During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel.
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99% — Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico
Pacific Garbage Patch What is the Pacific Garbage Patch? 90% of the garbage floating in the Earth’s oceans is plastic and less than 5% of all plastic is recycled. The patch mostly consists of pelagic plastics, formed from plastic bags, plastic water bottles, bottle caps and styrofoam. Plastic does not biodegrade, the sun breaks these down into smaller and smaller pieces through photodegradation, which is why it is so difficult to judge the size of the patches, since these pieces are not visible from satellites or planes.
Quote of The Day:
From Catalan elections: Historic defeat for Spanish nationalist reaction: For a united front of the fighting Left to fight for a workers’ Republic: The struggle is the only way to make the workers’ republic a reality: The scenario a nightmare for the Spanish and Catalan bourgeoisie, which they are already weaving new repressive plans. In fact, the new legal proceedings against prominent figures who participated in the 1-O referendum such as Marta Rovira, Mas, Anna Gabriel and others, who are accused of the crime of “rebellion”, make it very clear what the strategy of the Spanish State and the PP is after its electoral defeat. Although they try to disguise it, the reactionary bloc is in these moments dismayed by the result. El País, which stands for its role in the crusade against the Catalan people, recognized it in the headline of its editorial on December 23: “Do not panic”. The heading is as illustrative as its content: “The pro-independence parties have achieved a remarkable result (surprising …). ” Yes, it has been surprising for these champions of repression, manipulation and lies. They believed that they could bend the will of a people, and been taught an unforgettable lesson, like on 1 and 3 of October. What will happen now? The perspectives are not easy to lay out, but it is necessary to analyze the fundamental trends.
The PP has sunk in Catalonia and Ciudadanos has swallowed its electoral base. This fact has deep political consequences for the whole Spanish state. It is a serious threat to Rajoy, because the surge of Ciudadanos could be consolidated. For this reason, it is even more improbable that the government of Rajoy and the State will meaningfully negotiate with the Catalan independence movement, or even agree to a constitutional reform. If they do something like that, they know they will leave the way open for Ciudadanos to undermine them further. The PP will continue polarizing politics around the Catalan national question, and will not hold back.
The judicial processes and the repression will not subside, quite the contrary. The state will not renounce attacking the bourgeois and petty bourgeois politicians of PDeCAT and ERC in order to force them to renounce the struggle for the republic. It is improbable that the state will allow Puigdemont to assume the Presidency of Catalonia.
The failure of Unidos Podemos in Catalonia also has great consequences. Without understanding the role of national oppression in the struggle to transform society, Podemos has intervened in Catalonia with a position full of inconsistencies and concessions to Spanish nationalism. The refusal of Pablo Iglesias to lead the fight for a Catalan Republic and his turn to the right in recent months, including social demobilization in the rest of the Spanish state and the failure of his objective of removing Rajoy through parliamentary pacts with PSOE, are a guarantee for new disasters. If this position is not rectified, Podemos could enter a stage of electoral and political decline.
4 The ruling class have not been able to end the revolutionary crisis which was opened up by the victory of the masses against repression on 1 and 3 October. This explains why their faces were like funerals on election night, despite all the propaganda about Ciudadanos. Even Catalan leader Albiol was forced to admit defeat saying “they should celebrate their victory, as it will only last 5 minutes”. The reactionary block has suffered a defeat. The political and social crisis in Catalonia will continue and sharpen, and the legitimate aspirations of the Catalan people will not be satisfied by this reactionary state.
In the current conjuncture, it is key that the social movements and parties of the left who have carried the weight of the struggle for the Catalan Republic and the right to decide, resume mobilization on the streets. We can only defeat repression, free the political prisoners and prevent the consolidation of article 155, if the action of the masses is visible and overwhelming. This is the task of the CUP, of Som Alternativa (the formation around Alberto Dante Fachin who was pushed out of Podemos for supporting the movement), of the CDR committees, and of all those organizations and activists who stand on the combative left.
This whole process, and the events of these months, have also demonstrated the the need to build a consistent alternative that is not subordinated to PDeCAT or to bourgeois and petty bourgeois politicians who have shown their inability to take the struggle for self-determination to the end, and do not want to break with the logic of capitalism (which is the cause of national and social oppression). This is the socialist, revolutionary and anti-capitalist strategy that we defend in Esquerra Revolucionària in Catalonia (Izquierda Revolucionaria in the Spanish state)
Down with article 155! Freedom for all political prisoners! Withdraw the Spanish national and military police from Catalonia!
Repeal all reactionary labour reforms and pension reforms! Retirement at 60 with 100% salary and equal conditions for young workers!
A minimum wage of €1,100 and a 35-hour working week with no loss of pay
Ban evictions! Expropriate empty homes held by the banks to create social housing!
Re-nationalise all privatised public services, maintaining and increasing the workforce and respecting workers’ rights.
Repeal the reactionary education laws! Public, quality, free and universal education from infancy to university!
For the right to public, free and universal healthcare!
Solidarity with refugees! Repeal the racist migration laws and close down the prison camps for migrants!
For democratic rights to speech, meetings and organisation! Repeal the repressive laws!
Nationalise the banks and strategic industries to bail out working class people and guarantee decent living standards.
For the right of self-determination in Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia. For a Socialist Republic of Catalonia, and a Federal Socialist Republic based on the free and voluntary union of the peoples of the Spanish state, if that is their democratic wish
The Trump Tax Scam: Corruption Rules At long last, Donald Trump and his Republican co-dependents have a major piece of legislation they can use to show their “donors” and their diehard supporters that they are able to “govern.” This, anyway, is the story corporate media tell. “Donor” is the media’s euphemism for “capitalist paymaster.” Both duopoly parties have them. They are a “bipartisan” bunch, loyal to their class, and therefore generally of one mind — though, of course, their first loyalties are to themselves. They pay the piper; they call the tune. by Andrew Levine
Revolutionary and State Violence: The Chickens Always Come Home to Roost The political system is corrupt to the extreme. Its disdain for democracy is profound. A caretaker’s observation at a cemetery on the Greek island of Mykonos comes to mind, while he looked back while closing the cemetery gate one summer long ago: “kaput.” His observation sort of says it all about the political, economic, and social systems much of the world lives under now: It’s all gone kaput! The system is kaput (except for the elite, who in any case will also suffer the consequences of climate change and climate disasters) and it was obvious in the duplicity and utter disdain for the truth as witnessed in the April 2008 presidential primary debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Snippets of that debate were included in a three-part interview that aired in November 2016 with former Weatherman and Professor William Ayers on the Real News Network (“RAI With Former Weatherman Bill Ayers”). by Howard Lisnoff
US is responsible for 22% of the UN’s annual operating budget
Timing sends message after UN rejects Trump’s recognition of Israeli capital
The US government has announced significant cuts in its United Nations budget obligations for 2018-2019 in what will be interpreted as a further ratcheting up of pressure from the Trump administration looking to bend decision-making at the international body to its will.
Environment:
World’s largest plastics plant rings alarm bells on Texas coast Donald Trump’s state visit to Saudi Arabia in May will perhaps be best remembered by his participation in an all-male sword dance where he awkwardly waved a ceremonial blade in step with his cabinet and their Saudi counterparts. . . .In front of a seated Trump and King Salman, Saudi officials posed for photos shaking hands with secretary of state Rex Tillerson and Darren Woods, Tillerson’s successor as chief executive of the oil and gas giant ExxonMobil. Woods was there to seal a $10bn agreement with the state-owned Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) to build the world’s largest plastics facility on the Texas coast, the spearhead of a US boom that will create an enormous new glut of bottles, food packaging, polyester clothing and other products that are already, once discarded, choking the world’s oceans and food chains. But a little-noted deal signed prior to the ceremony is set to worsen a vast problem the world has yet to fully confront — plastic pollution.
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Oil Giants Invest $180B in Plastics, Propelling Oceans Toward ‘Near-Permanent’ Pollution “We could be locking in decades of expanded plastics production at precisely the time the world is realizing we should use far less of it.” Scientists and environmental protection advocates are warning that a coming plastics boom could lead to a permanent state of pollution on the planet—and denouncing the fossil fuel industry for driving an increase in plastics production amid all that’s known about the material polluting the world’s oceans. by Julia Conley
In Bid to Save Big Oil $900M, Trump Moves to Scrap Offshore Drilling Safety Rules The oil and gas industry is poised to save hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade thanks to a rollback of offshore drilling safety regulations that have been proposed by the Trump administration—including the elimination of the word “safe” from one rule. Siding with the fossil fuel industry, which has complained safety regulations are overly broad, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has proposed scrapping or changing some major requirements, according to the Wall Street Journal. The rules to be changed include one that orders companies to take steps to prevent oil-well blowouts, part of what caused British Petroleum’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon disaster. By Julia Conley
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Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
ProPublica: Exodus of Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency ProPublica and the New York Times collaborated on a report about the flight of scientists and environmental protection specialists from the EPA. Trump made clear that he wants to reduce the role of the agency and to restrict its ability to do its job when he hired Scott Pruitt to run it. As Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt had sued EPA many times on behalf of the oil and gas industry. He has busied himself eliminating regulations that protect the environment and pushing out scientists. By dianeravitch
