US. This place will have its "Tunisia" too.

US youth begin to take to the streets. A mass movement of workers and youth will follow.

We have covered the uprisings, street fighting and general strikes in Europe and elsewhere over the past months. These have been against the attacks on living standards as the international capitalist economy has gone into crisis. So far we have not had such movements in the US. But these will come. The US economy is also in crisis, just held up and the movements temporarily suspended, by the huge debt which the US can keep taking on because it is the number one power in the world and can print its own money which is the world reserve currency. But US workers' living standards are falling and they have to work harder to stay out of bankruptcy as the rich are getting richer. At the same time up to 30 million people are forced not to work. And along with this we have the repressive apparatus of the state linked to the glorification of violence. The US with 5% of the world's population has 25% of the world's prisoners. The US is a power keg which will explode in the future. It is just a question of time.

I was thinking of this the other day when I was reading about two court cases here in Chicago. One was of former Chicago cop, Commander Jon Burge who was up for torturing prisoners until they confessed, many of them to crimes they never committed. Burge who was white was stationed in the South side of the city which is overwhelmingly black. His victims were almost without exception black. His job along with that of the other cops in that precinct was to keep down the huge black population of South Chicago which has much worse unemployment rates and poverty rates than the rest of the city. Capitalism in Chicago can only exist by keeping the majority of working class blacks in poverty and oppressed. The capitalist class in Chicago are overwhelmingly Wasps.

Burge's crimes were covered up for years by his fellow officers. Many of these officers collaborated in them and of course the Democratic Party machine knew what was going on. The judge criticized Burge's fellow officers for covering from him. Most black Chicagoans will find it satisfying that Burge was found guilty and sentenced. But the sentence was very short. Only four and a half years for ruining countless lives. This confirms what black Chicago and black working class people in general know about the US state. It is still a racist outfit. What anger the exposure of Burge's torturing and his small sentence has left in the black population. This will fuel the rage that will explode in the future.

Then there is the other case in Chicago this week. That of young boys charged in the the murder of a school mate. This was caught on video. The teenager Eric Carson was sentenced to 26 years in prison. He had struck the victim the first blow with a plank. This knocked him to the ground where he was stomped to death by other teenagers. Another of Carson's co defendants was sentenced to 20 to 60 years in prison. A third was sentenced until his 21st birthday and two others await trial.

The privately owned for profit mass media says the conflict resulted from tensions between students who lived in two different neighborhoods near the boys school. But this is not why the conflict arose. This society glorifies violence and conflict. Solidarity, collective action, friendship and comradeship should be the dominant themes in any sane society's culture. But capitalism cannot afford this because if these are the dominant themes in society then people will look out for each other and before you know it a real working class movement will develop to try and establish a better life for all. So the capitalist culture glorifies the violence, individualism, conflict, guns, division and so on. This is why these young boys, children in fact, are heading for prison for most of the rest of their lives and why their families are ruined. The mass media and cultural institutions of capitalism, the entire thrust of capitalist propaganda, these are what are responsible for the destruction of the lives of these children and their families.

US capitalist society is rotten. US working class people will reach a stage where they will not take it any more. Then we will have the kind of movements here like we have in Europe and North Africa at the moment, the kind of movements we had here in the US itself in the 1930's and 1960's. These will change things. And not only here but worldwide. Some poet once said something like oh to be alive is very heaven. That is what it will be like when the US working class moves into action.

This will be helped by the exposures of Wikileaks. The more we know the better we will be able to and inspired to act. Remember keep up the campaign to release Bradley Manning, Defend Wikileaks, and defend Assange.

Sean.