During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and 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 1% Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico. Socialism Means True Democracy — The 99% Will Rule! — Not the Few!
The strong public opinion behind these strikes can be tied to Americans’ widespread dismay with wage stagnation and income inequality, even as corporate profits are flying high. While job numbers and economic growth are strong, many Americans are barely getting by: 40% of households say they don’t have the money to pay an unanticipated $400 expense, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Board. — Steven Greenhouse, The Autoworkers Strike Is Bigger Than G.M.
A note to anyone who wants to use union members as a wedge to oppose Medicare for All: UAW has one of the best plans in the country, but management can still use it to hold workers hostage. M4A puts power back in our hands. — Sara Nelson, Association of Flight Attendants
Intensifying the crisis is a related global trend: Calories and nutrition are parting ways as corporate, processed food floods the planet. Even two decades ago in rural India, I saw along the roadway whole groves of Eucalyptus trees whose trunks were painted with huge Pepsi ads. One result of this disconnect between eating enough calories and getting the nutrients we need is that more than a fifth of young children worldwide experience stunted growth, a condition bringing life-long harms; and a third of us suffer from anemia, doubling the risk of maternal death and, in infants, associated with ongoing mental and psychomotor impairment. That’s where a narrow focus on increasing food production, reinforced by the “scarcity scare,” has helped take us.
That’s where a narrow focus on increasing food production, reinforced by the “scarcity scare,” has helped take us. Now, nearly half a century since my own life-altering aha moment, the UN’s new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, “Climate Change and Land,” has triggered another frenzy of worry about our food supply. Running over 1,500 pages, the report itself offers vital understanding of how the climate crisis threatens our food supply and quality; and, at the same time, how farming, eating and food waste contribute between 25 percent and 30 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. (Livestock alone, I learned elsewhere, contribute 14.5 percent of such emissions globally.) The report also helpfully identifies ways that reworking our food system can become part of the solution to climate change. — On Climate and Food, What’s the Lesson We Insist on Missing?
U.S.:
The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Republicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. — The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War! Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich.
Why on Earth Would the US Go to War with Iran over an Attack on Saudi Oil Refineries? President Bone Spur, backed by his war-mongering Secretary of State Mike “Armageddon” Pompeo, tweeted yesterday that the US military is “locked and loaded,” ready to attack (bomb) Iran if it can be proven that Iran was behind a drone bomb attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil refineries. There are plenty of news media in the US that are seconding that notion of reflexively starting a hot war with Iran if it can be shown that Iran and not Houti forces in Yemen attacked Saudi oil facilities. Certainly that is the case with Fox News and Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post. By Dave Lindorff
Are We About to Attack Iran? Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility on Saturday for drone attacks on the crown jewel of Saudi Arabia’s petroleum empire: the Abqaiq oil facility, the centerpiece of Saudi Arabia’s petroleum infrastructure, which sits astride the massive Hijra Khurais oil field. Secretary of State Pompeo immediately accused Iran of direct involvement in the attack. On Monday afternoon, Saudi Arabia claimedthat Iranian weapons were used in the attack. Iran has vehemently deniedthe accusation. Oil markets reeled as news of the attack spread. In a world that runs on fossil fuels, the attack was the equivalent of a punch in the heart. Approximately 100 million barrels of oil are burned globally each day. With a stroke, the drones wiped out nearly six percent of the oil that is globally consumed, and a price hike is almost certain to follow. How high and for how long will depend upon the speed with which Saudi Arabia can repair the facility. After the attack, smoke from the fires at Abqaiq could be seen from space, and the rebels have warned of further attacks to come against Saudi Arabia’s petroleum centers. By William Rivers Pitt
Supreme Court Ruling Pushes Tens of Thousands Toward Summary Deportation Last week’s Supreme Court decision on Trump’s new asylum restrictions inaugurates a horrifying new restrictionist era in U.S. immigration policy. The decision, which allows the new constraints to go into effect while the legal challenges against them make their way through the court process, has made the (often undeserved) image of the U.S. as a leader in the resettling of asylum seekers and refugees utterly impossible to maintain. By Sasha Abramsky
Edward Snowden Responds After Trump DOJ Sues Whistleblower Over New Memoir the US Government ‘Does Not Want You to Read’ “[Snowden] hopes that today’s lawsuit by the United States government will bring the book to the attention of more readers throughout the world.” —Ben Wizner, ACLU The (In)Justice Department filed suit the day Snowden’s memoir Permanent Record was published. Citing what First Amendment advocates have called an “unconstitutional” system of controlling what federal employees can and cannot say about their work, President Donald Trump’s Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden over the publication of his new memoir. By Julia Conley
Environment:
US and Brazil Propose to Fight Amazon Deforestation with DevelopmentThe US and Brazil found common ground for combating the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, proposing that economic development is the cure. However, Amazon Watch’s Christian Poirier says that the kind of development they propose will have the opposite effect.The cycles of capital accumulation collide directly with nature’s own cycles. Corporations seek to maximize profits in order to compete in the market and accumulate assets, which in turn enable them to reinvest and outperform competitors. In this cycle, the capital invested in purchasing raw materials and paying workers’ wages is valorized—that is, workers produce more value for the capitalists than that for which they are paid in wages. This valorization of capital must be done as quickly as possible and at the lowest possible cost. That is why companies exploit resources at an unsustainable rate, whether in the form of excessive livestock grazing, monoculture planting, open-pit mines, overfishing, or any number of other forms of overexploitation that do not allow for the natural cycle of replenishing what has been extracted. In other words, resources are depleted as a necessary consequence of the logic of capitalism, which leaves nature incapable of regenerating itself. While the entirety of the capitalist economy—with its production of plastic, massive industrial waste, pollution of rivers, deforestation, irrational water use, and so much more—is harmful to the environment, what generates the “greenhouse gases” responsible for global climate change is the use of fossil fuels, primarily oil and gas. — Capitalist Profit and Environmental Devastation
Capitalism Is Responsible for Climate Change Global climate change is not the responsibility of humans in general. It is the result of the way in which production is organized on our planet. In other words, it is the responsibility of capitalism. Scientists agree: what we are experiencing is only the beginning of a major climate crisis that will hit humanity even harder in the decades to come. If we don’t take immediate action to stem or reverse the trend, the consequences of global climate change will be catastrophic. There has been an outcry from many sectors of society, and almost everyone agrees on the need to take action. We find young people at the forefront of the fight, with the #Fridays forFuture movement and other initiatives expressing the concerns of millions of people. But to attack the problem of climate change is it necessary to understand its origins in the capitalist mode of production. By Farid ReyesMaking The Planetary Personal: The Roots of Climate ScienceWaters of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unravelled the Mysteries of our Seas, Glaciers, and Atmosphere — and Made the Planet Whole Sarah Dry Scribe UK (2019) Ruth A. Morgan lauds a book chronicling the evolution of Earth-systems science through the stories of its luminaries. The roots of climate science stretch back further than many suspect — long into the nineteenth century. Victorian physicist John Tyndall’s work on glaciers, for instance, helped to pave the way for twentieth-century science by the likes of meteorologist Joanne Simpson, oceanographer Henry Stommel and palaeoclimatologist Willi Dansgaard. In her remarkable Waters of the World, historian Sarah Dry brings to life this chain of researchers who helped to reveal the dynamics of Earth’s planetary systems and humanity’s growing impact on them. Ruth A. Morgan
Money Is the Oxygen on Which the Fire of Global Warming BurnsWhat if the banking, asset-management, and insurance industries moved away from fossil fuels? I’m skilled at eluding the fetal crouch of despair—because I’ve been working on climate change for thirty years, I’ve learned to parcel out my angst, to keep my distress under control. But, in the past few months, I’ve more often found myself awake at night with true fear-for-your-kids anguish. This spring, we set another high mark for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: four hundred and fifteen parts per million, higher than it has been in many millions of years. The summer began with the hottest June ever recorded, and then July became the hottest month ever recorded. The United Kingdom, France, and Germany, which have some of the world’s oldest weather records, all hit new high temperatures, and then the heat moved north, until most of Greenland was melting and immense Siberian wildfires were sending great clouds of carbon skyward. At the beginning of September, Hurricane Dorian stalled above the Bahamas, where it unleashed what one meteorologist called “the longest siege of violent, destructive weather ever observed” on our planet. The scientific warnings of three decades ago are the deadly heat advisories and flash-flood alerts of the present, and, as for the future, we have hard deadlines. Last fall, the world’s climate scientists said that, if we are to meet the goals we set in the 2015 Paris climate accord—which would still raise the mercury fifty per cent higher than it has already climbed—we’ll essentially need to cut our use of fossil fuels in half by 2030 and eliminate them altogether by mid-century. In a world of Trumps and Putins and Bolsonaros and the fossil-fuel companies that back them, that seems nearly impossible. It’s ot technologically impossible: in the past decade, the world’s engineers have dropped the price of solar and wind power by ninety and seventy per cent, respectively. But we’re moving far too slowly to exploit the opening for rapid change that this feat of engineering offers. Hence the 2 a.m. dread. By Bill McKibben
Legislators’ Secretive Maneuvers Undermine Rights of Nature in OhioFor weeks, a legislator’s identity was kept secret by the Ohio General Assembly. When constituents asked who inserted language denying the rights of nature into the 2020-2021 House budget bill, their elected representatives simply shrugged their shoulders and told those of us who asked, “Nobody knows.” Yet, somebody introduced the destructive language into the House budget bill, which says that “nature or any ecosystem does not have standing to participate or bring an action in a common pleas court and no person, on behalf of or representing nature or an ecosystem, shall bring an action in such court.” By Lisa Kochheiser
The Emissions From the Gavin Power Plant Are Seen in September 11, 2019, In Cheshire, Ohio
Freedom Rider: The Electability Canard Hapless Joe Biden has always failed in his presidential bids, but is hyped as supremely “electable” this time around because Democratic elites fear and loath Bernie Sanders. “The neoliberal austerity regime is willing to risk defeat rather than take a chance that the wrong person may win.”The latest scheme of getting Democratic voter support is to claim that particular presidential candidates are more electable than others. At this juncture that concept is highly problematic and the claims surrounding it are largely meaningless. Corporate media pundits and the party establishment use the idea of electability to get support for their favorites. Silencing progressives is also a rationale for bestowing the questionable designation. By Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
The Electability Canard / Biden with arch white supremacist Sen. Strom Thurmond
Late Stage U.S. Capitalism Fosters Death and Despair, But Can It Foster Class Unity? Self-determination is still an unknown concept to many despite the efforts of the movement for Black lives and related organizations. “The impulse for working class solidarity continues to be arrested by the racist and imperialist contradictions of U.S. society.” From the perspective of the global proletariat, late stage capitalism has proven to be the most exploitative and insufferable stage of the system. Five individuals own more wealth than the bottom half of the world’s population. Three individuals own more wealth than the bottom half of the U.S. population. The capitalist class headquartered in the U.S. and the West has facilitated a global race to the bottom by way of endless austerity, automation, and full-scale privatization. Intensified policing, surveillance, militarism, and media consolidation have kept late stage capitalism from its own contradictions and the tireless struggle of workers around the world for a more humane existence. By Danny Haiphong , BAR contributorHow to Find a Tiger in Africa: Searching for Agostinho Neto (1922 –1979)“In the jargon of the ‘West,’ anyone called a communist who becomes a head of state must be a dictator.”What I want to do here is something very simple. I want to explain how I began to search for Agostinho Neto. I also want to explain the perspective that shapes this search.[i] When I was told about the plans for a colloquium I was asked if I would give a paper.[ii]I almost always say yes to such requests because for me a paper is the product of learning something new. So I went to the local bookstores to buy a biography of Dr. Neto. The only thing I found available was a two-volume book by a man named Carlos Pacheco called Agostinho Neto O Perfil de um Ditador, published in 2016. The subtitle of the book is “A história do MPLA em Carne Viva.” When I went to the university library I found another book, a collection of essays by Mr. Pacheco and a book by Mr. Cosme, no longer in print.[iii] By T.P. Wilkinson“Operation Brown Nose” — U.S. Aids French Dirty Work in Africa The U.S. has gone extra miles to support French military efforts to protect uranium mining in Niger. “When U.S. economic or geo-political interests are in jeopardy in Africa, France is often regarded as the “go-to” country for a military solution.”Two years ago, four U.S. soldiers deployed in Niger were ambushed and killed. The black soldier, La David Johnson, was recently awarded a posthumous Silver Star medal. However, when the news of the killings first reached U.S. shores in 2017, it set off a storm of controversy. Several senators candidly admitted they had no idea hundreds of U.S. troops were in Niger. To this day there is widespread skepticism about official explanations that the soldiers were engaged in anti-terrorist operations. By Mark P. FancherRacial Violence in Black and White From photos of lynchers to videos of brutal cops, there is a radical heritage of using images of violence as instruments of critique. “Images of violence have the power not merely to reproduce pain but also to create the society that will work to end it.”Once again cellphone videos showing white police officers shooting and killing African Americans are at the center of public scrutiny, reigniting debate about the accumulation of images of black death in contemporary American culture. Even among activists there have been calls both to share and to bury the videos. “Why do we engage in circulating footage and photos of lifeless Black bodies?” one Facebook page asked. “We need to see,” says one reply, invoking the hashtag #EmmettTill.By Benjamin BalthaserUS and Latin American Allies Move Towards Military Assault on Venezuela Under sustained pressure from Washington, a bloc of rightwing governments has interpreted a regional treaty as authorizing military force against Venezuela. “The UN General Assembly will be the next arena where the siege diplomacy against Venezuela will play its cards.”The United States and eleven Latin American countries spoke out in favor of a possible military intervention against the Venezuelan government. They did so through the activation in an assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR), a 1947 agreement that commits to mutual defense among American nations, that is, the possibility of establishing an armed coalition. By Marco TeruggiFailures of The US Left The “US Left” conveniently ignores that you can’t be a socialist and not also be anti-imperialist. “#USOutOfAfrica is designed to end what we see as an invasion of Africa by way of US military occupation.”Over the last year, my membership with The Black Alliance For Peace (BAP), a radical Black Led anti- war organization, has sharpened my stance on anti- imperialism. This ultimately informed my anti- war position. The “US Left” conveniently ignores that you can’t be a socialist and not also be anti-imperialist. It should be largely understood by the “US left” that fascism and capitalism rely on and support imperialism — seeking to exploit nations we’ve come to view as “underdeveloped” for labor, benefiting only the most privileged few within the Western nations like the United States. The “US left must collectively denounce the US military and the long reach of the US military industrial complex which has caused detestation and displacement on a global scale. By Erica CainesBlack Agenda Report’s 13thAnniversary: An Evening of Information and Inspiration for Liberation, and a Tribute to Co-Founder Bruce Dixon (Tickets) Black Agenda Report’s 13thAnniversary: An Evening of Information and Inspiration for Liberation, and a Tribute to Co-Founder Bruce Dixon Every year presents new challenges to those struggling for human liberation. For Black Agenda Report, the essential task remains the same as when we published our first issue, on October 26, 2006: to sustain a radical, Black-led publication that can effectively intervene in the great debates of our time. We believe BAR has helped shape the Black Left political debate in this turbulent era of lat stage, imperial capitalism – a period of economic catastrophe for Black and poor Americans, political disarray among “progressives,” and escalating lawlessness in U.S. foreign policy. Through it all, BAR has steadily increased both our audience and our capabilities, while waging weekly political battle with the ruling Lords of Capital, the ever-conniving “Black Misleadership Class,” and those who would “sheep-dog” the Left into alliance with corporate forces. By BAR Staff
Labor:
Prediction: The UAW GM Strike Will Mark the Beginning of the End of the Trade Union/Boss/Government Domestic ‘Partnership! — Roland Sheppard
The Real Reason General Motors Workers Are On Strike NationwideIt’s not that complicated. GM has been highly profitable, and workers haven’t forgotten the sacrifices they made to prop up the company. Jessie Kelly knew there was an excellent chance she would end up on strike at General Motors. Long before her union, the United Auto Workers, declared a work stoppagethis weekend, the 29-year-old mother of one began socking away savings to prepare for a long battle with the Detroit automaker. “I could live out three months,” Kelly, an apprentice moldmaker at the GM Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, told HuffPost. “I 100% feel this strike is necessary.” No one knows how long the largest auto strike in more than a decade will last. But workers like Kelly have dug in and don’t plan to bend. They look at how well GM has done in recent years ― the company pulled in roughly $11 billion in pre-tax profitsin 2018, and about $35 billion over the last three years combined ― and wonder why they shouldn’t have a larger piece of the pie.
The GM/Government Empire Strikes Back!
Trump Administration Intervenes in Bid to Shut Down GM StrikeOn September 19 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter is hosting an online meeting to discuss the strategy and perspective needed to organize autoworkers against the conspiracy of the corporations and the United Auto Workers. To participate, visithttps://wsws.org/autocall. The Trump administration is engaged in secret talks to shut down the strike at General otors, Politico reported Tuesday afternoon. According to anonymous sources who spoke with the media outlet, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro are both involved in the talks. The terms of the proposed deal to end the strike, according to the sources, involve the re-opening of the Lordstown Assembly plant in northeastern Ohio, which was shuttered by GM this March. By Tom Hall
GM hiring scabs to replace strikers at Missouri and Texas assembly plants On September 19 at 7:00 pm Eastern Time, the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter is hosting an online meeting to discuss the strategy and perspective needed to organize autoworkers against the conspiracy of the corporations and the United Auto Workers. To participate, visitwsws.org/autocall. Social media posts by autoworkers throughout the day have exposed that General Motors is hiring scab labor to operate its key assembly plants in Arlington, Texas and Wentzville, Missouri. A flyer distributed by temp agency Stride Staffing advertised a job fair held in a Dallas suburb late Tuesday morning for “temp to hire” assembly technicians on three shifts. Any strikebreakers who are hired will earn the poverty wage of $12 to $12.35 per hour, less than some fast food workers in the Dallas area. The UAW local president at Arlington Assembly reportedly confirmed that the company was hiring scabs in an emergency meeting held this morning. By Tom Hall
The Union Responds
UAW Blasts GM For Using Worker Health Insurance as ‘Leverage’The United Auto Workers blasted General Motors on Wednesday after the company said the union will have to pay for striking workers’ health care on Tuesday. “It’s unfortunate that General Motors is using current heath care benefits — that over 47,000 GM workers and their families depend on as a way to leverage unfair concessions,” Jason Kaplan, a representative for the UAW, told FOX Business in a statement on Wednesday. “This is a disappointing fork in the road for GM. Regardless, UAW will pick up the tab through our emergency strike fund.” By Evie Fordham
‘Heartless and Unconscionable’: Outrage as General Motors Cuts Off Healthcare for 50,000 Striking Workersand the systemic inhumanity of the American healthcare system, GM on Tuesday stopped covering health insurance premiums for the nearly 50,000 auto workers striking for fair wages and decent benefits. The move shifts healthcare costs to the United Auto Workers (UAW), which will be forced to reach into its strike fund to pay the bills. As HuffPostreported, UAW negotiators on Monday sought to confirm with GM that workers’ benefits would be covered through the end of the month. Hours later, GM said the benefits have been terminated. By Jake Johnson
Striking GM Workers Deserve Our Support Despite the many obstacles and tarnished national UAW leadership, everyone needs the workers in this strike to win. Bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of $11 billion, General Motors has been making record profits—and closing plants. According to striking GM employee Sean Crawford, who works at Flint Truck Assembly building the Silverado and the GMC Sierra, “GM doesn’t care about America, they don’t care what happens to our communities. Whole cities are being decimated by disinvestment. They can wave the flag all they want in their TV advertisements, but they’ve destroyed whole communities of people just trying to raise their families.” For Crawford, the most important two issues in this strike are putting an end to the creation of “temporary” workers—many of whom have been working side by side with him for up to six years—and bringing all workers up to the same tier. That second point is key: According to Sam Gindin, who by the time he retired had spent decades as chief labor economist for the Canadian Autoworkers, “Part of what made the United Auto Workers so important for so long was the solidaristic union principle of equal pay for equal work. The level of equality in the auto industry was remarkable for decades because previous union leadership fought to keep the difference between skilled trades, assembly line, and even janitors minimal. Having extended this to women decades back, it has more recently been given up for new workers doing the same job as workers hired earlier By Jane McAlevey Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Flash Update No. 8 FOMC Rate Cut [(The Federal Open Market Committee((FOMC)), a committee within the Federal Reserve System (the Fed), is charged under United States law with overseeing the nation’s open market operations (e.g., the Fed’s buying and selling of United States Treasury securities). — R.S.]
FOMC Cut Rates by the Expected Quarter Point, Amidst Ongoing, Nonsensical Hype of Near-Perfect Economic Conditions
Broad U.S. Economic Activity Has Continued in a Deepening Downtrend, Amidst Mounting Downside Risks
Major Downside Revisions to Headline Economic Activity Are Likely In Looming Benchmarkings
Major, Disruptive Economic Risks and Financial-Market Turmoil Are at Hand
More-Aggressive Fed Easing Is Likely at or Before the October 30th FOMC, Including Expanded Quantitative Easing
FOMC Is Trying to Do Its Job for the Banking System, Not Necessarily for the General Public and the U.S. Economy
The Fed Eased as Expected, Despite Rapidly Deteriorating Economic and Financial Conditions.
Today, September 18, 2019, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cut its targeted Federal Funds rate by the expected quarter point, to a range of 1-3/4 to 2 percent, in line with market expectations. Such was the second easing of the current cycle, following a quarter-point rate cut on July 31, 2019. At that earlier meeting, the FOMC also ended its balance sheet liquidation in August, two months ahead of what had been scheduled, opening its options for renewed Quantitative Easing.Contrary to the FOMC’s current tale of nearly perfect economic and inflation conditions, along with FOMC economic forecasts revising minimally higher into the future, the U.S. economy continues in deepening recession, with increasing financial-market turmoil likely in the near future. Headline recognition of the unfolding and intensifying downturn turmoil should gain markedly in the weeks and months ahead, as will be explored in pending ShadowStats Commentaries. Consider the now fortuitously timed, long-delayed release of the 2017 U.S. Economic Census, rescheduled for tomorrow, September 19th, having dodged the FOMC meeting by a day. All major U.S. economic indicators are benchmarked against that Census, which was delayed for months by Federal Budget issues. Likely headline major downside revisions loom for series ranging from Manufacturing to Retail Sales.ShadowStats predicts further, more aggressive Fed easing at or before the next scheduled FOMC meeting of October 30th, potentially including renewed Quantitative Easing.
The Fed Intervened in Overnight Lending for First Time Since the Crash. Why It Matters to You. Yesterday felt a little like that scene from the 1946 movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart. There’s a run on Stewart’s bank because his absent-minded Uncle Billy loses the cash he was sent off to deposit on behalf of the bank. The bank examiners discover there’s money missing and rumors spread. The rumors that spread yesterday were not that money was missing, at a Wall Street bank, but that liquidity was missing. It had dried up to the point that the major Wall Street banks could not, or would not, handle the demand for loans called overnight repurchase agreements (repos) that were coming their way. (Repos are a short-term form of borrowing where corporations, banks, brokerage firms and hedge funds secure loans by providing safe forms of collateral such as Treasury notes.) By Pam Martens and RussMartens
Creating a Society of Hope and Inclusion: Speech to the TUCThis is the text of Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to the Trades Union Congress on September 10, 2019. Congress, thank you for that warm welcome. It’s an honour to be asked to address you again. I’m proud that trade unions and the Labour Party are working as closely together now as we ever have. Because together we are one movement – the Labour Movement, the greatest force for progressive change this country has ever known. So thank you to every single one of you for what you do for your members … and for our society.
Boris Johnson: Elitist Defender of Britain’s Big BanksIn a week such as this you can’t help but think that famous cultural theorist Stuart Hall was on to something when he remarked that “the disorderly thrust of political events disturbs the symmetry of political analysis.” For those unable or unwilling to keep up, Boris Johnson has become the first Prime Minister in UK history to lose his inaugural three votes in the House of Commons. He has also lost his majority, been deserted by his own brother, been widely heckled by members of the public (and the odd fast-food chain) and is now, for all intents and purposes, stuck in Number 10 Downing Street until opposition parties decide it is time to vote for an early general election. By Liam Kennedy
Health, Education, and Welfare:
The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of Wall Street and the bankers. Yet, those who ‘govern’, pass universal healthcare for themselves, but they cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers the to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let The People Vote on Healthcare!
Capitalism Kills!: World Health Organization Internation Agency for Reasearch on Cancer (!AEC) Monographs Volume 93 Carbon Black 6 Evaluation and Rationale Cancer in humans There is inadequate evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of carbon black. Cancer in experimental animals There is sufficient evidence in experimental animals for the carcinogenicity of carbon black. There is sufficient evidence in experimental animals for the carcinogenicity of carbon black extracts. 6.3 Overall evaluation Carbon black is possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B).
Air Pollution Particles Found on Foetal Side of Placentas – StudyResearch finds black carbon breathed by mothers can cross into unborn children Air pollution particles have been found on the foetal side of placentas, indicating that unborn babies are directly exposed to the black carbon produced by motor traffic and fuel burning. The research is the first study to show the placental barrier can be penetrated by particles breathed in by the mother. It found thousands of the tiny particles per cubic millimetre of tissue in every placenta analysed. The link between exposure to dirty air and increased miscarriages, premature births and low birth weights is well established. The research suggests the particles themselves may be the cause, not solely the inflammatory response the pollution produces in mothers. By Damian CarringtonWear And Tear of Tyres: A Stealthy Source Of Microplastics in he Environment Abstract Wear and tear from tyres significantly contributes to the flow of (micro-)plastics into the environment. This paper compiles the fragmented knowledge on tyre wear and tear characteristics, amounts of particles emitted, pathways in the environment, and the possible effects on humans. The estimated per capita emission ranges from 0.23 to 4.7 kg/year, with a global average of 0.81 kg/year. The emissions from car tyres (100%) are substantially higher than those of other sources of microplastics, e.g., airplane tyres (2%), artificial turf (12–50%), brake wear (8%) and road markings (5%). Emissions and pathways depend on local factors like road type or sewage systems. The relative contribution of tyre wear and tear to the total global amount of plastics ending up in our oceans is estimated to be 5–10%. In air, 3–7% of the particulate matter (PM2.5) is estimated to consist of tyre wear and tear, indicating that it may contribute to the global health burden of air pollution which has been projected by the World Health Organization (WHO) at 3 million deaths in 2012. The wear and tear also enters our food chain, but further research is needed to assess human health risks. It is concluded here that tyre wear and tear is a stealthy source of microplastics in our environment, which can only be addressed effectively if awareness increases, knowledge gaps on quantities and effects are being closed, and creative technical solutions are being sought. This requires a global effort from all stakeholders; consumers, regulators, industry and researchers alike.
Why are Tires Black? Have you noticed that almost tires on Car /ATV / Motorcycle are black ? Some newbies or hip hop artists would want some orange tires, or lime green ones, or baby blue for their vehicle . But it’s a little hard to find.So why are tires black ? Is there a specific reason for this color selection, or is it simply a coincidence?Regular automobile tires are black because one of the key ingredients in rubber tire compound is carbon black, which makes tires durable. Carbon black is tiny dust-like particles of jet black carbon.Actually Carbon Black is not added as a coloring agent, it is a filler.Capitalism in its Epoch of Decay: The Essence of Evil: Sex With Children Has Become Big Business in AmericaChildren, young girls – some as young as 9 years old – are being bought and sold for sex in America. Children, young girls – some as young as 9 years old – are being bought and sold for sex in America. The average age for a young woman being sold for sex is now 13 years old. This is America’s dirty little secret. Sex trafficking—especially when it comes to the buying and selling of young girls—has become big business in America, the fastest growing business in organized crime and the second most-lucrative commodity traded illegally after drugs and guns. By John W. Whitehead
When the Wall Should Have Been Built!
Quotes of the Day:
The cycles of capital accumulation collide directly with nature’s own cycles. Corporations seek to maximize profits in order to compete in the market and accumulate assets, which in turn enable them to reinvest and outperform competitors. In this cycle, the capital invested in purchasing raw materials and paying workers’ wages is valorized—that is, workers produce more value for the capitalists than that for which they are paid in wages. This valorization of capital must be done as quickly as possible and at the lowest possible cost. That is why companies exploit resources at an unsustainable rate, whether in the form of excessive livestock grazing, monoculture planting, open-pit mines, overfishing, or any number of other forms of overexploitation that do not allow for the natural cycle of replenishing what has been extracted. In other words, resources are depleted as a necessary consequence of the logic of capitalism, which leaves nature incapable of regenerating itself. While the entirety of the capitalist economy—with its production of plastic, massive industrial waste, pollution of rivers, deforestation, irrational water use, and so much more—is harmful to the environment, what generates the “greenhouse gases” responsible for global climate change is the use of fossil fuels, primarily oil and gas. — Capitalist Profit and Environmental Devastation
Making The Planetary Personal: The Roots of Climate ScienceWaters of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unravelled the Mysteries of our Seas, Glaciers, and Atmosphere — and Made the Planet Whole Sarah Dry Scribe UK (2019) Ruth A. Morgan lauds a book chronicling the evolution of Earth-systems science through the stories of its luminaries. The roots of climate science stretch back further than many suspect — long into the nineteenth century. Victorian physicist John Tyndall’s work on glaciers, for instance, helped to pave the way for twentieth-century science by the likes of meteorologist Joanne Simpson, oceanographer Henry Stommel and palaeoclimatologist Willi Dansgaard. In her remarkable Waters of the World, historian Sarah Dry brings to life this chain of researchers who helped to reveal the dynamics of Earth’s planetary systems and humanity’s growing impact on them. Ruth A. Morgan
Warmongering Democratic Candidates for President Not one Democrat on the stage in Houston objected to Washington’s economic warfare and constant subversion and military threats against Venezuela. By Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
How to Find a Tiger in Africa: Searching for Agostinho Neto (1922 –1979) “In the jargon of the ‘West,’ anyone called a communist who becomes a head of state must be a dictator.”What I want to do here is something very simple. I want to explain how I began to search for Agostinho Neto. I also want to explain the perspective that shapes this search.[i] When I was told about the plans for a colloquium I was asked if I would give a paper.[ii]I almost always say yes to such requests because for me a paper is the product of learning something new. So I went to the local bookstores to buy a biography of Dr. Neto. The only thing I found available was a two-volume book by a man named Carlos Pacheco called Agostinho Neto O Perfil de um Ditador, published in 2016. The subtitle of the book is “A história do MPLA em Carne Viva.” When I went to the university library I found another book, a collection of essays by Mr. Pacheco and a book by Mr. Cosme, no longer in print.[iii] By T.P. Wilkinson
“Operation Brown Nose” — U.S. Aids French Dirty Work in Africa The U.S. has gone extra miles to support French military efforts to protect uranium mining in Niger. “When U.S. economic or geo-political interests are in jeopardy in Africa, France is often regarded as the “go-to” country for a military solution.”Two years ago, four U.S. soldiers deployed in Niger were ambushed and killed. The black soldier, La David Johnson, was recently awarded a posthumous Silver Star medal. However, when the news of the killings first reached U.S. shores in 2017, it set off a storm of controversy. Several senators candidly admitted they had no idea hundreds of U.S. troops were in Niger. To this day there is widespread skepticism about official explanations that the soldiers were engaged in anti-terrorist operations. By Mark P. Fancher
Racial Violence in Black and White From photos of lynchers to videos of brutal cops, there is a radical heritage of using images of violence as instruments of critique. “Images of violence have the power not merely to reproduce pain but also to create the society that will work to end it.”Once again cellphone videos showing white police officers shooting and killing African Americans are at the center of public scrutiny, reigniting debate about the accumulation of images of black death in contemporary American culture. Even among activists there have been calls both to share and to bury the videos. “Why do we engage in circulating footage and photos of lifeless Black bodies?” one Facebook page asked. “We need to see,” says one reply, invoking the hashtag #EmmettTill.By Benjamin Balthaser
US and Latin American Allies Move Towards Military Assault on Venezuela Under sustained pressure from Washington, a bloc of rightwing governments has interpreted a regional treaty as authorizing military force against Venezuela. “The UN General Assembly will be the next arena where the siege diplomacy against Venezuela will play its cards.”The United States and eleven Latin American countries spoke out in favor of a possible military intervention against the Venezuelan government. They did so through the activation in an assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR), a 1947 agreement that commits to mutual defense among American nations, that is, the possibility of establishing an armed coalition. By Marco Teruggi
Failures of The US Left The “US Left” conveniently ignores that you can’t be a socialist and not also be anti-imperialist. “#USOutOfAfrica is designed to end what we see as an invasion of Africa by way of US military occupation.”Over the last year, my membership with The Black Alliance For Peace (BAP), a radical Black Led anti- war organization, has sharpened my stance on anti- imperialism. This ultimately informed my anti- war position. The “US Left” conveniently ignores that you can’t be a socialist and not also be anti-imperialist. It should be largely understood by the “US left” that fascism and capitalism rely on and support imperialism — seeking to exploit nations we’ve come to view as “underdeveloped” for labor, benefiting only the most privileged few within the Western nations like the United States. The “US left must collectively denounce the US military and the long reach of the US military industrial complex which has caused detestation and displacement on a global scale. By Erica Caines
Black Agenda Report’s 13thAnniversary: An Evening of Information and Inspiration for Liberation, and a Tribute to Co-Founder Bruce Dixon (Tickets) Black Agenda Report’s 13thAnniversary: An Evening of Information and Inspiration for Liberation, and a Tribute to Co-Founder Bruce Dixon Every year presents new challenges to those struggling for human liberation. For Black Agenda Report, the essential task remains the same as when we published our first issue, on October 26, 2006: to sustain a radical, Black-led publication that can effectively intervene in the great debates of our time. We believe BAR has helped shape the Black Left political debate in this turbulent era of lat stage, imperial capitalism – a period of economic catastrophe for Black and poor Americans, political disarray among “progressives,” and escalating lawlessness in U.S. foreign policy. Through it all, BAR has steadily increased both our audience and our capabilities, while waging weekly political battle with the ruling Lords of Capital, the ever-conniving “Black Misleadership Class,” and those who would “sheep-dog” the Left into alliance with corporate forces. By BAR Staff 
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics Flash Update No. 8 FOMC Rate Cut [(The Federal Open Market Committee((FOMC)), a committee within the Federal Reserve System (the Fed), is charged under United States law with overseeing the nation’s open market operations (e.g., the Fed’s buying and selling of United States Treasury securities). — R.S.]
Capitalism in its Epoch of Decay: