We need to absorb the importance of this. There was a powerful mood amongst the working class against bailing out the rich. It was so strong it defeated the bail out. The problem was there was no vehicle such as a mass workers' party through which this mood could channel itself and produce a more lasting and obvious alternative. However this should not blind us to the importance of what took place and the mood that developed. This mood will most likely dissipate as the mass bourgeois media and political machine threaten that unless the deal is passed a collapse will result. And as the leaders of the unions refuse to use their resources to build an alternative. However it shows what Facts For Working people argue. There is a base for a mass workers' party in this country if the union leaders would act, or if we on the left could defeat left sectarianism and bring together the resources necessary to build a foundation and if this foundation intervened with mass direct action to help working class people against the corporations and the rich.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Mood.
One important point I forgot to make in my post about the financial crisis is the role of the working class in the defeat of the $700 bn bail out. The mood against this bail out amongst the working class was very powerful. What about "my" bail out was the most widely heard cry. Members of Congress heard this and it frightened a majority of them away from voting for the Bush and Paulson, that is the Wall Street, plan.
It is not that complicated. Capitalism does not work.
An essential element of Capitalism's control over society and the working class is convincing us that things are so complicated that we could not understand to run things. The working class in other words is to stupid to build a new society. The labor and trade union leaders believe this also and so are like puppies trailing after the heels of the capitalist class.
But let is look at things a bit more carefully.
This crisis. The working class are not paid wages to the full value of what we produce. If we did there would be nothing for the bosses, for the profits of the financiers and industrialists. So we cannot buy back all we produce. So there is a surplus product that has to be disposed of somewhere. Capitalism tries to deal with this through credit. They loan money so we can buy back more. This credit therefore allows the system to temporarily go further than its own limits. The key word here is temporarily. At some stage the debt has to be repaid. When this happens the economy contracts, we have a recession or a slump. We are getting close to that now. Many people all over the world cannot pay back their debts and at the same time continue to borrow so demand is declining and the world economy is heading into a recession or slump. Marx developed this explanation under his works on the tendency to over production which he explained was inevitable in capitalism. We are now in the throes of the tendency towards over production expressing itself in the most violent form.
Then there is the other couple of issues. One the amount of credit that was extended by capitalism over the past couple of decades has been unprecedented. This means that the system was able to put off its crisis of over production to a greater extent than ever before but this also means that the contraction and crisis is also likely to be greater than ever before. The second issue is that never before has there been such swindling and crookery in the financial system. This is partly because the governments worldwide have not been faced with a strong workers' movement and so have been able to de-regulate and swindle and steal like never before. But the other reason is that the new technology has also facilitated the financial swindlers in creating new ways to swindle.
So what we see at the moment is that the capitalist chickens are all coming home to roost.
The capitalists want to try and solve this with handing $700 billion to the same swindlers and crooks and financial institutions which caused the problem in the first place. They try to frighten everybody that unless this is done then the world will collapse. And there is some truth in this. Unless they get their $700 billion it is likely things will get even worse right away. But if they get it then things will get even worse a little later. There is no way they can avoid the crisis of the massive debt and swindling on a capitalist basis.
But there is an alternative. And like understanding the crisis the alternative is not that complicated.
Instead of handing over $700 billion to these swindlers take over all the banks and financial institutions. Centralize them into one financial institution. Give this institution a constitution that allows it only to lend money to build productive forces, that is factories, transport etc, loan to people to buy and build houses for themselves, get education and health care, that is no speculation and swindling. This company should be run by an elected committee of working class people. No swindlers and crooks such as Paulson and Bush and Bernanke. Only working class people who will see that the finances in the institution are used to make people lives better and to build a sustainable economy. If there are technical details that come up then people who have specialist knowledge can be consulted but they would have no decision making power.
Along with this step the rest of the dominant sectors of the economy as a whole should be taken over. The major industries and distribution and supply sectors. This step along with the centralized financial sector would then make possible a plan for the economy. This is the solution, nationalize, that is take into public ownership the financial sectors and the major industries and draw up a plan of production and distribution based on peoples needs and a sustainable economy.
This plan would be determined and managed and controlled by elected committees of working class people in the workplaces and the communities. Discussing their needs and their resources, putting these discussions together and sharing their conclusions, this would make possible a democratic plan of production and distribution. This is democratic socialism. There is talk now of the $700 billion bail out being socialism. It is nothing of the kind. It is a hand out to the rich. A democratic plan of production with the dominant sectors of the economy under public ownership and control and with this plan managed and controlled by democratically elected committees of the working class on an international basis, this is socialism. This is the alternative we have to put forward to the bail outs of the rich. And to the capitalist system.
Sean.
Monday, September 29, 2008
The reality of it all hits home
I just talked with a friend of mine, a white collar worker. He just lost his job and $33,000. He worked for WAMU and has shares in the company. WAMU was solid and they encouraged him to purchase shares, of course, now, they're worth nothing.
His house note is $3000 a month.
His house note is $3000 a month.
Anyone here vote for Warren Buffet?
The Financial Times reports today that, "Democratic legislators said they had earlier spoken by telephone to Warren Buffet, the billionaire investor, who warned them of, "the biggest financial meltdown in American history if they failed to act.""
Wait a minute! How come the advice of one person is more important than the voice of millions? You might ask. Most Americans are opposed to bailing out these swindlers. It's because it is the unelected rulers of society like Buffet who make the decisions in a capitalist society. This shows the limitations of voting rights. This crisis has stripped the mask from capitalism as another post says.
As big as Buffet is, and this swindler has accumulated as much wealth as millions of the world's people, he cannot save capitalism alone, he needs the help of the working class and socialist measures to save the rotten system that allows and perpetuates such theft and the crises that accompany it. The rich are OK with socialism, they just oppose it for the rest of us.
Here is a letter to the editor from my local paper today. Like the man who dropped off nine children at a fire station because he was "overwhelmed" and unable to take care of them since the death of his wife, we will see more of this sort of thing as our living standards are savaged to pay for the $700bn plus interest that will be borrowed on our behalf by Buffet's friends.
Editor - As I was walking down Mission Street recently, I saw what appeared to be another homeless man, bearded, wearied, on his last legs. But something about him was vaguely familiar. As I bent down to see if I could help him, I was shocked to realize it was my uncle. Just eight years ago he was robust, in a good financial position and had lots of great friends. But I kind of lost touch with him; he became distant and introverted. Some people said he became a drunk or an addict.
Now as I bend over to help, he asks me for money, not even recognizing me or wondering who I might be. His eyes are glazed over; he says he has no friends. He is alone.
Wait a minute! How come the advice of one person is more important than the voice of millions? You might ask. Most Americans are opposed to bailing out these swindlers. It's because it is the unelected rulers of society like Buffet who make the decisions in a capitalist society. This shows the limitations of voting rights. This crisis has stripped the mask from capitalism as another post says.
As big as Buffet is, and this swindler has accumulated as much wealth as millions of the world's people, he cannot save capitalism alone, he needs the help of the working class and socialist measures to save the rotten system that allows and perpetuates such theft and the crises that accompany it. The rich are OK with socialism, they just oppose it for the rest of us.
Here is a letter to the editor from my local paper today. Like the man who dropped off nine children at a fire station because he was "overwhelmed" and unable to take care of them since the death of his wife, we will see more of this sort of thing as our living standards are savaged to pay for the $700bn plus interest that will be borrowed on our behalf by Buffet's friends.
Editor - As I was walking down Mission Street recently, I saw what appeared to be another homeless man, bearded, wearied, on his last legs. But something about him was vaguely familiar. As I bent down to see if I could help him, I was shocked to realize it was my uncle. Just eight years ago he was robust, in a good financial position and had lots of great friends. But I kind of lost touch with him; he became distant and introverted. Some people said he became a drunk or an addict.
Now as I bend over to help, he asks me for money, not even recognizing me or wondering who I might be. His eyes are glazed over; he says he has no friends. He is alone.
His name is Sam.
capitalism. Worse than you can ever imagine
Our family has a friend in Cook County jail. We had to communicate on the phone over the weekend. She could not just make a collect call. We had to set up a special account on our number for her to use. The rates? The same as the rate for an international call to Ireland. And part of this money goes to the jail. $800 billion bail out for the rich and sticking it to the poor.
I sometimes have to go to Cook County hospital. This is the hospital for the poor in Chicago. If you have to park there it is a quarter for fifteen minutes. In other parts of the city where much better off people live it is a quarter for half an hour or in some cases an hour. Again sticking it to the poor.
This capitalist system is rotten. For us to have any self respect we have to be involved in trying to end it and replace it with a system that has as its priority providing a decent life for all. This can only be a democratic socialist system. Send the Paulsons and the Bernankes and the Greenspans and the Bushs back to where they belong.... as far from the levers of power as possible. Take the wealth and plunder off them and redistribute it.
There is an alternative. The past weeks have torn the mask of capitalism. When they are making money they say the state should not help anybody especially the poor as this will take away their incentive to work. But when they get into trouble with their theft and plundering they run pleading and whining and begging to the state for a bail out. What about the affect on their incentive. Not a word about it. Capitalism has to go. As wee Marx said it is a system that cannot solve the problems of humanity.
Sean
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Republicans/Democrats and capitalist friends. Worse than you could ever imagine.
Already in this blog it has been reported that the richest 400 Americans have made $670 billion in the Bush years. And now the Democrats and Republicans are going to hand over another $700 billion to bail out these same capitalists and their financial institutions. This is a crime and a scandal of unimaginable proportions.
But compare it to the approach of capitalism in another area. Bush has just cut $8 million and in doing so halted a government program which tests the levels of pesticides in fruits, vegetables and field crops. This will make it harder to protect us from toxins in our foods. Bush and co argue the program is too expensive. So the top 400 can make $670 billion, $700 billion can go to bail out the rich, but they cannot afford $8 million to test our food for toxins. Capitalism is a rotten and degenerate system. It does not work. We have to fight for democratic socialism on a world scale.
Sean.
Quick Jab: The Ripple Effect
I was talking to a friend of mine who is a bellman at a hotel in Chicago. He and his co-workers are bored at work.
Fuel prices have been "killing" potential travelers at the gas pump, so fewer people are taking "road-trip" vacations. Airline fuel prices and economic conditions have been pushing up the price of tickets so much that those who can afford to travel are packing light in order to avoid surcharges for baggage. I need not mention the effect that the financial crisis has had on everyone from "Wall Street to Main Street" (sorry to use that phrase--something about it is grating...).
My point is that my friend has no bags to lift, so he has less to do, and he gets fewer tips. His story was a clarifying moment for me that brought the ripple effect to my attention. Huge events are having an immediate affect on the average working person. I have known this to be the case, but it somehow came as a striking revelation when my friend so clearly explained the issues and how they have affected his life.
Fuel prices have been "killing" potential travelers at the gas pump, so fewer people are taking "road-trip" vacations. Airline fuel prices and economic conditions have been pushing up the price of tickets so much that those who can afford to travel are packing light in order to avoid surcharges for baggage. I need not mention the effect that the financial crisis has had on everyone from "Wall Street to Main Street" (sorry to use that phrase--something about it is grating...).
My point is that my friend has no bags to lift, so he has less to do, and he gets fewer tips. His story was a clarifying moment for me that brought the ripple effect to my attention. Huge events are having an immediate affect on the average working person. I have known this to be the case, but it somehow came as a striking revelation when my friend so clearly explained the issues and how they have affected his life.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
See how easy it is.
AP has reported that congressional leaders and the Bush administration Have reached a deal on the borrowing of $700bn. This just shows how easily it is to get things done. The House can vote on this tomorrow and the Senate on Monday says AP. Imagine, this could be $700 billion for housing, education or transportation creating thousands of jobs.
As it is this money, which will be borrowed and paid back with interest by the taxpayer, will be used to buy from the speculators and swindlers the bad assets they hold. Then the redeemable ones will be sold back to them; just like the savings and loan scam.
The most important thing about this is that it obliterates their arguments that the resources are not there and that the "wheels of government turn slowly".
They say this is necessary to prevent credit "drying up". What this means is that if the taxpayer cover's their losses they will end their strike of capital. The capitalists have been on strike and have won it, but the shock wave from their swindling has not yet run its course and more is to come. They are much more determined and their politicians in the Democratic and Republican parties more loyal to their cause than the present leaders of the workers' organizations; they haven't won a strike of Labor in years.
As it is this money, which will be borrowed and paid back with interest by the taxpayer, will be used to buy from the speculators and swindlers the bad assets they hold. Then the redeemable ones will be sold back to them; just like the savings and loan scam.
The most important thing about this is that it obliterates their arguments that the resources are not there and that the "wheels of government turn slowly".
They say this is necessary to prevent credit "drying up". What this means is that if the taxpayer cover's their losses they will end their strike of capital. The capitalists have been on strike and have won it, but the shock wave from their swindling has not yet run its course and more is to come. They are much more determined and their politicians in the Democratic and Republican parties more loyal to their cause than the present leaders of the workers' organizations; they haven't won a strike of Labor in years.
What the richest 400 Americans got the last few years
Here's a good place to start for the $700 billion
These guys shouldn't be asking for a "bailout", they should be asking for bail!
Senator Bernie Sanders -- Vermont was on the floor of the Senate
today saying that he did NOT support the bailout, and specifically
cited the fact that the 400 richest people in America increased their
wealth by $670 BILLION during the Bush Administration's terms in
office. He repeated that so that no one would miss the point he was
making.
I'll repeat it so that no one misses it by reading it here either.
The top 400 richest PEOPLE in America increased their wealth by
$670 BILLION during George W. Bush's terms in office.
400 people - $670 BILLION richer.
These guys shouldn't be asking for a "bailout", they should be asking for bail!
Senator Bernie Sanders -- Vermont was on the floor of the Senate
today saying that he did NOT support the bailout, and specifically
cited the fact that the 400 richest people in America increased their
wealth by $670 BILLION during the Bush Administration's terms in
office. He repeated that so that no one would miss the point he was
making.
I'll repeat it so that no one misses it by reading it here either.
The top 400 richest PEOPLE in America increased their wealth by
$670 BILLION during George W. Bush's terms in office.
400 people - $670 BILLION richer.
Friday, September 26, 2008
I was down my local pub today. It is an interesting place in a small town. It's a great cross section of American people. I like to call it real America, mostly workers, better paid workers I admit, and some small business and professional people.
The patrons are also from all ,over the place. There are a lot of Europeans, Canadians, Brits and former British colonials. Then there are occasionally Poles and eastern Europeans as well. Tonight was the night of the debate between Obama and McCain. I always get picked on because as the only (known) socialist, people, are always telling me to drop the poltiics.
But tonight there were a couple of extremely heated arguments between patrons, native born Americans. it was mostly the anti-Buish crowd. Some folks tried to support Bush and defend his administration and it got more heated than I've ever seen it.
There was a lot of discussion tonight and a lot of interest in the political situation. I also met a couple of women who had their savings inWashington Mutual; they were moving their money out and asked me what I think they should do.
The mood is definitely changing out there.
The patrons are also from all ,over the place. There are a lot of Europeans, Canadians, Brits and former British colonials. Then there are occasionally Poles and eastern Europeans as well. Tonight was the night of the debate between Obama and McCain. I always get picked on because as the only (known) socialist, people, are always telling me to drop the poltiics.
But tonight there were a couple of extremely heated arguments between patrons, native born Americans. it was mostly the anti-Buish crowd. Some folks tried to support Bush and defend his administration and it got more heated than I've ever seen it.
There was a lot of discussion tonight and a lot of interest in the political situation. I also met a couple of women who had their savings inWashington Mutual; they were moving their money out and asked me what I think they should do.
The mood is definitely changing out there.
Audacity pays
In Palin's home town in Alaska five women were having coffee in one of their homes. As they talked they became so angry about events they decided to call a demo. They had never been involved in anything before. Alaska's main right wing radio commentator condemned them again and again, calling them socialists, communists etc. They stood firm and went ahead. They thought if they got one hundred people this would be good. As it turned out they got over 3,000 people in this small town. This was bigger than the Palin welcome home meeting. Car after car passed them by and honked their horns in the three toot o-bam-a way. If only there were a mass workers alternative.
But wait a moment. If only every five of us had the audacity of these ladies in Alaska then we could maybe even kick start something much wider. We must be sure that we point out the criminal inaction of the labor leaders but we must also be sure that we do not hide behind this inactivity. In the present climate very small groups can have a significant effect on events.
Sean
But wait a moment. If only every five of us had the audacity of these ladies in Alaska then we could maybe even kick start something much wider. We must be sure that we point out the criminal inaction of the labor leaders but we must also be sure that we do not hide behind this inactivity. In the present climate very small groups can have a significant effect on events.
Sean
Sasha's First Gun Experience
Sasha's First Gun Experience
Yesterday my mom stopped by on her birthday to visit with Mary, meand our new baby Sasha for the afternoon. It was beautiful in Chicago, with bight sun and a perfect temperature that convinced the four of us and the dog to head down to the beach. I would walk with the dog, and Mary and my mom would talk while heading down with the stroller.
On the way through my neighborhood I saw several police cruisers driving the wrong way up a one-way street. This is quite common where I live; an ongoing tension exists between the police and black youth that have survived the gentrification process that several years ago hit its high water mark in Rogers Park.
As we came upon Bosworth Street we saw about four police cars parked in every direction. On the same block there is an elementary school and a high school that many neighborhood kids attend, and school was just getting out as we were walking by. On any typical day the Chicago police can be seen routing the kids away from each other and back to their apartments. It’s a general and predictable form of harassment that takes on all forms and varying degrees of intensity.
On this afternoon a few of the girls leaving school were talking like there had been some kind of a fight. One girl in particular was talking tough but there were no marks and so the fight was probably more like an argument and nothing physical. Walking behind the girls was a group of eight or nine young black men, probably about 14 or 15 years old. They had their backpacks on and were laughing, entertained I was guessing, by whatever altercation had just wrapped up.
As we got to the corner an unmarked police cruiser pulled up to the boys and a white officer jumped out of the car. Before he could take two steps he pulled out his gun and pointed it at the entire crowd of young men, demanding they get down on the ground. My mom, Mary and myself were all pretty shocked and it sent a chill through us standing no more than 20 feet away from this angry cop holding the trigger of a loaded firearm. The boys were far less affected, however, after having experienced it so many times. While I stopped to witness what was happening Mary and my mom continued with the kid and dog. The young men knew the general cop routine and laid on the ground face-first while additional police came over to search their backpacks and throw some additional intimidation into the situation.
I see this so often in Rogers Park that it feels like Johannesburg, and I normally stop to let the police know they are being watched. This time I leaned against a mailbox furious at the treatment of the young men. I know I had to look mad, far more so even than the people with the gun actually pointed at them. When the cop glanced over at me I was ready for him to tell me to move on but he instead began to look a little embarrassed and thought to put his gun away.
During these moments I have to make some connection to the kids or risk looking like some dopey white spectator. This time I caught the eye of one of the young men and shook my head in the direction of the cops. He smiled and went back to getting frisked.
After the cops were satisfied with their moment they said some harsh words of warning and started back into their cars. No one was arrested and no firearms, drugs or explosives were recovered. In the end, the police presence was totally gratuitous and produced nothing except the confirmation of where the lines were drawn.
It occurred to me that I may have been the only one breaking the rules of conduct. For his part, the lieutenant expected me to side with him from the beginning, and assume that these kids had done something so wrong that a threat to their lives was needed to control them. According to this scenario, I then should have thought about how I would eventually have to teach my daughter about crime and its victims and how we are thankful to have the brave arm of the law on our side.
These ideas came to me later on, after I had some time to settle myself down. In the moment, however, I felt a pain in my stomach and intense anger. Young men looking into the gun of a policeman is a daily occurrence in Chicago, as it is everywhere poverty exists. These scenes are the reality of my world, the world of these kids, and now Sasha's, too. All of us are here together.
As she gets older there will be many of these moments, I imagine, times of potential education that can help her to understand her world. Yesterday she wasn't even big enough to see above her stroller. She had no idea that the lives of several young men were being threatened by police only feet from where she was sleeping. In the future she wont be sleeping, and she will be big enough to see what is happening. It will be a role of fatherhood to make sure these facts of life don’t go unnoticed and unexplained. There is so much work to do.
The walk went fine after our encounter with the Chicago Police Department. The beach was bright and cool and the dog ran from end to end, chasing seagulls. All of us talked together about the warmth Sasha has brought to us since her arrival, and the darkness of that one moment on back on Bosworth. We tried to balance the two feelings the entire way home and were generally unsuccessful.
My mom left and took the train home. Her birthday was bittersweet, just like our little world in Rogers Park.
Yesterday my mom stopped by on her birthday to visit with Mary, meand our new baby Sasha for the afternoon. It was beautiful in Chicago, with bight sun and a perfect temperature that convinced the four of us and the dog to head down to the beach. I would walk with the dog, and Mary and my mom would talk while heading down with the stroller.
On the way through my neighborhood I saw several police cruisers driving the wrong way up a one-way street. This is quite common where I live; an ongoing tension exists between the police and black youth that have survived the gentrification process that several years ago hit its high water mark in Rogers Park.
As we came upon Bosworth Street we saw about four police cars parked in every direction. On the same block there is an elementary school and a high school that many neighborhood kids attend, and school was just getting out as we were walking by. On any typical day the Chicago police can be seen routing the kids away from each other and back to their apartments. It’s a general and predictable form of harassment that takes on all forms and varying degrees of intensity.
On this afternoon a few of the girls leaving school were talking like there had been some kind of a fight. One girl in particular was talking tough but there were no marks and so the fight was probably more like an argument and nothing physical. Walking behind the girls was a group of eight or nine young black men, probably about 14 or 15 years old. They had their backpacks on and were laughing, entertained I was guessing, by whatever altercation had just wrapped up.
As we got to the corner an unmarked police cruiser pulled up to the boys and a white officer jumped out of the car. Before he could take two steps he pulled out his gun and pointed it at the entire crowd of young men, demanding they get down on the ground. My mom, Mary and myself were all pretty shocked and it sent a chill through us standing no more than 20 feet away from this angry cop holding the trigger of a loaded firearm. The boys were far less affected, however, after having experienced it so many times. While I stopped to witness what was happening Mary and my mom continued with the kid and dog. The young men knew the general cop routine and laid on the ground face-first while additional police came over to search their backpacks and throw some additional intimidation into the situation.
I see this so often in Rogers Park that it feels like Johannesburg, and I normally stop to let the police know they are being watched. This time I leaned against a mailbox furious at the treatment of the young men. I know I had to look mad, far more so even than the people with the gun actually pointed at them. When the cop glanced over at me I was ready for him to tell me to move on but he instead began to look a little embarrassed and thought to put his gun away.
During these moments I have to make some connection to the kids or risk looking like some dopey white spectator. This time I caught the eye of one of the young men and shook my head in the direction of the cops. He smiled and went back to getting frisked.
After the cops were satisfied with their moment they said some harsh words of warning and started back into their cars. No one was arrested and no firearms, drugs or explosives were recovered. In the end, the police presence was totally gratuitous and produced nothing except the confirmation of where the lines were drawn.
It occurred to me that I may have been the only one breaking the rules of conduct. For his part, the lieutenant expected me to side with him from the beginning, and assume that these kids had done something so wrong that a threat to their lives was needed to control them. According to this scenario, I then should have thought about how I would eventually have to teach my daughter about crime and its victims and how we are thankful to have the brave arm of the law on our side.
These ideas came to me later on, after I had some time to settle myself down. In the moment, however, I felt a pain in my stomach and intense anger. Young men looking into the gun of a policeman is a daily occurrence in Chicago, as it is everywhere poverty exists. These scenes are the reality of my world, the world of these kids, and now Sasha's, too. All of us are here together.
As she gets older there will be many of these moments, I imagine, times of potential education that can help her to understand her world. Yesterday she wasn't even big enough to see above her stroller. She had no idea that the lives of several young men were being threatened by police only feet from where she was sleeping. In the future she wont be sleeping, and she will be big enough to see what is happening. It will be a role of fatherhood to make sure these facts of life don’t go unnoticed and unexplained. There is so much work to do.
The walk went fine after our encounter with the Chicago Police Department. The beach was bright and cool and the dog ran from end to end, chasing seagulls. All of us talked together about the warmth Sasha has brought to us since her arrival, and the darkness of that one moment on back on Bosworth. We tried to balance the two feelings the entire way home and were generally unsuccessful.
My mom left and took the train home. Her birthday was bittersweet, just like our little world in Rogers Park.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Bus fights and the Metrolink
This is from Julia.
The sober living I work with was close to the Metrolink crash. Many of us talked about the "fatal texting" which at first people shook their heads in disgust. After talking though, I said so what if the guy was texting, people's lives should not be dependent on one guy getting distracted when a light comes up, what if there was a fire right then and there, or if he dropped his glasses. Who knows? We concluded that if texting was the problem it would be all over the news, if it wasn't we wouldn't hear a pep about it again.
That day Art was coming home with me on the bus. He had his bike which meant that instead of sitting in the back of the bus ( my favorite seat) we sit in the front to watch the bike. After riding for a bit from the once glittzy Hollywood and Highland we get to border entrance to the ghetto and half way to my home: La Brea and Venice. By this time the bus is packed, standing room only with tired Black and Latino people ready to get home and be with their families. You can tell we are all regulars because regulars ignore the little physical contact we have to have (elbow contact, legs touching) cause there just isn't enough room. Its too cold outside to open the windows but inside its almost steamy.
I hear a noise behind me these two guys start yelling at each other in the very back of the bus.When I turned around I see them: both in their late twenties, a Latino guy with long hair who looked kind of like a metal head a Black guy with his puffy black and silver Rocca Wear jacket. I caught pieces of " No one calls me a wetback" and then swiftly they come to blows. They had to swing hard because their bodies were surrounded there are so many people. The Latino guy is kicked down the back stairs but reaches back through the door to swing, the Black guy comes down to return blows. They both end up outside and two other young Black youth jump off their bikes and start to hit the Latino triple teaming him. The Latino guy gets out of the rain of blows and pulls out a knife and starts to slice at them. The Black guy looks like he has a knife too. The bus starts to pull up to the red light and strangely ( like comic relief) they all three line up obediently to get back on the bus! One of the smaller Black kids sucker punches the Latino in the head who turns around to return the blow.
The bus pulls off with that only for the driver to stop across the street. The Black guy in the Rocca Wear jacket runs and the people on the bus say " Drive off don't let him on!' But the guy gets on the back and sits down as if nothing ever happened. By this time several people have called the police but come on, the police are not going show up for another hour and they aren't going to chase a bus- we are going to our neighborhood where "we should be" and they wont want to hold that up.
The rest of us who are all either Black or Latino, start to look around and rush to let each other know we are cool with each other. There was a moment of solidarity, nods of understanding and a few strangers spoke with each other. Art and I both commented that we are all the same and we are on the bus because we are poor and that the bosses are the only ones who benefit from us fighting each other. Mostly, people just looked tired and nervous. A young Latino kid rolled a blunt indifferently. An older gentleman with a Caribbean accent sitting directly behind me says, "Ya see, if on-lee mo-ah people smoked da ganja we 'ouldn't be abeen so much a dis fightin". The front part of the bus laughed while the guy in the Rocca Wear jacket started to pontificate about Jesus who died on the cross for us. I wanted so badly to tell him to "shut the fuck up, no one wants to hear your bullshit" but how would that go over? The Black girl with the Latino boyfriend is talking shit from in front of the bus. Yeah right- better to be like everyone else and get home safely.
I wonder however, what would have happened if this scenario would have happened on that Metrolink? Would the engineer ( also Latino) have been blamed for being distracted while the passengers went to blows. Who would they blame? Would they blame Metrolink for willingness to pay lawsuit settlements instead of paying for technology to prevent people from dying? And the fighting... Would they blame the bosses for paying people such insulting poverty wages that the working class turned in on itself? Would they blame the government for using immigrants as another pawn in political gaming, along with aborted fetuses, gay fiances and non-violent drug abusers? Would they blame the government for conducting ICE raids on Latinos while shooting young Black men in the back? Would they blame the distribution of tax money from after school programs to prisons? Hell no. It would be blamed on "ignorance" and " intolerance" and other easy answers whose solutions are forever unattainable.
But the answer is simple. It is unity, solidarity, and fighting our common enemy. The organizing day by day. It wasn't necessary to talk to the fighters but the people who saw what happened on that bus as a symptom to a larger problem. The bosses are the ones who keeps us in poor neighborhoods while we work in rich ones. It is the government that takes our money and feeds it to the rich. Its capitalism and its government pushers, and our blows should be on their heads, not on each other. I know fights like this will continue and one day soon their fists will change direction.
Julia
The sober living I work with was close to the Metrolink crash. Many of us talked about the "fatal texting" which at first people shook their heads in disgust. After talking though, I said so what if the guy was texting, people's lives should not be dependent on one guy getting distracted when a light comes up, what if there was a fire right then and there, or if he dropped his glasses. Who knows? We concluded that if texting was the problem it would be all over the news, if it wasn't we wouldn't hear a pep about it again.
That day Art was coming home with me on the bus. He had his bike which meant that instead of sitting in the back of the bus ( my favorite seat) we sit in the front to watch the bike. After riding for a bit from the once glittzy Hollywood and Highland we get to border entrance to the ghetto and half way to my home: La Brea and Venice. By this time the bus is packed, standing room only with tired Black and Latino people ready to get home and be with their families. You can tell we are all regulars because regulars ignore the little physical contact we have to have (elbow contact, legs touching) cause there just isn't enough room. Its too cold outside to open the windows but inside its almost steamy.
I hear a noise behind me these two guys start yelling at each other in the very back of the bus.When I turned around I see them: both in their late twenties, a Latino guy with long hair who looked kind of like a metal head a Black guy with his puffy black and silver Rocca Wear jacket. I caught pieces of " No one calls me a wetback" and then swiftly they come to blows. They had to swing hard because their bodies were surrounded there are so many people. The Latino guy is kicked down the back stairs but reaches back through the door to swing, the Black guy comes down to return blows. They both end up outside and two other young Black youth jump off their bikes and start to hit the Latino triple teaming him. The Latino guy gets out of the rain of blows and pulls out a knife and starts to slice at them. The Black guy looks like he has a knife too. The bus starts to pull up to the red light and strangely ( like comic relief) they all three line up obediently to get back on the bus! One of the smaller Black kids sucker punches the Latino in the head who turns around to return the blow.
The bus pulls off with that only for the driver to stop across the street. The Black guy in the Rocca Wear jacket runs and the people on the bus say " Drive off don't let him on!' But the guy gets on the back and sits down as if nothing ever happened. By this time several people have called the police but come on, the police are not going show up for another hour and they aren't going to chase a bus- we are going to our neighborhood where "we should be" and they wont want to hold that up.
The rest of us who are all either Black or Latino, start to look around and rush to let each other know we are cool with each other. There was a moment of solidarity, nods of understanding and a few strangers spoke with each other. Art and I both commented that we are all the same and we are on the bus because we are poor and that the bosses are the only ones who benefit from us fighting each other. Mostly, people just looked tired and nervous. A young Latino kid rolled a blunt indifferently. An older gentleman with a Caribbean accent sitting directly behind me says, "Ya see, if on-lee mo-ah people smoked da ganja we 'ouldn't be abeen so much a dis fightin". The front part of the bus laughed while the guy in the Rocca Wear jacket started to pontificate about Jesus who died on the cross for us. I wanted so badly to tell him to "shut the fuck up, no one wants to hear your bullshit" but how would that go over? The Black girl with the Latino boyfriend is talking shit from in front of the bus. Yeah right- better to be like everyone else and get home safely.
I wonder however, what would have happened if this scenario would have happened on that Metrolink? Would the engineer ( also Latino) have been blamed for being distracted while the passengers went to blows. Who would they blame? Would they blame Metrolink for willingness to pay lawsuit settlements instead of paying for technology to prevent people from dying? And the fighting... Would they blame the bosses for paying people such insulting poverty wages that the working class turned in on itself? Would they blame the government for using immigrants as another pawn in political gaming, along with aborted fetuses, gay fiances and non-violent drug abusers? Would they blame the government for conducting ICE raids on Latinos while shooting young Black men in the back? Would they blame the distribution of tax money from after school programs to prisons? Hell no. It would be blamed on "ignorance" and " intolerance" and other easy answers whose solutions are forever unattainable.
But the answer is simple. It is unity, solidarity, and fighting our common enemy. The organizing day by day. It wasn't necessary to talk to the fighters but the people who saw what happened on that bus as a symptom to a larger problem. The bosses are the ones who keeps us in poor neighborhoods while we work in rich ones. It is the government that takes our money and feeds it to the rich. Its capitalism and its government pushers, and our blows should be on their heads, not on each other. I know fights like this will continue and one day soon their fists will change direction.
Julia
Future Housing Boom in California? Vote Yes!
For most construction workers today, work is looking tenuous, with the economy and all. I’m working 20-hour weeks right now. I was driving home from work this morning when I heard about a ballot measure that has got most of the unions fired up. UNITEHERE, the Teamsters and the UFCW: 3 big unions with at least one that calls itself progressive, are fighting a measure that’s gonna kill jobs. They’ve joined big business and big Agriculture to fight to save California jobs. Great! Jobs to be saved! I'm all for jobs!
The measure is Proposition 2. This Measure essentially gives chickens a few extra inches per cage to be able to turn and stretch their legs and some exposure to outside light. It’s a fairly minimal anti-animal cruelty Proposition to give our fellow winged workers a chance to shake up some of that limb-numbness that comes with being on your feet all day (and all night). So why are the unions against Prop 2?
Well, business, rightly, from its own narrow perspective, says that the new, legally-bound, construction will cost them money and lost revenue (profit). In their media campaign they argue they are extremely concerned that the working class will be hurt by higher prices and job losses. Also outdoor poultry could lead to increased aviatory flu (can chickens fly?) Thank God business is looking out for us, like they always do. Unfortunately, the union leaders believe this stuff! That’s why businesses are here: serving the working class community? The poultry “community," could they speak, may be less convinced.
It didn’t miss my radar that my own union, the Carpenters’ Union, has not come out on either side of this fight. If millions of new construction dollars are to be spent on new housing (cages), maybe my union leaders see a positive side to helping out animals!
My main, serious concern, is this is another example where union leaders side with business to supposedly save jobs at the cost of making the labor movement look like a bunch of narrow-minded, boss-like people who put business first at the cost to all else.
Well I'm voting for the leg room. Yes on Prop 2.
After this fight perhaps the animal rights folks can support better conditions in California prisons and in low-income human housing. When that happens you know the revolution has started.
The measure is Proposition 2. This Measure essentially gives chickens a few extra inches per cage to be able to turn and stretch their legs and some exposure to outside light. It’s a fairly minimal anti-animal cruelty Proposition to give our fellow winged workers a chance to shake up some of that limb-numbness that comes with being on your feet all day (and all night). So why are the unions against Prop 2?
Well, business, rightly, from its own narrow perspective, says that the new, legally-bound, construction will cost them money and lost revenue (profit). In their media campaign they argue they are extremely concerned that the working class will be hurt by higher prices and job losses. Also outdoor poultry could lead to increased aviatory flu (can chickens fly?) Thank God business is looking out for us, like they always do. Unfortunately, the union leaders believe this stuff! That’s why businesses are here: serving the working class community? The poultry “community," could they speak, may be less convinced.
It didn’t miss my radar that my own union, the Carpenters’ Union, has not come out on either side of this fight. If millions of new construction dollars are to be spent on new housing (cages), maybe my union leaders see a positive side to helping out animals!
My main, serious concern, is this is another example where union leaders side with business to supposedly save jobs at the cost of making the labor movement look like a bunch of narrow-minded, boss-like people who put business first at the cost to all else.
Well I'm voting for the leg room. Yes on Prop 2.
After this fight perhaps the animal rights folks can support better conditions in California prisons and in low-income human housing. When that happens you know the revolution has started.
What the rulers of the world are talking about
Below is a link to a blog in the Financial Times. Major bourgeois and their strategists discussing their system quite openly. This clip I believe stems from Bill Gates and Warren Buffet discussing how to cure some of the ills of the system and the term "creative capitalism".
These discussions between big capitalists and their theoreticians should encourage all workers to reject the idea perpetuated by them that we are all one group with the same interests, all Americans or British, no class antagonism. They talk openly about being capitalists and what motivates them; greed. The author of this comment says: "Selfishness is so built into the concept of free-market capitalism that the idea of making a role for selflessness seems nearly hopeless."
Can't fault that. He admits that selfishness is "built in" to the system. But greed and selfishness is no more "human nature" than selflessness. Human nature has potential for both, capitalism rewards the former and punishes the latter. Workers have made gains through selflessness and solidarity, capitalists profit when we exhibit selfish individualism, that's why the system rewards it. The obvious conclusion is that if we change the system we can eliminate the type of behavior that capitalism rewards. We can begin to travel the road that leads to real freedom.
That's why Spike is a socialist.
Read it here: http://creativecapitalism.typepad.com/creative_capitalism/2008/06/creative-capita.html#more
You can read the discussion between Gates and Buffet here:
http://creativecapitalism.typepad.com/creative_capitalism/2008/06/bill-gates-and.html
I haven't read that yet. Share your thoughts with us.
These discussions between big capitalists and their theoreticians should encourage all workers to reject the idea perpetuated by them that we are all one group with the same interests, all Americans or British, no class antagonism. They talk openly about being capitalists and what motivates them; greed. The author of this comment says: "Selfishness is so built into the concept of free-market capitalism that the idea of making a role for selflessness seems nearly hopeless."
Can't fault that. He admits that selfishness is "built in" to the system. But greed and selfishness is no more "human nature" than selflessness. Human nature has potential for both, capitalism rewards the former and punishes the latter. Workers have made gains through selflessness and solidarity, capitalists profit when we exhibit selfish individualism, that's why the system rewards it. The obvious conclusion is that if we change the system we can eliminate the type of behavior that capitalism rewards. We can begin to travel the road that leads to real freedom.
That's why Spike is a socialist.
Read it here: http://creativecapitalism.typepad.com/creative_capitalism/2008/06/creative-capita.html#more
You can read the discussion between Gates and Buffet here:
http://creativecapitalism.typepad.com/creative_capitalism/2008/06/bill-gates-and.html
I haven't read that yet. Share your thoughts with us.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Islamabad deadliest blast: workers pay the price
Islamabad deadliest blast: workers pay the price
21 September 2008
Most of the 60 dead and over 250 injured as a result of suicide attack on a five star hotel in Islamabad were security guards and drivers.
It is been reported by Daily News International today on 21 September that Americans shifted some mysterious steel boxes on 19 September on the 4,5 floor of this Marriott Hotel, the five star hotel that hosts most of the VIPs.
It seems that the religious fundamentalists got hold of this information and attacked the hotel. The hotel is almost burnt and a massive destruction of the whole area is been reported.
The security guards that normally work on contracts are paid no more than Rupees 6000 ($80) a month for 12 hours a day were the first victims of this bloodiest suicidal attack by fanatics. Then were the drivers who had driven the bosses to this hotel and were waiting on the main gate outside the hotel. The drivers are also paid less than Rupees 8000 ($100) a month for almost 24 hours on call duty.
It was reported by the electronic media that the government official are secretly saying to each other that they are relieved that no VIP is among the casualties. The other injured included the crew of the Saudi Arab airlines. Two American are also reported been killed.
The workers and "ordinary" people are paying the price of the militarist mentality of American imperialism, their cronies and the religious fanatics. Both had to be condemned. There is nothing like "anti imperialism" in the actions of the religious fundamentalists. Neither the bombing and military action on the "hide outs" of the religious fanatics has any element of progressive ideologies.
It is a war of the bulls. It is a confrontations of the mad, insane and fanatics. Siding with any one is burning figures. They both must be the center of our anger and hate.
There is no way to eliminate religious fanaticism by military means. Neither the fanatics can win by suicidal attacks and bomb blasts. Both tactics are one and the same. Both are playing havoc with the lives of the workers.
The religion must not be the base of the state. There should be full religious freedom and also for those who do not have any religion. Religion must be a private matter.
The imperialist forces and Pakistan government must immediately stop all military action. No one should be treated above the law. No one should disappear. The NATO forces must leave Afghanistan and Allied forces out of Iraq. There is no other way to deal with this situation of killing fields.
Workers of the whole world must unite and act against imperialism and religious fundamentalism.
By: Farooq Tariq
Spokes person
Labour Party Pakistan
21 September 2008
Most of the 60 dead and over 250 injured as a result of suicide attack on a five star hotel in Islamabad were security guards and drivers.
It is been reported by Daily News International today on 21 September that Americans shifted some mysterious steel boxes on 19 September on the 4,5 floor of this Marriott Hotel, the five star hotel that hosts most of the VIPs.
It seems that the religious fundamentalists got hold of this information and attacked the hotel. The hotel is almost burnt and a massive destruction of the whole area is been reported.
The security guards that normally work on contracts are paid no more than Rupees 6000 ($80) a month for 12 hours a day were the first victims of this bloodiest suicidal attack by fanatics. Then were the drivers who had driven the bosses to this hotel and were waiting on the main gate outside the hotel. The drivers are also paid less than Rupees 8000 ($100) a month for almost 24 hours on call duty.
It was reported by the electronic media that the government official are secretly saying to each other that they are relieved that no VIP is among the casualties. The other injured included the crew of the Saudi Arab airlines. Two American are also reported been killed.
The workers and "ordinary" people are paying the price of the militarist mentality of American imperialism, their cronies and the religious fanatics. Both had to be condemned. There is nothing like "anti imperialism" in the actions of the religious fundamentalists. Neither the bombing and military action on the "hide outs" of the religious fanatics has any element of progressive ideologies.
It is a war of the bulls. It is a confrontations of the mad, insane and fanatics. Siding with any one is burning figures. They both must be the center of our anger and hate.
There is no way to eliminate religious fanaticism by military means. Neither the fanatics can win by suicidal attacks and bomb blasts. Both tactics are one and the same. Both are playing havoc with the lives of the workers.
The religion must not be the base of the state. There should be full religious freedom and also for those who do not have any religion. Religion must be a private matter.
The imperialist forces and Pakistan government must immediately stop all military action. No one should be treated above the law. No one should disappear. The NATO forces must leave Afghanistan and Allied forces out of Iraq. There is no other way to deal with this situation of killing fields.
Workers of the whole world must unite and act against imperialism and religious fundamentalism.
By: Farooq Tariq
Spokes person
Labour Party Pakistan
Friday, September 19, 2008
Petula Clark and such
I just watched an old British film, The Lavender Hill Mob, a film I first saw many years ago. And as I do most times these days when I watch these old films, I go to Wikipedia and read about some of the less known as well as some of the more famous actors and performers of my youth. Alfie bass, Sidney Tafler, Sidney James and other names young Brits today have never heard of.
Wikipedia is great because as you read about the individual there are always links to others in the field. I went to Clive Dunne and the Scottish actor Bill Fraser who, when he wasn't acting according to Wikipedia, "ran a little sweet shop and tobacconists in Ilford" where he lived.
I breezed through a few more including Cleo Laine, Engelbert Humperdink and Winnifred Atwell ending up with Petula Clarke, she was real big when I was young. She sang in many languages and was popular all over the world. Wikipedia had this short paragraph about her:
"In 1968, NBC invited her to host her own special in the USA, and in doing so she inadvertently made television history. While singing a duet of "On the Path of Glory", an anti-war song she had composed, with guest Harry Belafonte, Clark touched his arm, to the dismay of a representative from Chrysler, the show's sponsor, who feared the brief moment would offend Southern viewers at a time when racial conflict was still a major issue in the US. When he insisted they substitute a different take, with Clark and Belafonte standing well away from each other, she and husband Wolff, producer of the show, refused, destroyed all other takes of the song, and delivered the finished program to NBC with the touch intact. It aired on April 8, 1968 to high ratings and critical acclaim, and marked the first time a man and woman of different races exchanged physical contact on American television [5]. (To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the telecast, Clark and Belafonte reunited at the Paley Center for Media in Manhattan to discuss the broadcast and its impact.)"
I always liked her and this added to my admiration. But it also made me think about the history of racism in the US. Christ, this was 1968. And we are constantly reminded by the media and information factories here, not to mention the politicians, that we are the freest and greatest country in the world, that we are the shining example of democracy and freedom over the last 200 years etc. (Native Americans must get sick to their stomach when they hear this stuff) Of course, all national governments do this, it's part of the patriotism con game, but when your the most powerful nation on earth and this with a history that is as violent and oppressive as any nation on earth, it get's a bit tiresome, particularly for those of us that have lived outside its borders.
What freedom is there in an executive from an auto company deciding what should or should not be shown on television? Compare US television to the BBC of the same period and there is no comparison where artistic freedom and creativity is concerned. And talk of racial bias. Which "Southern viewers" was the Chrysler exec referring to? Certainly not the black folks. They would surely be more surprised than offended. The Southern black viewer (those that could afford TV sets) did not exist for the Chrysler boss. The Southern whites had more money and could therefore buy more cars. Also, a major problem showing such a daring scene as a white woman touching a black man's arm would be that it would start people to thinking that foreigners are maybe freer than we are and even some whites might begin to question the official state propaganda that demonized the black man. Can't have that, can we?
Wikipedia is great because as you read about the individual there are always links to others in the field. I went to Clive Dunne and the Scottish actor Bill Fraser who, when he wasn't acting according to Wikipedia, "ran a little sweet shop and tobacconists in Ilford" where he lived.
I breezed through a few more including Cleo Laine, Engelbert Humperdink and Winnifred Atwell ending up with Petula Clarke, she was real big when I was young. She sang in many languages and was popular all over the world. Wikipedia had this short paragraph about her:
"In 1968, NBC invited her to host her own special in the USA, and in doing so she inadvertently made television history. While singing a duet of "On the Path of Glory", an anti-war song she had composed, with guest Harry Belafonte, Clark touched his arm, to the dismay of a representative from Chrysler, the show's sponsor, who feared the brief moment would offend Southern viewers at a time when racial conflict was still a major issue in the US. When he insisted they substitute a different take, with Clark and Belafonte standing well away from each other, she and husband Wolff, producer of the show, refused, destroyed all other takes of the song, and delivered the finished program to NBC with the touch intact. It aired on April 8, 1968 to high ratings and critical acclaim, and marked the first time a man and woman of different races exchanged physical contact on American television [5]. (To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the telecast, Clark and Belafonte reunited at the Paley Center for Media in Manhattan to discuss the broadcast and its impact.)"
I always liked her and this added to my admiration. But it also made me think about the history of racism in the US. Christ, this was 1968. And we are constantly reminded by the media and information factories here, not to mention the politicians, that we are the freest and greatest country in the world, that we are the shining example of democracy and freedom over the last 200 years etc. (Native Americans must get sick to their stomach when they hear this stuff) Of course, all national governments do this, it's part of the patriotism con game, but when your the most powerful nation on earth and this with a history that is as violent and oppressive as any nation on earth, it get's a bit tiresome, particularly for those of us that have lived outside its borders.
What freedom is there in an executive from an auto company deciding what should or should not be shown on television? Compare US television to the BBC of the same period and there is no comparison where artistic freedom and creativity is concerned. And talk of racial bias. Which "Southern viewers" was the Chrysler exec referring to? Certainly not the black folks. They would surely be more surprised than offended. The Southern black viewer (those that could afford TV sets) did not exist for the Chrysler boss. The Southern whites had more money and could therefore buy more cars. Also, a major problem showing such a daring scene as a white woman touching a black man's arm would be that it would start people to thinking that foreigners are maybe freer than we are and even some whites might begin to question the official state propaganda that demonized the black man. Can't have that, can we?
Thursday, September 18, 2008
the cook and the black eye
With the stock market casino meltdown and the mounting worries that it already represents for all of us, many other challenges facing working people can get sidelined.
I just had a chat with my brother who works as a handyman at a half-way house. This morning he sat down with the cook and laundry lady as he does every morning to have a cup of coffee before work. The cook had a black eye. The two other workers asked her how she got it. She said she fell. Andy explained, sympathetically, that it was near impossible to fall and get a black eye. The laundry lady added that such a fall would leave you with scratches too, but none were apparent.
Such moments can visit us often in the workplace and beyond. How do we offer solidarity to those that shun it. Sometimes it means small acts of solidarity till people are ready to fight of their own accord.
When it was apparent that the cook’s hearing had been impaired by her “fall” then the other two workers pushed her to go to the ER. The laundry lady’s boyfriend was called, he said he‘d take the afternoon off from his job and take her down to the hospital. Andy mentioned that the laundry lady’s boyfriend is actually the cook’s husband’s cousin. I asked if he was trying to protect his cousin. ”Oh, No. He said if he finds out that her injuries were caused by her husband, he’s gonna beat the shit of him.”
The workers felt a bit stuck for helping out their comrade at work, as the cook was still protecting her husband, but they consipired to make sure that the doctors contact the police about the case. Andy got a call at work later letting him know that the cook’s injuries include a broken jaw and she will need some kind of a plate in her face.
What a fucking world we live in. What a world to bring up daughters into.
I just had a chat with my brother who works as a handyman at a half-way house. This morning he sat down with the cook and laundry lady as he does every morning to have a cup of coffee before work. The cook had a black eye. The two other workers asked her how she got it. She said she fell. Andy explained, sympathetically, that it was near impossible to fall and get a black eye. The laundry lady added that such a fall would leave you with scratches too, but none were apparent.
Such moments can visit us often in the workplace and beyond. How do we offer solidarity to those that shun it. Sometimes it means small acts of solidarity till people are ready to fight of their own accord.
When it was apparent that the cook’s hearing had been impaired by her “fall” then the other two workers pushed her to go to the ER. The laundry lady’s boyfriend was called, he said he‘d take the afternoon off from his job and take her down to the hospital. Andy mentioned that the laundry lady’s boyfriend is actually the cook’s husband’s cousin. I asked if he was trying to protect his cousin. ”Oh, No. He said if he finds out that her injuries were caused by her husband, he’s gonna beat the shit of him.”
The workers felt a bit stuck for helping out their comrade at work, as the cook was still protecting her husband, but they consipired to make sure that the doctors contact the police about the case. Andy got a call at work later letting him know that the cook’s injuries include a broken jaw and she will need some kind of a plate in her face.
What a fucking world we live in. What a world to bring up daughters into.
What's up with that?
I caught the tail end of the news last night and the commentator was talking about the economy. He said that Tuesday was a surprise as the stock market declined so terribly. They thought the taxpayer bailout of AIG, the world's largest insurance company would inject some confidence in to the market and the investors might inject some capital, but investors "weren't buying it". In other words, they were not letting capital go.
He also said that the banks were "turning their backs" on the situation. This also means they aren't letting capital go. Imagine what we are called when we are forced to go on strike to win better wages and conditions? Nurses, teachers and social workers especially are viciously maligned in the press because they are "putting people's lives and safety at risk". People are losing homes and banks are "turning their backs". We'd be shot for that.
You notice there aren't any injunctions forcing the huge moneylenders to release capital or to force the banks to inject liquidity in to the economy; no banker is being accused of being unpatriotic or anti-American because they are turning their backs on a crisis. There are no accusations of terrorism like there were when the ILWU threatened a strike or when that strike took place in Minnesota after 911.
We are in a strike of capital. In a capitalist economy we are the possessors of Labor power and we sell the use of it to a buyer (the possessor of capital). Yet when we threaten to withhold it, to refuse to sell it in an attempt to either force a rise in its price or a change in the conditions under which it is used, the entire weight of the state is brought down upon us to force us to cease such unpatriotic and terroristic activity; we are forced to sell at a cost that is "realistic". From the buyer's point of view the cheaper the better.
Yet the capitalist, who, in a capitalist economy, is also the legal owner of capital in its money form, is not forced by the state to cease his or her terroristic activity and release this money in to the economy by purchasing Labor power (hiring workers/creating jobs) or investing in companies that do. There are no injunctions forcing them to build a hospital or school. The state of California's constitution guarantees that the moneylender's debts are paid. It doesn't guarantee the humans living within its borders a roof over their head, an education or medical attention. Who wrote that document I wonder?
That should tell us something about the government shouldn't it? And at the very least, the last few months have shown us that there is plenty of money for the schools and hospitals and public transportation that we so desperately need in the US. They use force to break our strikes, that's what will work to break theirs.
Can the government really be the government of "all the people?" I think we need to assess that situation.
He also said that the banks were "turning their backs" on the situation. This also means they aren't letting capital go. Imagine what we are called when we are forced to go on strike to win better wages and conditions? Nurses, teachers and social workers especially are viciously maligned in the press because they are "putting people's lives and safety at risk". People are losing homes and banks are "turning their backs". We'd be shot for that.
You notice there aren't any injunctions forcing the huge moneylenders to release capital or to force the banks to inject liquidity in to the economy; no banker is being accused of being unpatriotic or anti-American because they are turning their backs on a crisis. There are no accusations of terrorism like there were when the ILWU threatened a strike or when that strike took place in Minnesota after 911.
We are in a strike of capital. In a capitalist economy we are the possessors of Labor power and we sell the use of it to a buyer (the possessor of capital). Yet when we threaten to withhold it, to refuse to sell it in an attempt to either force a rise in its price or a change in the conditions under which it is used, the entire weight of the state is brought down upon us to force us to cease such unpatriotic and terroristic activity; we are forced to sell at a cost that is "realistic". From the buyer's point of view the cheaper the better.
Yet the capitalist, who, in a capitalist economy, is also the legal owner of capital in its money form, is not forced by the state to cease his or her terroristic activity and release this money in to the economy by purchasing Labor power (hiring workers/creating jobs) or investing in companies that do. There are no injunctions forcing them to build a hospital or school. The state of California's constitution guarantees that the moneylender's debts are paid. It doesn't guarantee the humans living within its borders a roof over their head, an education or medical attention. Who wrote that document I wonder?
That should tell us something about the government shouldn't it? And at the very least, the last few months have shown us that there is plenty of money for the schools and hospitals and public transportation that we so desperately need in the US. They use force to break our strikes, that's what will work to break theirs.
Can the government really be the government of "all the people?" I think we need to assess that situation.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
my morning
Angry worker , angry woman today.
As usual this morning I made my coffee and sat down to read the front section and the business section of the Globe and Mail before doing my domestic chores and going to going to work the evening shift . I am conscious of feeling very angry , in a foul mood, something very unusual for me. Not unusual to be angry but to actually feel as if I cannot shake it off with a good cup of coffee and my usual routine and determination to fight back and my inner peace at knowing there is no choice but to fight back is unusual. Being reflective by nature I wonder what is wrong , what is different about this morning. I do not like feeling this way.
I realize that for the last several days I have been immersed in reading and struggling to understand better what has been happening on Wall Street . I read a comrades posting on a worker who had 10, 000 dollars invested and is worried what will happen to his savings.
In a similiar position I have been wondering what will happen to my small and similiar amount of savings. Yet for some reason I am not worried about me- what the hell I say it is too small an amount to worry about. Let them have it-I will survive and I will fight back.
I am fortunate enough to know that if I am on the bread line I will have lots of friends there.
But I am damned if they will do this without a fight.
Instead I am angry and worried how vulnerable ordinary workers are , all the time , everywhere. As I watched BBC videos showing grossly overpayed stockbrokers carrying their boxes out of Lehmann offices in NY - temporarily out of a job, I had to suppress a smile. Serves you right-maybe you will have to sell you Lexus or your second home-if you can. But what about the ordinary clerks and receptionists and thousands of individuals who may not find another job. Will their home be taken away ? Will they lose their health care plan? Will their kids have good food and happy parents?
I try to imagine the hundreds of thousands of individuals and families who have had their homes stolen from them -all because of so called "credit default swaps"- financeers and investors betting on mortgage debt and insurers of debt like AIG and when they finally get caught in their greedy game get bailed out by the taxpayer-you and me. My/our hours of work, my/our labour power, my/our everyday worries and struggles thrown into the pot to save these greedy game players.
Can we only try to imagine what the what is it?- 84 billion dollars thrown at AIG could provide in a sane and humane society, an economy planned and implemented for what is the real majority of people on this planet.
Health care, quality public education, social security for workers who have spent over 40 years of their life giving over to the boss and the rich shareholders. Free childcare , leisure time to enjoy the world WE build and sustain every dreary day our alarm clock goes off and we trudge off to work.
And to top it all off I have to struggle to understand the machinations of unproductive finance capital. Fortunate enough to be a socialist involved with comrades who also struggle to educate workers and activists about what is really going on. Still my mind feels overworked and overwhelmed and frustrated at trying to really understand what Iam reading in the paper and watching on the news.
Who else will do this? Not the education system, not the media owned by the bosses, not the labour bosses who will not for a minute see what is right in front of them and educate and make angry the workers , angry enough to see through it all., mobilize and fight back.
How many more jobs lost, how many more wars , how many more people dying from lack of health care and on and on we go?
They are stealing our homes, our jobs , our food and our lives.
So i guess I know why I am in a foul mood today and angry as hell.
But not defeated.
As usual this morning I made my coffee and sat down to read the front section and the business section of the Globe and Mail before doing my domestic chores and going to going to work the evening shift . I am conscious of feeling very angry , in a foul mood, something very unusual for me. Not unusual to be angry but to actually feel as if I cannot shake it off with a good cup of coffee and my usual routine and determination to fight back and my inner peace at knowing there is no choice but to fight back is unusual. Being reflective by nature I wonder what is wrong , what is different about this morning. I do not like feeling this way.
I realize that for the last several days I have been immersed in reading and struggling to understand better what has been happening on Wall Street . I read a comrades posting on a worker who had 10, 000 dollars invested and is worried what will happen to his savings.
In a similiar position I have been wondering what will happen to my small and similiar amount of savings. Yet for some reason I am not worried about me- what the hell I say it is too small an amount to worry about. Let them have it-I will survive and I will fight back.
I am fortunate enough to know that if I am on the bread line I will have lots of friends there.
But I am damned if they will do this without a fight.
Instead I am angry and worried how vulnerable ordinary workers are , all the time , everywhere. As I watched BBC videos showing grossly overpayed stockbrokers carrying their boxes out of Lehmann offices in NY - temporarily out of a job, I had to suppress a smile. Serves you right-maybe you will have to sell you Lexus or your second home-if you can. But what about the ordinary clerks and receptionists and thousands of individuals who may not find another job. Will their home be taken away ? Will they lose their health care plan? Will their kids have good food and happy parents?
I try to imagine the hundreds of thousands of individuals and families who have had their homes stolen from them -all because of so called "credit default swaps"- financeers and investors betting on mortgage debt and insurers of debt like AIG and when they finally get caught in their greedy game get bailed out by the taxpayer-you and me. My/our hours of work, my/our labour power, my/our everyday worries and struggles thrown into the pot to save these greedy game players.
Can we only try to imagine what the what is it?- 84 billion dollars thrown at AIG could provide in a sane and humane society, an economy planned and implemented for what is the real majority of people on this planet.
Health care, quality public education, social security for workers who have spent over 40 years of their life giving over to the boss and the rich shareholders. Free childcare , leisure time to enjoy the world WE build and sustain every dreary day our alarm clock goes off and we trudge off to work.
And to top it all off I have to struggle to understand the machinations of unproductive finance capital. Fortunate enough to be a socialist involved with comrades who also struggle to educate workers and activists about what is really going on. Still my mind feels overworked and overwhelmed and frustrated at trying to really understand what Iam reading in the paper and watching on the news.
Who else will do this? Not the education system, not the media owned by the bosses, not the labour bosses who will not for a minute see what is right in front of them and educate and make angry the workers , angry enough to see through it all., mobilize and fight back.
How many more jobs lost, how many more wars , how many more people dying from lack of health care and on and on we go?
They are stealing our homes, our jobs , our food and our lives.
So i guess I know why I am in a foul mood today and angry as hell.
But not defeated.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The wasteful economy
I was reading the papers today and I was reminded that he US is a huge military power. In fact it is a very militaristic society. I can't really recall back when I was a kid growing up in Britain, this obsession with the military, and I grew up in a military family; my father spent 3 years and 9 months working for Mitsubishi in Japan. He was taken there after being captured during the taking of Hong Kong at the beginning of the war. Of course, I have been away a long time so things might be different now.
I think the US supplies about 46% of the world's arms. I see it is now considering sending missiles to the Saudi's to defend against Iran. It wants to put missiles in Poland to protect that country against an Iranian attack, something no one outside of the US believes of course. It has bases all over the world and wants to put missiles in Lithuania.
On it's own border with Mexico, a semi-colonial country with which it shares a 2000 mile border, a country with a huge working class, it has almost 15,000 border patrol agents, expensive footprint detecting technology and unmanned aerial vehicles. The border patrol's budget has increased 50% in a year in order to pay for this and stands now at $3.4bn for 2008. It has constructed miles of walls and fencing to keep the "foreigners" out, many of them part of the million or so Mexican farmers that NAFTA displaced, unable to compete with the highly centralized and industrialized US agricultural industry.
When you think of the massive waste in capitalist society, vast sums of money, valuable resources both human and technological that could be used to eradicate hunger and want a thousand times over. The capitalist class has shown that they can no longer govern society. The tension between nation states, an inherent aspect of capitalism that led to the two world wars, and all the wars in between and since, has been increasing since the collapse of Stalinism and the bi-polar world. The existence of the old Soviet Union created a temporary unity, a lull for a while in the conflict between separate nation states competing for global market share. The rise of China and Russia in particular is most disturbing to US imperialism and its European allies.
The Financial Times editorial today commented that we are living in "a world of extreme moral hazard". The Anglo American bourgeois are concerned. Their financial system is in crisis, what is referred to as the US model. Millions of Americans are losing their homes, millions more cannot get adequate health care. It is inevitable that a crisis in the stretched US military will burst in to the open at some point as the brunt of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are born by a small percentage of US families; suicides in the military continue to rise and are higher than in civilian society. The US electoral system is perhaps the most rotten and corrupt in the "free world" much shunned by a huge section of the US population who have withdrawn from the political arena entirely having to choose each time as they will in a month or so between one or another of the candidates big business puts forward.
The influence of US imperialism on the world stage is declining as best exampled by its inability to do anything but whine about Russia's invasion of Georgia. It's proxy in the middle east, Israel, the fourth largest military in the world was humiliated by Hizbollah and Iraq and Afghanistan are wars that can't be won.
As this unfolds, the leaders of organized Labor continue to render the Labor movement harmless as they cling to the coat tails of the Democratic Party in the desperate hope that this section of the ruling class will bring back the post war boom, that period from 1950 to 1973 that provided the material basis for the American Dream; "please bring back the good old days" the Labor leaders plead and throw all their eggs and their member's money in to the Obama basket.
But, as is for certain in the military, there is much anger beneath the surface of US society that cannot find organized expression. This blockage diverts this legitimate anger in to alcoholism and drug abuse, both legal and illegal; in to self absorption and addiction to mindless television shows as well as seeking solace in the supernatural world of religious fantasy.
Howard Zinn in an interview with Al Jazeera today says that the US empire is on the ways out. His hope is in the American people he says.In them
"becoming resentful enough and indignant enough over what has happened to their country, over the loss of dignity in the world, over the starving of human resources in the United States, the starving of education and health, the takeover of the political mechanism by corporate power and the result this has on the everyday lives of the American people. [There is also] the higher and higher food prices, the more and more insecurity, the sending of the young people to war. I think all of this may very well build up into a movement of rebellion."
I think in general Zinn is right, the dam will break at some point. While I have great respect for Zinn for his contribution as a historian, he is a liberal and like most liberals he doesn't see the working class as a force for change; he has no confidence in the working class and is therefore more afraid of the future. But he is not wrong to be concerned that's for sure and he is right about rebellion. Unfortunately, primarily due to the role played by the Labor leadership, some rebellions have been crushed and the building of an independent working class offensive has been delayed. Much unnecessary pain has been inflicted on the US working class due to this role.
This is the worst crisis in 60 years, particularly for the Anglo Saxon economies. As I've said before, we are living in interesting times.
I think the US supplies about 46% of the world's arms. I see it is now considering sending missiles to the Saudi's to defend against Iran. It wants to put missiles in Poland to protect that country against an Iranian attack, something no one outside of the US believes of course. It has bases all over the world and wants to put missiles in Lithuania.
On it's own border with Mexico, a semi-colonial country with which it shares a 2000 mile border, a country with a huge working class, it has almost 15,000 border patrol agents, expensive footprint detecting technology and unmanned aerial vehicles. The border patrol's budget has increased 50% in a year in order to pay for this and stands now at $3.4bn for 2008. It has constructed miles of walls and fencing to keep the "foreigners" out, many of them part of the million or so Mexican farmers that NAFTA displaced, unable to compete with the highly centralized and industrialized US agricultural industry.
When you think of the massive waste in capitalist society, vast sums of money, valuable resources both human and technological that could be used to eradicate hunger and want a thousand times over. The capitalist class has shown that they can no longer govern society. The tension between nation states, an inherent aspect of capitalism that led to the two world wars, and all the wars in between and since, has been increasing since the collapse of Stalinism and the bi-polar world. The existence of the old Soviet Union created a temporary unity, a lull for a while in the conflict between separate nation states competing for global market share. The rise of China and Russia in particular is most disturbing to US imperialism and its European allies.
The Financial Times editorial today commented that we are living in "a world of extreme moral hazard". The Anglo American bourgeois are concerned. Their financial system is in crisis, what is referred to as the US model. Millions of Americans are losing their homes, millions more cannot get adequate health care. It is inevitable that a crisis in the stretched US military will burst in to the open at some point as the brunt of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are born by a small percentage of US families; suicides in the military continue to rise and are higher than in civilian society. The US electoral system is perhaps the most rotten and corrupt in the "free world" much shunned by a huge section of the US population who have withdrawn from the political arena entirely having to choose each time as they will in a month or so between one or another of the candidates big business puts forward.
The influence of US imperialism on the world stage is declining as best exampled by its inability to do anything but whine about Russia's invasion of Georgia. It's proxy in the middle east, Israel, the fourth largest military in the world was humiliated by Hizbollah and Iraq and Afghanistan are wars that can't be won.
As this unfolds, the leaders of organized Labor continue to render the Labor movement harmless as they cling to the coat tails of the Democratic Party in the desperate hope that this section of the ruling class will bring back the post war boom, that period from 1950 to 1973 that provided the material basis for the American Dream; "please bring back the good old days" the Labor leaders plead and throw all their eggs and their member's money in to the Obama basket.
But, as is for certain in the military, there is much anger beneath the surface of US society that cannot find organized expression. This blockage diverts this legitimate anger in to alcoholism and drug abuse, both legal and illegal; in to self absorption and addiction to mindless television shows as well as seeking solace in the supernatural world of religious fantasy.
Howard Zinn in an interview with Al Jazeera today says that the US empire is on the ways out. His hope is in the American people he says.In them
"becoming resentful enough and indignant enough over what has happened to their country, over the loss of dignity in the world, over the starving of human resources in the United States, the starving of education and health, the takeover of the political mechanism by corporate power and the result this has on the everyday lives of the American people. [There is also] the higher and higher food prices, the more and more insecurity, the sending of the young people to war. I think all of this may very well build up into a movement of rebellion."
I think in general Zinn is right, the dam will break at some point. While I have great respect for Zinn for his contribution as a historian, he is a liberal and like most liberals he doesn't see the working class as a force for change; he has no confidence in the working class and is therefore more afraid of the future. But he is not wrong to be concerned that's for sure and he is right about rebellion. Unfortunately, primarily due to the role played by the Labor leadership, some rebellions have been crushed and the building of an independent working class offensive has been delayed. Much unnecessary pain has been inflicted on the US working class due to this role.
This is the worst crisis in 60 years, particularly for the Anglo Saxon economies. As I've said before, we are living in interesting times.
Monday, September 8, 2008
What the Nationalization of Freddie and Fannie Shows Us
Hank Paulson, the US treasury secretary, is a “strong believer in the free markets” writes Joanna Chung and Krishna Guha in the Financial Times. “But as the financial crisis has unfolded” the authors add, “..his free market instincts have been trumped by his Wall Street pragmatism and aggressive desire to solve problems.” *
The “problem” that Mr. Paulson’s Wall Street pragmatism is solving is the crisis of the capitalist economy and the interests of the class that governs it. Mr. Paulson entered in to public service, acting as a political representative of this class, after leaving his position as chief executive at Goldman Sachs, a very successful money-lending outfit where he did quite well for himself. According to Forbes Magazine His compensation package, was $37 million in 2005 with a net worth estimated at over $700 million. Robert Rubin, another Goldman Sachs alumni also entered government in order to assist them in their feeding at the public trough. Caspar Weinberger, George Schultz; they all do it.
The bold step that Mr. Paulson has taken that will hopefully end the strike of capital, is the nationalization of the debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two huge mortgage companies. The term “nationalization” injects such horror in to the hearts of the free market worshipers that they refrain from using it. In the US, they are just as fearful of the term, “public ownership” as they recognize that this undermines their propaganda about the superiority of the market and will get workers to thinking about other sectors of society that could do with a dose of public funds like education and health care; surely we could do with some aggression and pragmatism there.
With nationalization and public ownership out, the term Paulson uses for this US taxpayer bailout is “conservatorship”. My dictionary here describes a conservator as, “A person or institution responsible for protecting the interests of an incompetent.” So the US taxpayer, broke, in debt, overworked and stressed out, will be stepping in to protect an “incompetent” system and those like Paulson who champion it; indeed, will kill to protect it. We don’t get to vote on this of course.
They have nationalized the debt of their incompetents before. The Savings and Loan collapse of the 80’s and 90’s cost the US taxpayer billions of dollars. The big business politicians in the Democratic and Republican Parties first passed laws that enabled their crooked friends to profit off the savings of primarily older Americans and when the scheme collapsed they nationalized the debt of these institutions by taking them in to public ownership. Then they formed a government agency to go through these institutions, throw out ones that were beyond repair and sold the rest at bargain basement prices back to the same crooks that caused the mess in the first place.
As a direct result of the debt bubble and the capital strike that followed it, Bear Stearns, one of the money lending outfits, collapsed. Most people are aware that BS was bought out by another huge group of moneylenders, JP Morgan. But JP Morgan did this after being promised a $29 billion line of credit from the US taxpayer.
But the nationalization of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is a whole different ball game and is being reported as the world’s biggest bailout. The two companies guarantee almost two thirds of US mortgages, more than $5 trillion worth (Five thousand billion). Capitalism is a global system and the British working class was forced to bail out one of that country’s banks that collapsed due to the US housing crisis. Northern Rock, a relatively small bank in Northern England was nationalized at a cost to the taxpayer of 100 billion British pounds. The taking on to the public balance sheet the debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is 25 times larger.
So the big business press is championing MR. Paulson’s “pragmatism” and his “aggressive desire to solve problems”. He is the hero of the day. Not because he showed how to use the market to save the system, but how he took the bold step of going against his “free market instincts” putting the long-term security of the system ahead of them; he is using the taxpaying public to save the market. Paulson has promised the speculators that the US taxpayer will immediately inject $100 billion each in to the companies and lend money to them directly through 2009. So why can’t this capital be made available cheaply to the consumer directly? It can of course but that’s not freedom.
The hope is that this will bring down interest rates and make money a little easier to borrow. It is an attempt to coax the owners of capital to not be so tight-fisted with it, or to not charge so much for the use of it (interest). The finance capitalists are very happy that the taxpayer is coming to the rescue and the markets responded accordingly. Both candidates for the US presidency support this “socialistic” measure. The liberal Barak Obama who isn’t liberal enough to call for the elimination of the parasitic insurance industry from the health care business or for the “conservatorship” of health care and the pharmaceutical industry says, "Given the substantial role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in our housing system, I believe that some form of intervention is necessary to prevent a larger and deeper crisis throughout our entire economy,"
McCain, comments that, "The long-term reforms are to scale down Fannie and Freddie so their size is no longer a threat. And then privatize them. Get them off the taxpayer's books entirely," This is the S&L solution repeated.
This is not surprising as both these millionaires are candidates of capitalist parties and both agree that this socialistic measure is needed to ensure the security of capitalist robbery in the long term; not that they will admit it in this way. It is interesting to read in my local paper today the terms the mass media use to describe the victims of this process. “…the housing boom has turned in to a bust” comments the San Francisco Chronicle, “…even top notch borrowers have fallen behind on their mortgages or defaulted altogether. **
A typical “top notch” borrower is the average American worker with three jobs or, if one of the lucky ones, a family with one decent paying Union job supplemented by another lower income that is high enough to pay someone to look after the kids, often someone less fortunate who, by looking after someone else’s children is forced to deny her own children time she would rather give to them. But that’s what you have to do if you want to own a home and be a “top notch borrower.” This is “freedom” and if freedom is too stressful you’re free to buy Paxil. The American Dream is just that, a dream for most, especially the young. It is said that if you want the American Dream, go to Norway.
The fact that they use the terms they do to describe what is actually the taking in to public ownership of a huge sector of the economy reveals the underlying fear they have of the working class and the potential for increased hostility to the market and its daily misery.
This move must not be seen as their doubts about their own system; it is a temporary step to recovery. But we’re not stupid, if Paulson’s “pragmatism” and “aggressive desire to solve problems” by the government taking over what we are constantly told can only be a role of private enterprise surely it can work anywhere? Transportation, education, health care; these issues can all be dealt with though, er, conservatorship.
Whenever the idea of a national health plan or any other public control of major sectors of the economy is raised, some of the best workers will echo the argument put forward by the big business press that it won’t work, that it will “lead to bureaucracy” or compared to the vibrant private sector it is “wasteful, inefficient, tends to corruption” etc.
Public ownership, even in a capitalist economy, is a step forward as it weakens the argument that the market is god and only private enterprise works. They nationalize something to protect their profit taking and theft. But the lesson we need to draw is that if they can nationalize the housing market we can nationalize anything. It brings the idea more to the forefront of our consciousness that real public ownership, where workers own the commanding heights of the economy as well as the production and distribution of products produced is possible.
The heads of organized Labor should be using this failure of the market to discredit the capitalist class and their rotten system. The speculators have had a sumptuous feast that has been interrupted by excess. Retreating, they have gone on a capital strike. But they have no more right to own the surplus created by Labor than they do the factories and workplaces they use to extract that surplus.
The Labor leaders should be using this present crisis and big business’ response to it through nationalization to wage a war against the private sector in the workplaces while breaking from them politically by abandoning their Democratic Party and building a mass party of the working class an alternative.
But they will not do this, they are wedded to the Democrats and the market economy and they are terrified of the working class and its potential to change society. For them, capitalism is the only system of production that can work; it is the only way society can be organized. They have adopted fully the capitalist world-view. For them, to mobilize the working class on any issue is dangerous. Where will it lead? Surely it will lead to chaos as the working class demands what we see the system can afford but the capitalist class denies us.
There is a slight change in the mood among workers. No matter which party wins the next US election while there may be minor concessions, the attacks will continue and people’s living standards will continue to fall. There will be increased opportunity for the hundreds of thousands of activists, anti-capitalists and others that are involved in one way or another in social struggle. The youth will not be contained forever, nor will the 14 million members of organized Labor under the weight of a stifling bureaucracy. The old methods of struggle that brought us what we have today will re-emerge to replace the endless passive protests and the army of professional protestors that attend them. Direct action, workplace and school occupations, wildcat strikes and genuine militant Union oppositions that challenge openly the role and program of the present bureaucracy will not be unaffected by the struggles in society in general and will emerge as a genuine threat to the status quo.
When workers have raised the idea of nationalizing the likes of auto or steel or communications, the red scare has been the answer; that’s communism is the war cry. There’s no accusations of communism against Henry Paulson for nationalizing the debt of the housing giants. The idea of a $15 dollar minimum wage, free education and health care, decent housing and jobs for all, these are easily affordable, society is not broke; we just don’t own the resources that we create. We must demand what we need, not what Republicans, Democrats or Labor leaders tell us is “realistic”; society can afford it.
If it’s OK to nationalize the debt of the crisis ridden mortgage industry, it’s Ok to take in to public ownership the commanding heights of the economy under workers control and management.
• Legacy of Intervention FT 9-08-08
** Feds take control of mortgage giants: SF Chronicle 9-08-08
The “problem” that Mr. Paulson’s Wall Street pragmatism is solving is the crisis of the capitalist economy and the interests of the class that governs it. Mr. Paulson entered in to public service, acting as a political representative of this class, after leaving his position as chief executive at Goldman Sachs, a very successful money-lending outfit where he did quite well for himself. According to Forbes Magazine His compensation package, was $37 million in 2005 with a net worth estimated at over $700 million. Robert Rubin, another Goldman Sachs alumni also entered government in order to assist them in their feeding at the public trough. Caspar Weinberger, George Schultz; they all do it.
The bold step that Mr. Paulson has taken that will hopefully end the strike of capital, is the nationalization of the debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two huge mortgage companies. The term “nationalization” injects such horror in to the hearts of the free market worshipers that they refrain from using it. In the US, they are just as fearful of the term, “public ownership” as they recognize that this undermines their propaganda about the superiority of the market and will get workers to thinking about other sectors of society that could do with a dose of public funds like education and health care; surely we could do with some aggression and pragmatism there.
With nationalization and public ownership out, the term Paulson uses for this US taxpayer bailout is “conservatorship”. My dictionary here describes a conservator as, “A person or institution responsible for protecting the interests of an incompetent.” So the US taxpayer, broke, in debt, overworked and stressed out, will be stepping in to protect an “incompetent” system and those like Paulson who champion it; indeed, will kill to protect it. We don’t get to vote on this of course.
They have nationalized the debt of their incompetents before. The Savings and Loan collapse of the 80’s and 90’s cost the US taxpayer billions of dollars. The big business politicians in the Democratic and Republican Parties first passed laws that enabled their crooked friends to profit off the savings of primarily older Americans and when the scheme collapsed they nationalized the debt of these institutions by taking them in to public ownership. Then they formed a government agency to go through these institutions, throw out ones that were beyond repair and sold the rest at bargain basement prices back to the same crooks that caused the mess in the first place.
As a direct result of the debt bubble and the capital strike that followed it, Bear Stearns, one of the money lending outfits, collapsed. Most people are aware that BS was bought out by another huge group of moneylenders, JP Morgan. But JP Morgan did this after being promised a $29 billion line of credit from the US taxpayer.
But the nationalization of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is a whole different ball game and is being reported as the world’s biggest bailout. The two companies guarantee almost two thirds of US mortgages, more than $5 trillion worth (Five thousand billion). Capitalism is a global system and the British working class was forced to bail out one of that country’s banks that collapsed due to the US housing crisis. Northern Rock, a relatively small bank in Northern England was nationalized at a cost to the taxpayer of 100 billion British pounds. The taking on to the public balance sheet the debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is 25 times larger.
So the big business press is championing MR. Paulson’s “pragmatism” and his “aggressive desire to solve problems”. He is the hero of the day. Not because he showed how to use the market to save the system, but how he took the bold step of going against his “free market instincts” putting the long-term security of the system ahead of them; he is using the taxpaying public to save the market. Paulson has promised the speculators that the US taxpayer will immediately inject $100 billion each in to the companies and lend money to them directly through 2009. So why can’t this capital be made available cheaply to the consumer directly? It can of course but that’s not freedom.
The hope is that this will bring down interest rates and make money a little easier to borrow. It is an attempt to coax the owners of capital to not be so tight-fisted with it, or to not charge so much for the use of it (interest). The finance capitalists are very happy that the taxpayer is coming to the rescue and the markets responded accordingly. Both candidates for the US presidency support this “socialistic” measure. The liberal Barak Obama who isn’t liberal enough to call for the elimination of the parasitic insurance industry from the health care business or for the “conservatorship” of health care and the pharmaceutical industry says, "Given the substantial role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in our housing system, I believe that some form of intervention is necessary to prevent a larger and deeper crisis throughout our entire economy,"
McCain, comments that, "The long-term reforms are to scale down Fannie and Freddie so their size is no longer a threat. And then privatize them. Get them off the taxpayer's books entirely," This is the S&L solution repeated.
This is not surprising as both these millionaires are candidates of capitalist parties and both agree that this socialistic measure is needed to ensure the security of capitalist robbery in the long term; not that they will admit it in this way. It is interesting to read in my local paper today the terms the mass media use to describe the victims of this process. “…the housing boom has turned in to a bust” comments the San Francisco Chronicle, “…even top notch borrowers have fallen behind on their mortgages or defaulted altogether. **
A typical “top notch” borrower is the average American worker with three jobs or, if one of the lucky ones, a family with one decent paying Union job supplemented by another lower income that is high enough to pay someone to look after the kids, often someone less fortunate who, by looking after someone else’s children is forced to deny her own children time she would rather give to them. But that’s what you have to do if you want to own a home and be a “top notch borrower.” This is “freedom” and if freedom is too stressful you’re free to buy Paxil. The American Dream is just that, a dream for most, especially the young. It is said that if you want the American Dream, go to Norway.
The fact that they use the terms they do to describe what is actually the taking in to public ownership of a huge sector of the economy reveals the underlying fear they have of the working class and the potential for increased hostility to the market and its daily misery.
This move must not be seen as their doubts about their own system; it is a temporary step to recovery. But we’re not stupid, if Paulson’s “pragmatism” and “aggressive desire to solve problems” by the government taking over what we are constantly told can only be a role of private enterprise surely it can work anywhere? Transportation, education, health care; these issues can all be dealt with though, er, conservatorship.
Whenever the idea of a national health plan or any other public control of major sectors of the economy is raised, some of the best workers will echo the argument put forward by the big business press that it won’t work, that it will “lead to bureaucracy” or compared to the vibrant private sector it is “wasteful, inefficient, tends to corruption” etc.
Public ownership, even in a capitalist economy, is a step forward as it weakens the argument that the market is god and only private enterprise works. They nationalize something to protect their profit taking and theft. But the lesson we need to draw is that if they can nationalize the housing market we can nationalize anything. It brings the idea more to the forefront of our consciousness that real public ownership, where workers own the commanding heights of the economy as well as the production and distribution of products produced is possible.
The heads of organized Labor should be using this failure of the market to discredit the capitalist class and their rotten system. The speculators have had a sumptuous feast that has been interrupted by excess. Retreating, they have gone on a capital strike. But they have no more right to own the surplus created by Labor than they do the factories and workplaces they use to extract that surplus.
The Labor leaders should be using this present crisis and big business’ response to it through nationalization to wage a war against the private sector in the workplaces while breaking from them politically by abandoning their Democratic Party and building a mass party of the working class an alternative.
But they will not do this, they are wedded to the Democrats and the market economy and they are terrified of the working class and its potential to change society. For them, capitalism is the only system of production that can work; it is the only way society can be organized. They have adopted fully the capitalist world-view. For them, to mobilize the working class on any issue is dangerous. Where will it lead? Surely it will lead to chaos as the working class demands what we see the system can afford but the capitalist class denies us.
There is a slight change in the mood among workers. No matter which party wins the next US election while there may be minor concessions, the attacks will continue and people’s living standards will continue to fall. There will be increased opportunity for the hundreds of thousands of activists, anti-capitalists and others that are involved in one way or another in social struggle. The youth will not be contained forever, nor will the 14 million members of organized Labor under the weight of a stifling bureaucracy. The old methods of struggle that brought us what we have today will re-emerge to replace the endless passive protests and the army of professional protestors that attend them. Direct action, workplace and school occupations, wildcat strikes and genuine militant Union oppositions that challenge openly the role and program of the present bureaucracy will not be unaffected by the struggles in society in general and will emerge as a genuine threat to the status quo.
When workers have raised the idea of nationalizing the likes of auto or steel or communications, the red scare has been the answer; that’s communism is the war cry. There’s no accusations of communism against Henry Paulson for nationalizing the debt of the housing giants. The idea of a $15 dollar minimum wage, free education and health care, decent housing and jobs for all, these are easily affordable, society is not broke; we just don’t own the resources that we create. We must demand what we need, not what Republicans, Democrats or Labor leaders tell us is “realistic”; society can afford it.
If it’s OK to nationalize the debt of the crisis ridden mortgage industry, it’s Ok to take in to public ownership the commanding heights of the economy under workers control and management.
• Legacy of Intervention FT 9-08-08
** Feds take control of mortgage giants: SF Chronicle 9-08-08
Friday, September 5, 2008
First Day of School, Charles Dickens & Covert Racism
Last week our almost 5-year old daughter began Kindergarten at the public elementary school two blocks from our house. Such transitions are often anxious times for both child and parents.
Wednesday evening I attended the Back to School night and along with a dozen or more parents, overwhelmingly moms, I listened as the teacher explained her hopes for the children’s year within the school district’s mandated curriculum.
“Basically, Kindergarten is the new 1st Grade” explained the teacher, a 30-year veteran of the Oakland School District. She went on to explain how the school is required to have every 5-year old be able to read by the end of the year. “We teach reading 90 minutes each day. We have 2 science classes a week and math for a minimum of one hour a day” she explained. The school day for the four and five-year olds is 7 hours long. There are 3 recesses, including lunch and no music or art to speak of.
As I left, I thought: OMG, my daughter’s childhood is over. The rat race begins here. Get up, go to school, suffer, come home tired, go to bed, get up, go to school. While children don’t have to work in factories in this country, nor are parents forced to sell their children, the earlier and earlier start of the drudgery of work is no sign of social progress.
Additionally, on the day the country of Georgia was rewarded with $1 billion from the US government for doing the oil business’ dirty work, we were asked to donate toilet paper, hand sanitizer, paper, children’s snacks and other necessities on a long list the teacher gave out.
When picking up my girl the next day I chatted with the teacher. She had implied in her talk the night before that the curriculum was too much for the kids and not good for their general development, adding, “the children start raising their hands right after lunch to ask if it’s time to go home yet. They are tired.” She explained that her hands were tied with the high-performance pressure of the curriculum. I responded that the politicians play football with our kids to try to prove, through testing, that they’re strong on Education. She agreed.
The testing-driven style of education is a retreat to pre-civil rights era education. In Charles Dicken’s critique of Victorian Schools, Hard Times, the main character is a Member of Parliament and the owner of a local school. His railroad-method of education has no room for exploration, imagination or dissent. The children are seen as ‘little vessels’ to be filled to the brim with facts. The two strains of education were taught as one: for the children expected to become managers, they learnt how the teacher taught; for the children of the workers, their education was essentially about obedience and tipping your cap to the bosses’ “fact.”
Meanwhile there is the additional factor at our local school. It is considered an underperforming school. All schools with lower income children are this way. So, the school is under more pressure than many schools to raise test results,
Our neighborhood’ s racial makeup is about 50/50 black and white. In recent years very few black people have moved into the area. The newer management-types that could afford to move into the area, are a fairly friendly bunch of people. There are many Obama yard signs around and no Republican bumper stickers on the Prius cars in the neighborhood. During a recent vote on more funding for public libraries, supporter’s yard signs were everywhere.
Of the dozens of children eligible for Kindergarten in our neighborhood whose parents are white liberals, none have sent their kids to the local school. Not one. They either have gone private or they drive their kids to the few public schools up in the Oakland hills.
My partner told me that even she was stunned by the covert racism. My own mum that brought up my brothers and I, did not have the time or inclination to pick a local school. We just went to the school we were told to go to.
In contrast, the neurosis of local management-type parents is astounding. They talk about nothing but their children’s education. Stripping away the pretense of the higher calling of academics, essentially it’s all about getting their own kid to the front of the line. That, in their view, is the goal of parenting. The result will be anxious, socially unskilled children who will probably become anxious, socially unskilled adults. Perfect managers. They speak the diversity and tolerance talk, but do not recognize the advantage of the diversity and tolerance walk.
Our Kindergarten teacher does a great job. The mandated pressures on her to teach strictly by the book and timetable makes her job more difficult. However, she told me that our daughter is running around, chasing the boys in the playground and generally happy.
My daughter confided to me that she already has two boyfriends. On picking her up one afternoon, I noticed from a distance that while in line a boy pushed by her, she turned and jabbed the kid to get his attention. These apparently small skills, of learning how and when to stand up for yourself and how to enjoy the people around you are among the most important skills we learn at school.
With both of the big Presidential candidates committed to variations of No Child Left Behind, our kids will be forced to continue the monotony of fact-driven education, but working class kids will survive because they are more likely to see through the system’s veneer.
Wednesday evening I attended the Back to School night and along with a dozen or more parents, overwhelmingly moms, I listened as the teacher explained her hopes for the children’s year within the school district’s mandated curriculum.
“Basically, Kindergarten is the new 1st Grade” explained the teacher, a 30-year veteran of the Oakland School District. She went on to explain how the school is required to have every 5-year old be able to read by the end of the year. “We teach reading 90 minutes each day. We have 2 science classes a week and math for a minimum of one hour a day” she explained. The school day for the four and five-year olds is 7 hours long. There are 3 recesses, including lunch and no music or art to speak of.
As I left, I thought: OMG, my daughter’s childhood is over. The rat race begins here. Get up, go to school, suffer, come home tired, go to bed, get up, go to school. While children don’t have to work in factories in this country, nor are parents forced to sell their children, the earlier and earlier start of the drudgery of work is no sign of social progress.
Additionally, on the day the country of Georgia was rewarded with $1 billion from the US government for doing the oil business’ dirty work, we were asked to donate toilet paper, hand sanitizer, paper, children’s snacks and other necessities on a long list the teacher gave out.
When picking up my girl the next day I chatted with the teacher. She had implied in her talk the night before that the curriculum was too much for the kids and not good for their general development, adding, “the children start raising their hands right after lunch to ask if it’s time to go home yet. They are tired.” She explained that her hands were tied with the high-performance pressure of the curriculum. I responded that the politicians play football with our kids to try to prove, through testing, that they’re strong on Education. She agreed.
The testing-driven style of education is a retreat to pre-civil rights era education. In Charles Dicken’s critique of Victorian Schools, Hard Times, the main character is a Member of Parliament and the owner of a local school. His railroad-method of education has no room for exploration, imagination or dissent. The children are seen as ‘little vessels’ to be filled to the brim with facts. The two strains of education were taught as one: for the children expected to become managers, they learnt how the teacher taught; for the children of the workers, their education was essentially about obedience and tipping your cap to the bosses’ “fact.”
Meanwhile there is the additional factor at our local school. It is considered an underperforming school. All schools with lower income children are this way. So, the school is under more pressure than many schools to raise test results,
Our neighborhood’ s racial makeup is about 50/50 black and white. In recent years very few black people have moved into the area. The newer management-types that could afford to move into the area, are a fairly friendly bunch of people. There are many Obama yard signs around and no Republican bumper stickers on the Prius cars in the neighborhood. During a recent vote on more funding for public libraries, supporter’s yard signs were everywhere.
Of the dozens of children eligible for Kindergarten in our neighborhood whose parents are white liberals, none have sent their kids to the local school. Not one. They either have gone private or they drive their kids to the few public schools up in the Oakland hills.
My partner told me that even she was stunned by the covert racism. My own mum that brought up my brothers and I, did not have the time or inclination to pick a local school. We just went to the school we were told to go to.
In contrast, the neurosis of local management-type parents is astounding. They talk about nothing but their children’s education. Stripping away the pretense of the higher calling of academics, essentially it’s all about getting their own kid to the front of the line. That, in their view, is the goal of parenting. The result will be anxious, socially unskilled children who will probably become anxious, socially unskilled adults. Perfect managers. They speak the diversity and tolerance talk, but do not recognize the advantage of the diversity and tolerance walk.
Our Kindergarten teacher does a great job. The mandated pressures on her to teach strictly by the book and timetable makes her job more difficult. However, she told me that our daughter is running around, chasing the boys in the playground and generally happy.
My daughter confided to me that she already has two boyfriends. On picking her up one afternoon, I noticed from a distance that while in line a boy pushed by her, she turned and jabbed the kid to get his attention. These apparently small skills, of learning how and when to stand up for yourself and how to enjoy the people around you are among the most important skills we learn at school.
With both of the big Presidential candidates committed to variations of No Child Left Behind, our kids will be forced to continue the monotony of fact-driven education, but working class kids will survive because they are more likely to see through the system’s veneer.
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