter came over to support the uprising.
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By the evening, the government had resigned and the President, Bakayev had reportedly fled the capital, with his Air Force Jet No 1 taking off from the US airbase Manas at the edge of the city. His destination was rumored to be either his home city of Osh, in the South, nearby Almaty, in Kazakhstan, or even Prague. These events act as a sharp warning to all the other dictatorial leaders in Central Asia and the CIS, who, faced with growing opposition, are stepping up repression. The British daily, The Financial Times, quoted exiled opposition leader, Edil Baisalov, “What we are seeing is a classic popular uprising. This is a revolution, and it is bloody.” Blaming government authoritarianism for the unrest he added: “This is what happens when you hold the lid on the cooking pot too tightly – it explodes” (FT Aril 8 2010).
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President Bakayev came to power just 5 years ago as a result of the “Tulip revolution”, when the pro-capitalist opposition, resting on the huge discontent of the Kyrghiz masses over the results of neo-liberal policies, organized a mass protest movement to overthrow the then President Akiyev. (See ‘Mass protests clear out corrupt neo-liberals’, on socialistworld.net, 31/03/2005).
Commenting on the events at that time, the CWI said: “whilst the ‘power of the street’ is enough to topple governments, in itself it is not enough to establish an alternative government that will be capable of ending the corruption and poverty which grips this region. In Kyrghizia, all that has happened is that Akayev has been forced to flee whilst his former loyal lieutenants have returned to power”.
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This prediction has been borne out. Bakayev soon fell out with his allies. Many of today’s opposition leaders were originally in his government.
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Amongst the main complaints of the masses is the fact that corruption and family cronyism have grown even stronger under Bakayev. The country is now amongst the top 20 in the world for corruption. Bakayev excuses this with comments such as “It’s very difficult to tear oneself away from one’s roots and upbringing”. His brother, for example, is Head of the Security Police and his son is now Head of the Central Agency for Development, Investment and Innovation, which has recently taken control of the main shareholding in the ‘Kyrgyzalten’ gold mine – this company accounts for 40% of the country’s industrial production! Now a new amendment to the constitution has been passed which, in effect, makes the presidency a hereditary position.
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Continued
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Where to now with the kurultai movement in Kyrgyzstan?
Written by Alexey Petrov in Russia Friday, 09 April 201
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The revolution in Kyrgyzstan has de facto overthrown the old hated regime and led to a new interim government being installed. Now a stand-off is developing between the two forces. The movement that led to this situation was a revolution from below, an uprising of the most downtrodden layers of society, who organised themselves in their own elected councils. Now there will be an attempt to emasculate these councils and divert attention away from the real issues.
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The rebellion in Kirgizia has been increasing as each hour has passed over the last two days. In all Northern Kirgizian cities clashes between demonstrators and police have been continuing. At least 100 demonstrators have been killed by the police. The people have taken and looted several police departments. The people proceeded to disarm the police and the special riot police, while government loyalist snipers have been shooting from the rooftops. In Bishkek army units were brought in, but faced with all this, the people overcame the repressive forces and President Bakiyev has fled to the city of Osh where he is attempting to hold out and refusing to resign.
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As result of the “tulip revolution” five years ago, clans from the South were able to climb to power in Kirgizia. In contrast to Aslan Akaev, who was had been ousted from power, the new leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev presented himself as a “strong man” as is typical for this region. He arrested leaders of the opposition and surrounded himself with relatives. He then proceeded with a wave of privatisations, including electricity and telephone services. Privatisation led to price rises; for example, the prices of electricity and water supply doubled.
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The opposition, exploiting the anger of the masses, raised a few social and political demands, including the cancelling of municipal price rises, the nationalisation of privatized companies, the pushing out of Bakiyev’s relatives and the release of some political prisoners.
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The main forms of protest were through the “kurultais” (conventions), first in Bishkek (17 March) and later on 7 April in other regions of the country where opposition leaders were planning rallies, including the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Roza Otunbaeva. To stop the “kurultais” the government ordered mass arrests of opposition activists, but the result was the opposite of what they had expected. Tens of thousands of people demanded the release of Bolot Sherniazov, the leader of the opposition Ata-Meken party in Talas. Finally he was freed when thousands of people surrounded the police headquarters.
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The demonstrators then demanded that the local governor should support the opposition, and later appointed a new governor. In the night from 6 to 7 of April special police units were brought in by plane from the capital to Talas. But in the morning of 7 April between 11 and 12 thousand people took over the police department and seized all the weapons. Kirgizian Minister of the Interior, Molomus Kongantiev, organizer of the repression, was beaten to death by the people.
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On 7 April the revolution came to the capital Bishkek. People marched to the Government House and smashed through the walls with trucks. Police opened fire with live ammunition. Some people were injured. At the same time demonstrators occupied the local administration building in the town of Kerbene and raised the flag of the rebellion. Special police forces shot a few times at the people, but this did not deter the demonstrators. On the contrary, the police, in fact, had to run away.
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Later in the local kurultai a new local leadership was elected. At 5pm the rebels captured a TV station in Bishkek and appealed to the people of Kyrgyzstan. At 9pm the government of Daniar Usenov was forced to resign and a new “interim” government trusted by the people, lead by Roza Otunbaeva took control of the country in the North.
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However, this is not the end of the story. The struggle between the poor South and the wealthier North could develop into a civil war. Many people in the South have family links with Bakiyev and on this basis took key positions, not just in politics but also in business. They are ready to defend their wealth even with weapons. Bakiyev, holding on in the South, has offered to talk to the opposition and its new interim government. But its leader Roza Otunbayeva has not accepted the offer and has demanded that he resign.
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Continued

Iragi Elections under Occupation Are illegitimate:Alawi is Just another bourgeois politician like Maliki imposed on the Iraqi people by US Imperialism

2010-04-05T15:43:00.000-07:00
It really disturbs me when I hear progressive Media like "Democracy Now"talking about the Iraqi elections as if they were a legitimate process. How could any such elections which occur under the occupation of another nation be legitimate? It appears the liberal media in certain circumstances acts like an echo chamber of the big business media...
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I am posting an interview with an Iraqi Socialist who describes the real nature of the political situation in Iraq following the illegitimate elections under US occupation...
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Support Nurses Strike At Temple University Hospital: Say no to Gag Rule

2010-04-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

As if the nursing profession isn't difficult enough with staff shortages because of employee burn out, because of poor working conditions, the management at Temple university wants to silence nurses who want to speak out, or become whistle blowers about the inadequate care being given at this hospital, they even want to make sure that the nurses can't even talk about this on their own time.
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If management wins on this point this rule could become standard use for other employers elsewhere...
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I am posting part of an article about this as well as links and the link to the Socialist Alternative radio program which discusses this issue as well
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Support the nurses
Go to Temple Watch for more info
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Philadelphia Hospital Workers Prepare to Strike

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Mar 30, 2010 By Marty Harrison, Executive Committee of Temple University Hospital Nurses’ Association and Member of the Philadelphia Central Labor Council (personal capacity)

Posted from Labor Notes. For updates on the strike see: TempleWatch.org.
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With administrators trying to muzzle members and pledging to spend freely on scabs, health care workers at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia are readying to strike Wednesday.
The hospital’s 1,000 nurses and 500 professional workers, members of PASNAP (Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals), have been working without a contract for six months. The strike deadline is tomorrow, and members reaffirmed their commitment to strike in a 980 to 50 vote Monday.
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The hospital workers see straight through Temple’s crocodile tears of financial hardship. The hospital has pledged to maintain all patient services during a strike and will employ agency labor at $10,000 a week, a rate more than six times higher than unionized staff. The outsized pay for scabs was reported by Temple nurses approached by contractors last week.
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Serious issues divide the two sides. Most disturbingly, the hospital insists there will be no agreement without its “non-disparagement” clause, which states that members, staff, and officers “shall not publicly criticize, ridicule or make any statement which disparages or is derogatory of Temple.” While paying lip service to our professional role as patient advocates, the hospital maintains there is never a need to go public to protect patient safety.
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PASNAP, however, supports staffing ratio legislation currently pending in the Pennsylvania legislature and anticipates that members and officers may testify at public hearings to give first-hand accounts of unsafe situations, in order to explain the vital need for such legislation. Like most unionized health care institutions, Temple considers its staffing levels a management prerogative and therefore a non-mandatory item of bargaining—and has refused to negotiate any staffing language.
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A FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL
Temple’s last offer would double health care premiums for nurses, triple them for the technical/professional staff, freeze wages for the first year of the contract, and reduce hard-won wage differentials for undesirable shifts and 24-hour on-call rates.
continued
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These are some of the conditions that the Temple management does not want us to know about...
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Health and Safety – Burned on the Burn Unit
Recently, a Burn Unit nurse suffered a needle-stick injury while caring for a patient who, in addition to his burn injuries, was suffering from hepatitis. The stick occurred because the unit was out of the needle caps for the needle which he used to draw blood.
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While the Hospital is following the proper protocol to treat him for the injury, the problem of lack of supplies is not being addressed. When he raised the issue with his manager, she suggested that he scavenge other units or hoard the needle caps. Aside from encouraging a practice which result in supply shortages, a Burn nurse taking care of an extremely ill and infection-prone patient should not be running around other units for supplies.
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What's necessary is for Temple to make sure that all Units and properly supplied at all times with all supply items they use. In this era of computerized tracking of everything, there is no excuse. We encourage members who face these problems and get no support from their immediate supervisor, to use Temple’s "Escalation Policy" which authorizes you to take it to the next level of management if it is not resolved in ten minutes, and go right up to the Hospital Director.
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Using this procedure, and documenting it for the Union, will give us the initiative in preventing many problems of this type, including injuries as potentially serious as an infection contracted from a needle stick.
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SA radio 04/02/10
WMFO website
I will also post this program on my media fire files when I get the time

Health Insurance Pay off Passed By The Democrats: One of the Twin Parties of Capitalism

2010-03-30T23:52:00.000-07:00

Kucinich is a real Bummer also. He really gave single payer activists a slap in the face... He was never really a so- called progressive anyway and Jeff Booth on Socialist Alternative radio talks about that on last Fridays program.

Is it any surprise that Obama has pushed for and passed health care legislation which basically makes many US citizens indentured servants to the insurance industry. And far from being a socialist, which many on the loony right wing fringe have deemed Obama to be, he is a capitalist through and through. If he was a socialist, he would not have given away the store to the for profit health care parasites.

This bill is a bunch of crap for those of us in the working class, and much of the some what progressive elements could have been passed as stand alone legislation.

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But even with the ink not dry on this crappy piece of fish wrap, the insurance industry is finding loop holes which they can climb through and steal away the hopes of many parents with children who have pre-existing conditions
and even if they do cover the pe-existing condition there is nothing that stops them from making the cost so unaffordable that no one could afford this kind of coverage in the first place.

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And oh yeah the so-called progressive savior Kucinich caved to the pressure from the president for capital Obama, so all the liberal bubbles of illusions in the democratic party have burst.

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This just goes to prove that in the present stage of capitalism if there is any reform it is to make sure that someone is making a profit from it or it doesn't get done, whether it's health care or education , which should be the right for all and not just those who can afford it.

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I am including an article about this as well, and other article links as well as links to programs that discuss this legislation. The program links are also on the right side of my blog under the media fire files.

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Democrats Pass Health Care Bill. But is this a Reason to Celebrate?

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Mar 25, 2010 By Fran Karas

There is a palpable feeling of euphoria that extends beyond Washington over the passage of what is known as the Obama Health Care bill in the House of Representatives. The U.S. Health Care Act passed with a narrow majority of 219-212 with not a single Republican vote in favor – despite Obama’s and the Democrats’ efforts to make the bill as attractive as possible to the conservative Republican base. There is something to be said about scoring a victory against the Tea Partiers and the frenzied right-wing demagogues that seemed to have captured the airwaves the last few months. But, sadly, it’s a hollow victory.
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One reason for the general enthusiasm is the limited understanding of the Act. The facts are drowned in the sound bites about “universal coverage,” “lower costs,” and “no more denied coverage due to illness or pre-existing conditions” - claims that are grossly overstated. In fact, the greatest achievement of the recent debate was in confusing the public and deflecting attention away from the real problem: profit-driven medical care. The current bill does nothing to change that, and over time many of those now welcoming it will see its severe limitations.
Unfortunately, the big winner in this battle has been the health insurance corporations. Corporations don’t exist to provide products or care. Their primary purpose is to produce profit and most preferably increased profits. The only way to do that is to either deny care to the sick or increase the cost of coverage. The health insurance industry has chosen to do both – and no one has stood in its way.
Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNPH) likened the new plan to an “aspirin dispensed for the treatment of cancer.” As Dr. Marcia Angell from PNHP put it, it’s hard to find a solution if you lose sight of the cause of the problem and attempt only to cure the symptoms. The cause, the cancer, is the for-profit system which dispenses health care as a market commodity according to the ability to pay.
The symptoms are millions of uninsured, uneven coverage, sky-rocketing costs, lower life expectancy, and tremendous waste. More than 1,200 insurance corporations are involved in this industry, each with its own staff and operating costs – not to mention its own insatiable appetite for profit. On the other side, health care providers need to keep an army of office personnel just to deal with the insurers. These add nothing to the quality of care, but add plenty to the overall costs.
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So how much of the problem will be cured by the Act? Not much.
Lost in the hype are facts such as: 23 million people will remain uninsured for the next nine years.
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Mandated individual coverage will force people into buying policies from private insurers, but with no provisions for cost control. There are also no guarantees that policies will cover 100% of the cost of care, leaving families open to impoverishment in case of catastrophic or serious illness.
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Companies with 50 or more employees are mandated to provide health insurance. Failure to do so carries penalties of $2,000 annually per employee. Considering the average annual cost of over $13,000 for family coverage, employers actually have an incentive to deny health benefits, pay the penalty and still be $11,000 richer. Their workers then will have to comply with the individual mandate or face a penalty. But beyond the penalty, they will be facing the prospect of lack of care when they need it.
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Insurance companies won’t be allowed to deny coverage to children with an illness or pre-existing conditions (this will apply to adults in 2014). But there is nothing in the bill prohibiting them from raising premiums for these patients beyond their ability to pay. If these patients drop their coverage, they pay a penalty or get covered by state subsidies. Either way, the insurer stands to gain.
Insurance exchanges will be established in which the state will actually be the broker, directing clients to the private insurers. In Massachusetts, where these exchanges were instituted in 2006, it’s estimated that they add 4% to the overall cost of health care.
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The bill includes a provision that "demands that women receiving federal subsidies for health insurance write a second check to their insurer for policies purchased through the government-administered exchanges for any portion of their policy that covers abortion." That would also apply for employer-based insurance. It’s a devastating blow to women’s reproductive rights.
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The few progressive elements of the bill, such as extending the age parents can cover students under their insurance to age 26, or extending Medicaid to more people, which will benefit some people, do not constitute a fundamental transformation of the health care system, and are countered by other regressive aspects of the bill. These could easily have been passed as stand-alone laws. The Act not only fails to address the underlying problems, but it expands the role of the insurance companies. For the first time, there is legislation that establishes for-profit health insurance as mandatory for the majority of the population.
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Obama and the Democrats
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From the beginning of the health care debate the Republican strategists prepared to go on the offensive and hit the ground running. The insurance lobby opposed reform, even when it was obvious it would actually enrich them. Republicans lined up behind them, denouncing “government-run insurance” as un-American, socialist, treacherous, etc. They organized grass-roots campaigns, tea parties and dominated town hall meetings. Their message, reactionary and at times plainly racist, was heard loud and clear.
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By contrast, the Democrats - who controlled both the legislative and executive branches - allowed the Republicans to dictate the agenda. Obama took a hands-off approach and let the conservative Democrats and Republicans set the scope of the discussion. “Single-payer” advocates were kept away from discourse. Insurance industry representatives were given prominent seats at the table.
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Universal mandate was the corner stone of the plan that started to emerge from the deliberations. The most “radical” proposal was the possible inclusion of a “public option”, which kept getting weaker and weaker until it was totally dropped, despite Obama’s assurances to defend it. The proposal that emerged included universal mandate, no “public option”, and taxes imposed on those with workplace benefits - something that would hit unionized workers who have won better health care provision from their employers.
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In the last few weeks Obama himself stepped forward, proposed a slightly modified but nevertheless industry-friendly bill and campaigned vigorously for it. He held rallies and town hall meetings, he made speeches and used the media. He was reportedly working the phones till the last minute, assuring conservatives that his bill would continue to deny poor women the right to safe abortions. He made it clear that no threat to the domination of private insurance industry was included in the plan.
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Most of the “progressives” in the Democratic Party folded, one by one abandoning single-payer or even the meager public option. The last man standing was Dennis Kucinich, who flipped two days before the vote after Obama personally appealed to the voters in his district. Obama had no concessions to offer to the liberals but got their vote. From the Republicans he failed to secure a single vote, despite the concessions. So, the Democrats managed, once again, to single-handedly pass legislation tailored to the needs of big business, much like the stimulus package of 2009, the bailout of 2008 and the credit card industry reform of 2010.
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Obama showed that he is capable of using his position and his popularity to campaign for change, but he chose not to until he had a totally ineffective bill to fight for.
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Why Insurance Industry Opposed Bill?
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The economic crisis accentuated the problems high insurance costs were causing not only for families, but for whole industries. Polls showed the vast majority of Americans were in favor of reform. A majority even favored a “single-payer” system. The demand for radical reform was getting stronger.
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The Obama administration allowed the insurance industry a prominent voice in the debate. By the end of the process the proposals did not pose much of a threat to the industry. As long as they managed to avoid competition by government-run non-profit alternatives, they were in the clear. But if the insurance industry had embraced any of Obama’s proposals and called off the bitter campaign of resistance, they would have allowed proponents of real change enough room to organize and strike back.
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The only way to avoid that was to keep the “other side,” i.e. progressive forces, on the defensive by denouncing even the most moderate change. The strategy worked wonderfully. The louder their voice, the more the leaders of the Democratic Party were trying to appease them. The Democrats did what they always do best: They silenced their left flank and kept moving the agenda to the right.
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The media played their part too: Fox News set the pace and the rest of them followed. They gave the tea partiers and the lunatic right their full attention, while they virtually ignored calls for radical reform – much like they had ignored the anti-war movement for the last seven years. Every stunt the Republicans staged was blasted in the news and amplified, whether it was disruption of town-hall meetings or teary-eyed TV show hosts.
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A Socialist Approach to Health Care
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From the start, Socialist Alternative characterized this bill as inadequate compared to what is needed - a single payer system. How would working people be motivated to organize support for a bill that included taxes on their existing health insurance coverage?
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The only proposal that could bring about meaningful reform was the demand for a “single-payer” system, or Medicare for All. Unions and community organizations could have mobilized their members, much like they did during the 2008 presidential campaign. With a proposal for real change, millions of workers and their families in thousands of communities around the country could have been inspired to build a grass-roots campaign for fundamental transformation of the health care system in the U.S. A movement could hold rallies and educational meetings, go door-to-door to raise the consciousness of their fellow workers and their neighbors and recruit more activists to the cause.
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Some argue that this measure is a step in the right direction and that improvements can be made as this law comes into effect in stages over the next eight years. Certainly this is not the end of the matter. This law’s attempts to entrench a profit-run health care system will be undermined. Experience and disappointment will mean that demands for profit to be totally taken out of health care and for public provision will increase.
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A lesson to be learned from this is we can’t depend on the Democrats to affect change. At best they are ineffective, at worst they are the same as the Republicans.
But we should not allow the Republicans to benefit electorally in November. It’s not too late to form a coalition of unions and communities and stand independent candidates determined to fight among other issues for single-payer health insurance, an end to corporate subsidies and an end to the war. We need candidates that will defend the rights of working people against those of big business.
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Socialist Alternative, P.O. Box 45343, Seattle WA 98145Phone: (206)526-7185Comments? Suggestions for improving our web page? Please email info@SocialistAlternative.org
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http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article10.php?id=1328
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The Real Winners in the Corporate Health Insurance Reform Bill
Boons for Business
By ANTHONY DiMAGGIO
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SA radio 03/26/10 Part 1
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SA Radio 03/26/10 Part 2
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WMFO Website
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Behind the News Health care Deform/Reform

Obama's Capitalist and Imperialist Accomplishments of 2009

2010-01-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

Obama has accomplished more for the US ruling class in the last year than G.W. Bush has done in the last decade...
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The ruling elites knew that if they were to select Obama he would be able to provide the perfect cover for their capitalist and imperialist agenda...
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Just think ... Bush would have never been given a peace prize for escalating wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now in Yemen. But the bourgeois prize was given to Obama to provide him with some Teflon coating that he placates his liberal constituents with, while his policies wreak havoc on others around the world.
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His administration has also gotten away with a coup in Honduras, without much criticism from his so-called liberal base. And as I am writing this, the violence still continues in Honduras...
Joseph ShanskyKilling Organizers in Honduras
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This bourgeois liberal base would be squawking and yelping if Bush had tried any of this crap...
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And oh, what a corporate giveaway this monstrous health care legislation has turned out to be...
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This kind of corporate bail out would not have been possible under Bush, because the liberals would not have provided him with the cover that they have given to Obama...
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This is why I hate liberals more than those on the so-called right...
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I wonder what other accomplishments Obama will deliver to the ruling class in the new year? If last year is any example we in the working class, here in the US and around the world, better get ready for more class warfare, and escalating imperial wars...
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I am posting links to some related articles and audio.
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Washington and the Coup in Honduras: Here is the Evidence
by Eva Golinger
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Honduras: Obama's first coup d'etat?

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The Enduring Crisis of Global Capitalism
By Committee for a Workers International International Executive Committee Dec 22, 2009
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The Struggle to Build a Fighting Union in Chicago
By Steve Edwards, President, AFSCME Local 2858, personal capacity Dec 25, 2009 __
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Quebec: Establishment parties have no solution to rising joblessness and poverty
By Olivier Lachance, MPS (CWI in Quebec) Dec 27, 2009
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Program about the Monstrous health care legislation that is getting rammed through congress.
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Behind the News with Doug Henwood- January 2, 2010 at 10:00am

Click to listen (or download)

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Capitalism Works To Create More profits For The Ruling Class And The Race To The Bottom For The Rest Of Us.

2009-11-17T17:38:00.000-08:00
It Really amazes me how blatantly arrogant the ruling class has become, especially in these times of growing inequality. Just check out this latest article from the newspaper Jeff Booth from "Socialist Alternative" dubbed the New York Crimes (New York Times).
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According to the whores for capital (the authors of the article below), American workers are overpaid, and although our wages have gotten closer to workers in the so-called third world, our wages here in the US have not dropped far enough, and job loses are the fault of those of us in the working class since we are being paid more than we are worth. Yep... you got that right ...all this unemployment is our own fault and not the fault of the capitalist system or the ruling class, who has gotten fatter and fatter at our expense...
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This article is a truly disgusting piece of garbage, but then again, it does reveal what the mouth pieces for capital really think, and the utter contempt they have for those of us who truly do all the work, while the ruling classes sit on their big fat asses, as they contemplate new methods for extracting more productivity, and profits from our blood, sweat, and tears.

Breakingviews.com
American Wages Out of Balance

By EDWARD HADAS, MARTIN HUTCHINSON and ANTONY CURRIE
Published: November 10, 2009

American workers are overpaid, relative to equally productive employees elsewhere doing the same work. If the global economy is to get into balance, that gap must close.
Of course, workers in the United States should earn more than their peers in China, Moldova or Vietnam. Americans take advantage of the higher productivity that makes their country rich: better education and infrastructure, abundant capital and a strong work ethic. But how much higher should American wages be?
The answer depends in large part on two measures: the difference in productivity in making goods that can be traded across borders, and the quantity of such goods. Both measures point to a narrowing wage gap.
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Many factors are raising productivity in poor countries. Fast development, cheap capital and more efficient shipping all help. Cheap communication via the Internet reduces costs and makes it easy to trade many more goods and especially services.
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The global wage gap has been narrowing, but recent labor market statistics in the United States suggest the adjustment has not gone far enough.
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One indicator is unemployment, which has risen unexpectedly rapidly. The 7.3 million jobs lost are more than triple the 2 million during the 1980-82 recession. Some of that huge increase reflects the sharp decline in gross domestic product, but there could be another factor: the recession shows that many workers are paid more than they’re worth.

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continued
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The New York Crimes (NY Times) has really reached a new low with this article.
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I am posting links to articles, as well as the latest Socialist Alternative Radio program, and some embed videos, which reveal the true cause of the capitalist crisis, and who stands to benefit from this capitalist catastrophic mess, and it ain't those of us who do the work...since we do not have any control over the economy under capitalism... The only solution to this kind of barbaric system is to overturn it and replace it with one of democratic socialism...in which we the people can have democratic control of the economy...

Working Families on the Brink
By Mary Smith Oct 28, 2009
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Harvard University: The Fight Against Layoffs Continues
By Joshua Koritz, Member, HUCTW/AFSCME Local 3650 Oct 29, 2009
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We Need a New Political Party — To Represent the Millions of Working People — Not Corporate America
By Bryan Koulouris Oct 29, 2009
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Kent, Washington — Teachers Strike Wins Gains
By Alton Sierra Oct 29, 2009
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Education Under Attack: California Fights Back — United Walkout Shuts Down University of California
By Devin Letzer Oct 29, 2009
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Mike Whitney
A Small "d" Depression
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Dave Lindorff
Blaming the Workers
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SA Radio 11/13/09 part 1
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SA Radio 11/13/09 Part 2
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WMFO Website of SA radio

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Is Marxism Relevant Today? from Committee on Global Thought on Vimeo.

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Music For Workers By Anne Feeney / And Workers Memorial Day

2009-11-17T13:06:00.000-08:00

This a website I found that has some interesting music for workers.

This website is Anne Feeney .com
She is a folk singer who travels around to play at rallies for workers, and is in support of single payer health care. She has a page that allows you to hear her songs in full with a pop up player, and also buy her music.

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She has songs such as;

How Much for the Life of a Miner?
Acoustic : Folk
This is one of the songs I wrote for Jerry Starr’s powerful play, BURIED: The Story of the Sago Mine Disaster. Contact me if you’d like to bring BURED to your community. Vocal and Guitar: Anne Feeney; Electric Bass: Doug Wilkin; Dobro: Bob Crafton
» full song info» add to station» rate this song
» share song by email» comments

Corporate Welfare Song
Acoustic : Folk
Tired of deadbeats living large off your tax dollars? Listen up!
» full song info» add to station» rate this song» paid license
» share song by email» comments
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And other interesting stuff...Check it out...

I also have some of her stuff on my Media Fire Files

And although it is a bit early for this holiday here is a little something about April 28: Workers Memorial Day

An Analysis of the film "Capitalism A Love Story" From a Socialist Working Class Perspective

2009-10-13T00:32:00.000-07:00

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I am posting links to the 10/09/09 Socialist Alternative Radio program.

This last show discusses the film "Capitalism A Love Story" from a working class socialist perspective, and it also includes other topics such as religion, The Dead Peasants insurance schemes, Sweden, Honduras, and Helen Keller...

This was a real interesting program... Check it out...Here...Part 1...Part 2

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Or on the top right hand side of my blog...

Other related articles

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Is Sweden Socialist?
By Per Olsson, Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna Oct 7, 2009

Michael Moore Takes on Capitalism: What Is the Alternative?
By Dan DiMaggio Oct 5, 2009
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Official joblessness tops 15 million in U.S.
‘Stimulus’ fails to reverse production crisis
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[Audio] What is the relevance of Marxism today?
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Paul Craig Roberts
Dead Labor: Marx and Lenin Reconsidered

Nobel Prize: An Award For The Worlds Best Imperialists

2009-10-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

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How befitting that a so-called peace prize was founded by an inventor of dynamite who also worked under his father, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, developing mines, torpedoes, and other explosives.

In the same irony this peace prize has been given to many defenders, and perpetrators of US imperialism, such as Theodore (big Stick)Roosevelt, Woodrow (League of Imperial Nations) Wilson, Henry (killer)Kissinger,and now Barack (Neoliberal Imperialist) Obama.

This prize has also been given to many other bourgeois personalities and organizations who in one way or another promote the bourgeoisie's version of peace, which is a negotiated settlement that never takes justice into consideration, and always gets resolved on the side of capital, power, and imperialist interests.

And even a racist sectarian like David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party won one of these crappy awards.

Although liberal journalist Naomi Klein stated on "Democracy Now" that giving this prize to Obama cheapened it, and that it was cheapened before, she obviously doesn't understand that this is a bourgeois award given in the service of imperialism, and capitalism. Sure someone like Nelson Mandela received the award, but he received it along side F.W. de Klirk, and only after he became an accepted figure within the circles of the bourgeoisie.

This is also true about the award given to Yasser Arafat, who received it along side Shimon Perez, and Yitzhak Rabin, who were both supporters of the first war on Lebanon, and the slaughter at Sabra and Shatila, and Rabin was much worse on human rights violations than the previous Likud government, as Noman Finkelstein pointed out in one of his debates on "Democracy Now"

"the record of Labour has been much worse on human rights violations

than the record of Likud. It’s a fact that the only Israeli government during

the period from 1967 to the present which temporarily suspended torture

was Begin from 1979 to 1981. On the record of house demolitions, Mr. Rabin

used to boast that he had demolished many more homes than any Likud

government. Even on the record of settlements, as Dr. Ben-Ami well knows,

the record of Rabin was worse in terms of settlement expansion than

the record of Yitzhak Shamir."

Arafat himself only received the award after he agreed to collaborate with the apartheid state of Israel, in which Fatah was used to repress, and undermine the Palestinian struggle for self determination. And so the imperial Nobel prize was used to give Arafat some much needed credibility(since many Palestinians began to recognize how corrupt and complicit he and his organization had gotten) which gave him the space to negotiate an unjust peace with Israel, in which the Palestinians would be forced to make vast concessions to Israel, while Israel would have to give up very little in return.

The only problem with Arafat was that he went along with most of the Israeli agenda but not all, and so these so called peace agreements resulted in nothing except buying more time for Israel to steal and occupy more Palestinian land.

So who will be the next to get this imperial bourgeois prize I wonder?

Mahmoud Abbas? Hamid Karzi? Honduran dictator, Roberto Micheletti?

Or maybe Colombian President Uribe who is responsible for the assassination of many labor activist will be given it for fighting off the swine flu? Or maybe current fed witch doctor Ben Bernanke for helping to re inflate the next capitalist bubble? Or maybe even the former fed witch doctor Alan Greenspan, the great proselytizer for capital? Or oh yeah what about Hilary Clinton for her real kick ass imperialist diplomatic skills?

Your guess is as good as mine...

There are many choices within the ruling class circles for the next one I'm sure...

Related Articles

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Hussein Ibish: Devastation Only Feeds Resistance to Israeli Occupation

War and Peace Prizes
by Howard Zinn

Paul Craig Roberts

Warmonger Wins Peace Prize

Newly added article:

October Surprise: Peace Prize to a War Criminal

Capitalism: A Love Story...Reveals Some of the Horrors Of Capitalism...

2009-10-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

I Haven't seen "Capitalism: A Love Story Yet," but I will go to see it next week, and when I do I will give my analysis about the film, but what I have seen of it so far, looks like it is an interesting, and thought provoking film.
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I have listened to some of the Michael Moore interviews, and saw the video of his rally on Wall Street. He does as a whole point out that it is the capitalist system which is the problem , but then he goes on to say how he still has hope in Obama, who is only just another capitalist politician, and another huckster for capitalism. As a matter of fact the Obamarama has been very busy today advocating his health care industry plan, which has been written by and for the insurance industry, and will be a bonanza for these parasites, since his plan will make it mandatory for all working people to buy health insurance or be penalized...
What a load of crap...
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All those who want real health care for all should oppose this plan...
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Michael Moore is sending out some confusing messages by still placing hope in Obama, while he lam basts the system as a whole... Obama is a man of and for capital, and he will not be effected by a film such as this one, since he already knows and understands how people are being affected by the capitalist system. Obama's only solution is more capitalism not less, but maybe with some minor reforms... very minor to say the least... and many of these so-called reforms are like the ones he is offering for health care...Which means more money for the parasites in the health care business, as well as the investors on wall street... If his bill passes just wait and see how these wall street parasites will rally... Some of them already are.. just at the mere anticipation of this gift to the ruling elite...
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Michael Moore makes some pretty good films, which do open up space for the discussion of topics such as health care and capitalism, but he needs to stop placing false hope in capitalist politicians... no matter who they are...
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I am posting links to articles about capitalism, as well as one with a review of "capitalism A Love Story...
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I am also including links to the Michael Moore interview on Democracy Now, and links to last weeks Socialist Alternative Radio program, which also discusses Moores new film, as well as discussions about what is happening in China... The links are also on my Media fire links which are on the top right side of my blog...

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I also posted some pics, and links from Michael Moores website that have been taken at some of the viewings for his film
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I have also included a video of the film trailer, and the video of the Wall Street rally...
And a program about the Pharmaceutical industry, which just happens to be another parasitical entity under capitalism...This system gives birth to newer, and more veracious forms of corruption and exploitation on a daily basis...that is why it needs to be replaced with a system of democratic socialism that serves the needs of workers instead of the needs of a ruling elite...
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Against the Grain - October 5, 2009 at 12:00pm

Click to listen (or download)

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By Dan DiMaggio Oct 5, 2009
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By Ramy Khalil Oct 1, 2009
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Wall Street Titans Use Aliases to Foreclose on Families While Partnering with a Federal Agency
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Dead Man Walking: Welcome to the US Economy
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My Little Town: Nothin' But the Dead and Dyin'
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A Jobless Recovery?
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After 20 Years of Filmmaking on US Injustices, Michael Moore Goes to the Source in “Capitalism: A Love Story”
Video Link
Page Link
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WMFO SA Radio
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SA Radio 10/02/09 Part 1
SA Radio 10/02/09 Part 2
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Michael Moores Website
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Homelessness Can Be A Good Thing: According to the Capitalist Media

2009-09-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Becoming Homeless in the good ole US of A, isn't a bad thing... oh no... not according to the big business capitalist media... Instead of reporting on how and why this is occurring on a massive scale not seen since the great depression, and what needs to be done about it on a massive scale, instead of in individual cases...We get these so-called heart warming stories about finding stability after being made homeless... WOW!!!
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Here is some of the feel good rhetoric from NBC news hack Janet Shamlian...
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"What happens when moms and dad lose their jobs and can't make the mortgage? Tough times call for creative solutions and we found one of them in central Tennessee. That's where families who used to own homes in suburbs near the campground are now living in it. It's a step toward stability"
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"You'll find tricycles and strollers on Timberline's pebbled roads, and the campground office is stocked with school supplies -- free to any child in need. For now, it's home...and one with a silver lining at that. These families who've lost so much financially say they've found something money can't buy; a neighborhood of people who care."
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Oh isn't that sweet... Unfortunately part of it has a bit of truth to it...Capitalism can work to isolate people from each other, and create alienation on many levels to working people... and a capitalist crisis can bring on financial ruin to many... especially those who are just one or two paychecks away from losing mostly everything they think they own...Crisis can reveal the true face of capitalism, where many people start to realize the so-called American Dream was only an illusion that starts becoming a living nightmare... And people living in such conditions can be brought together by crisis...
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Even though some of these people may be able to afford a temporary spot in these campgrounds what happens to them when they can no longer afford even that??? Where is the rest of the story??? What about the people who are being made homeless who have even less resources than these campground families???
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Although stories like these can expose the real face of capitalism, they are instead turned into feel good stories about individual cases, with so-called creative solutions... Where is the outrage??? According to the capitalist media there isn't any...They of course do not want to get the masses stirred up... That might threaten their whole system...
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And of course the media elites, who are the gate keepers for what kind of news stories are shown, understand that these serious problems have to be recognized... of course they can't ignore them... and so they need to come in with damage control and give us a feel good story about the havoc that is wrecking peoples lives...
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Those in the ruling class, want us to keep buying the myths under capitalism... such as, if you work hard you too will get rewarded... everyone and anyone can live the so-called American dream if they really want to... it's up to the individual... and on and on and on...
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Instead of buying this load of crap, we as working people need to organize to change this barbaric capitalist system that only works for the few billionaire families, who sit on their assess, and reap the wealth derived from us in the working class, into a system of democratic socialism that uses that wealth to benefit all of society...
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Below is the video from NBC about the camp ground homeless, and a link to the story page...And the Link to more news stories on the video page
Along with links to stories by and for workers...
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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Story page link
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Video page link
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By Marty Harrison Sep 7, 2009
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By Dani Indovino Sep 2, 2009
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By Jesse Lessinger Sep 1, 2009
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By Greg Beiter Jul 8, 2009
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By Dan DiMaggio Jul 7, 2009

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

2009-09-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

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Direct Link To Video

Repression In Honduras Is Met With Mass Resistance

2009-09-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

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There have been killings and beatings and other brute force abuses that the coup in Honduras has been resorting to in order to repress the mass resistance against their regime...

And yet I have not seen any coverage of this on the major network news programs...

Now remember how the big business US media covered the attempted coup in Venezuela, and some of the violence that had taken place there...

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I am posting tonight's Flashpoints program with on the ground reports from Honduras, and an interview with President Zelaya...

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I am also posting some video of the repression there, as well a link to a news article, and I will post Video "The Television Will Not Be Televised ... Even if you have seen it already it is worth seeing again, just to compare how the US media covered those events and how they are covering or really not covering what is happening in Honduras now...

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Flashpoints - September 23, 2009 at 5:00pm

Click to listen (or download)

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Honduras: Regime resorts to repression - Insurrection in working class neighbourhoods
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Other reports About Zelaya's Return To Honduras on The News Program Called Flashpoints, and the Narco News Website

2009-09-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

This is from last nights new report. These reports are from on the ground in Honduras, which is quite difficult since the coup regime has tried to cut off all communications as well as electrical power.
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I am posting the player as well as the page link
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There is an interview from Al Giordono from Narco News on Flashpoints.
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I am also posting another link from Uruknet which has a post from narco news about the return of Zelaya as the coup regime was denying his presence in Honduras
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Flashpoints - September 21, 2009 at 5:00pm

Click to listen (or download)

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Page Link
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Live Blog: President Zelaya Has Returned to Honduras
Al Giordano
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