Daily News Digest March 2, 2023
Capitalism is Now a Worldwide Threat to Humanity! It is on the Fast Track to Global Warming and/or Nuclear War Catastrophes!
Images of the Day:
Biden Makes Secret Trip to United States
Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”, is Still True for Today’s World!
Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capitalism Has Been Aware of the Comming Catastrophe of Global Warming Over 5 Decades Ago and Did Nothing!: Under Capitalism — Human Lives Don’t Matter Capitalism Does Not, and Never Has, Worked for the Masses! In Its Death Agony, Capitalism Is Traveling About The World Like The Four Horsemen of the The Apocalypse, Spreading Racism, War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The very future of Humanity Is Now At stake!
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three-Point Political Program: 1. Austerity,2. Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel! For Decades, Blacks Have Been Subjected to The Iron Heel! Currently, the US Capitalist Class is Divided Over When — Not If, to Apply It to Everyone!
Due to Years of Austerity, Cuts to Public Health Care, And An Anti-Science and Profiteering President, The United States Now Leads the World In Coronavirus Cases and Deaths in the World!
Always Remember: That President Obama, With a Majority Democrat Legislature Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember, That he Established, in writing, the United States Capitalist Austerity Program. — The Race to the Bottom/Pauperization of the 99%!
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, that the 99% Will Rule, Not the Few!
Quotes Of the Day:
These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes – nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the “good” and the “bad,” to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in soil – all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called “insecticides,” but “biocides.” — Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962
The 38-year economic blockade of Cuba hampered the development of the Cuban economy. To the credit of the Cuban Revolution they did not carry out any forced collectivizations. They did copy the Soviet model of large chemically dependent state farms. When the “Socialist Block” stopped all trade with Cuba, the Cuban economy was severely crippled. They could no longer import the amount of oil, fertilizers, and pesticides to continue large-scale mechanized food production. They had to move in the direction of the alternative model of agriculture that I previously described. In response to a huge drop in pesticide and fertilizer imports, Cuban agriculture is being transformed. Cuba is presently undertaking the largest national conversion from conventional agriculture to large-scale alternative farming in history. — Organic Farming — Cuba: “The Road Not Taken”: The Other Cuban Revolution (1998)
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
Longest Alabama Strike Ends as Warrior Met Coal Miners Return. Record Coal Prices Help Break Strike
Mental Health Issues Spiked During the Pandemic. Medicaid Isn’t Much Help.
United States:
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. Rax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay! Both Parties Support U.S. Capitalism’s Wars! (The Only War the Democrats Opposed was the Civil War!)
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both. — Louis D. Brandeis Quotes
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. MLK, Beyond Vietnam
Starvation at Home! — Bombs Abroad! Military Aid to Urkaine
‘A Decent Society Would Not Let This Happen’: 30 Million Across US Face Food Aid Cuts “Ending these increased benefits will cause more food insecurity and poverty. It’s unacceptable,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal. “Poverty and hunger are policy choices. It’s time we step up and do more.” As of Wednesday, around 30 million people across the United States will have their family’s food assistance slashed, despite high prices and expert warnings about a “hunger cliff.” Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were initially increased at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although Republicans in 18 states had already ended the emergency allotments (EAs), households in the other 32 states along with Washington, D.C., Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have continued to receive them.
Pentagon Prepares for Island Combat in the Pacific as US-China Tensions Rise The U.S. has been securing new basing facilities and conducting large-scale combat exercises in the Western Pacific. As U.S. tank and infantry forces were fighting their way from Normandy to the Rhine in the pivotal land battles of World War II, other U.S. forces were conducting equally ferocious battles to expel Japanese forces from the Philippines and other islands of the Western Pacific — a long and bloody campaign that culminated in the struggle to capture Iwo Jima. Since then, the prospect of major ground warfare in Europe has never disappeared — look at Ukraine today — but the notion of another major amphibious campaign in the Pacific has largely evaporated. Recently, however, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps have begun preparing for precisely such a contest as China has emerged as the principal adversary to U.S. hegemony and neighboring Pacific islands have acquired fresh strategic significance. Any major U.S. conflict with China, it is widely believed, will largely entail air and naval operations in China’s maritime areas, notably the East and South China Seas and the waters surrounding Taiwan. Such a clash, strategists assume, will involve intense air and sea battles for control of these areas. But, as in World War II, the fighting will also envelop any islands housing the air and naval bases of either side, such as China’s installations on islands in the South China Sea and U.S. bases in Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines. Aside from air and missile attacks on these island facilities, either or both sides may seek to occupy them through amphibious assault, resulting in the sort of brutal combat seen in those same areas during World War II.
Biden’s Chip War With China Is an Imperial Struggle for High-Tech Supremacy As these two states fight for dominion over global capitalism, it’s time to unite for collective liberation. The rivalry between the U.S. and China has hit fever pitch. Whatever rapprochement seemed in the offing with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s scheduled summit with Xi Jinping in February was blown sky high when Washington’s fighter jets shot down Beijing’s balloon over the Atlantic Ocean. With each accusing the other of illegal surveillance and imposing sanctions, the much-anticipated summit has been postponed. Despite their deep economic integration and record trade in goods of $690 billion in 2022, the two powers are at loggerheads over everything from military supremacy in the Indo-Pacific to Russia’s imperialist invasion of Ukraine, to trade and investment in the Global South. The U.S., of course, remains the world’s dominant imperialist power, but now China poses a threat to its hegemony.
Biden May Keep Asylum Out of Reach Even after Trump’s pandemic expulsion order expires, aggressive use of “expedited removal” may be in store for asylum seekers. The Trump administration severely curtailed the legal right to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite promising to restore and strengthen the U.S. asylum system, the Biden administration, at times following federal court mandates, has kept in place the most severe restriction: the March 2020 “Title 42” pandemic expulsion order. Title 42, however, may end in May along with the U.S. government’s public health emergency. It is looking less likely, though, that Title 42’s end might mean a restoration of the right to seek asylum at the border. The Biden administration is signaling what new, post-Title 42 limits to asylum might look like. A “transit ban” may deny asylum to people who passed through a third country en route and did not first seek it there. Aggressive use of “expedited removal” could force asylum seekers to defend their cases within a few days, from the austere custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), without meaningful access to counsel. Ongoing negotiations with Mexico may enable thousands of removals of non-Mexican citizens across the land border.\
Fifty Years of Resistance July 2023 will mark 50 years since my arrest by the FBI for my resistance to the Vietnam War. A search of the Internet yields the result of the first attempt to have the record of my arrest expunged. Yet no record exists of the successful expungement of the FBI arrest record. If a search is completed today, the unsuccessful attempt with its pejorative description of my military status in 1973 remains. It’s like an endless, though pretty much ineffective, reminder of all of the horror and negativity of those days, except for the resistance.
The Cost of the Nation’s Endless Wars “Autocrats only understand one word: no, no, no. No you will not take my country, no you will not take my freedom, no you will not take my future… A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never be able to ease the people’s love of liberty. Brutality will never grind down the will of the free.” —President Biden Oh, the hypocrisy. To hear President Biden talk about the Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, you might imagine that Putin is the only dictator bent on expanding his military empire through the use of occupation, aggression and oppression. Yet the United States is no better, having spent much of the past half-century policing the globe, occupying other countries, and waging endless wars.
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
Ohio Rail Crash: Toxic Waste Removal Suspended Amid Contamination Fears Environmental Protection Agency orders rail company to ‘pause’ shipments from site pending a review of plans to dispose of waste near Houston and Detroit Federal environmental authorities have ordered a temporary halt in the shipment of contaminated waste from the site of the train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month, amid fears of further harm from the toxic waste. Hazardous waste disposal facilities near Houston and Detroit are planning to receive most of the contaminated water and soil from the East Palestine train wreck site, raising the risk that some of the dangerous chemicals could end up in the environment elsewhere.
Sales of SUVs—Responsible for More Carbon Pollution Than All But 5 Countries—Still Rising One environmental activist urged U.S. President Joe Biden to take action to “usher out the era of climate-destroying cars and trucks.” One environmental activist urged U.S. President Joe Biden to take action to “usher out the era of climate-destroying cars and trucks.”
Top 1% Emit Over 1,000 Times More CO2 Than Bottom 1% To stop climate change, target the rich! That’s the kind of killer fact that we’ve come to expect from organizations like Oxfam – a shocking and blunt illustration of climate justice. But this one’s not from Oxfam or any other development or environmental group. It’s from the International Energy Agency.
Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods: A Class Perspective Driving has become the latest front in the ruling class’ culture war, pitting those who rely on their car against environmental campaigners. Instead, we need united class struggle to end travel chaos and congestion with clear socialist policies. Last month, on 18 February, a large demonstration of around 2,000 protesters descended on Oxford to oppose the local council’s ‘15-minute city’ and ‘low-traffic neighbourhood’ (LTN) plans. Such schemes are increasingly being rolled out in towns and cities across the country. Their stated aim is to reduce car traffic in residential areas, in order to lower pollution levels, make streets quieter, and promote cycling and walking. The hasty implementation of LTNs has provoked a backlash, however. Critics claim that the changes – erecting physical barriers on certain roads to block drivers – only benefit more affluent residents in leafy suburbs, at the expense of those who rely on their car to get around.
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
Labor:
RWU Issues Public Comment on FRA Proposed Rulemaking on Train Crew Staffing Railroad Workers United (RWU) is submitting an official comment to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking – “Train Crew Size Safety Requirements.” While we are encouraged that a Rule is finally once again being promulgated on this vital question after a six-year hiatus, RWU is not happy with the current language as proposed. The Rule – if finalized in its current form – has the potential to allow almost any rail carrier to run most trains with LESS than the two-person crew minimum that the Rule would ostensibly mandate. In addition, the Rule – if finalized in its current form – would preempt all existing state laws on the books, which now require a two-person train crew minimum. RWU urges all rail workers, family and friends, and all concerned citizens to submit a Public Comment on this crucial rail safety issue. Let the FRA know that you want to see an ironclad Rule that mandates a minimum of two persons on every train. We do not need to allow exemptions, and we do not need to pre-empt existing
Economy:
Two Indicted Masterminds of the FTX Fraud Were Clients of Big Law Firm Sullivan & Cromwell On January 17, Sullivan & Cromwell law partner Andrew Dietderich filed a declaration in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware that acknowledged – after much prodding by the U.S. Trustee – the more than 20 legal engagements Sullivan & Cromwell had been involved in with Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Group before it filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022. According to the declaration, the law firm’s legal work began 15 months prior to the collapse of the firm. (See our previous report, Sam Bankman-Fried, BlockFi and Sullivan & Cromwell: A Viper’s Nest of Conflicts and Intrigue.) This does not look good for the 144-year old law firm because the Securities and Exchange Commission is now charging that FTX was a fraud from the very beginning and Sam Bankman-Fried illegally used FTX customer funds from the very beginning. Making the situation even more dicey for Sullivan & Cromwell, its former law partner, Ryne Miller, was employed as General Counsel at FTX US as this fraud was expanding.
World:
Solidarity With the Venezuelan Communist Party We publish here a video message by Alan Woods, along with a statement by the Venezuelan section of the IMT, in solidarity with the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV), which is faced with an attack by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
One Year Into the War: Where is Russia Going? The first anniversary of the start of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine is now upon us. The Putin regime’s adventure, which was conceived as a quick operation that would lead to a big political prize at the end, turned into a protracted, exhausting war that could end up calling into question the continued existence of the regime. The war has become a turning point in modern Russian history, its deeply divided society, and all contending political forces. But it is not enough to merely describe the looming catastrophe that the war has created. It is also necessary to understand the causes of the war, its roots in the world crisis, and Russia’s internal economic and political crises, as well as to analyse the direction Russia is moving in. “Neither to cry, nor to laugh, but to understand.” This should be our approach in analysing the origins of the conflict. Our starting point must be the position of Russia, taken in the global context of modern capitalism and the imperialist division of the world. On this point, the question of whether the Russian Federation ought to be considered an imperialist power continues to excite debate. We cannot go into this question in detail here, but we draw readers’ attention to other material published by the IMT. Here, we will limit ourselves to acquainting the reader with the main conclusion of this analysis: “These facts can only lead one to the conclusion that Russia today is an imperialist state, although it is more similar to the old Tsarist-style imperialism than either contemporary China or the USA. Russia’s participation in the capitalist world economy is limited, mainly confined to the trade in oil and gas. But it is intervening actively outside its borders, both militarily and diplomatically, and it is constantly coming into conflict with America, which at times threatens to turn into a direct military confrontation.” (‘Imperialism Today: The Character of Russia and China. International Marxist Tendency’, London 9 June 2016). In its economic structure, Russia is certainly unlike other ‘typical’ imperialist countries, which have much more highly developed economic means for pursuing a policy of ‘neo-colonial’ domination and for fighting for markets. It does not export capital on anything like the scale of other imperialist nations. Yet its economy is dominated by powerful, domestic monopolies.
Europe’s Breadbasket and the Shock Doctrine Will ballooning wartime debt allow agribusiness to make a feast of Ukrainian agriculture? For the first anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Oakland Institute has released a report, “War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land,” that examines the recent past and near future of the “breadbasket of Europe.” It begins with the little-known story of how the International Monetary Fund liberalized Ukrainian agriculture with “structural adjustment” terms tied to an $8 billion loan package. Within Ukraine, the 2021 land reforms — which, among other things, ended a 19-year moratorium on the sale of farmland — were fiercely debated, though not much discussed outside the country. Supporting the reforms were the small number of oligarchs and agribusiness concerns that together control nearly 30% of Ukraine’s agricultural land; opposing them were the small and medium-sized farmers who rightly feared increasing marginalization, despite their producing more than 50% of the country’s food, including nearly all potatoes and vegetables and three-quarters of its milk and beef. “The creation of a land market is likely to expand the amount of agricultural land in the hands of oligarchs and large agribusiness firms,” the report states. “This was the concern of many Ukrainians fearing that, due to the country’s rampant corruption and weak rule of law, small farmers will have few avenues to assert their rights in the face of increasing competition from agribusinesses.”
Burnout and Super-Exploitation: Capitalism’s Race to the bottom As British capitalism descends deeper into crisis, the bosses are turning the screws on workers across the board, in an effort to squeeze more profit from their staff. Many are being pushed to breaking point. But many others are fighting back. The BBC Worklife blog recently hosted a post entitled The companies that churn through young workers. The article describes the harrowing environment that many young employees enter in the UK fashion industry. Sarah, the subject of the piece, found her passion for fashion quickly curdling in the face of long hours, bad pay, and no prospects of career progress. This is no isolated phenomenon, but a fact of life for millions of workers in Britain and globally. In highly-stressful industries like hospitality and retail, over half of those employed report feelings of poor mental health.
Shareholder Capitalism and the Cruelty of Mass Layoffs There is no economic event more damaging to the health and well-being of adult workers and their families than suffering through a mass layoff. We know a better alternative exists. Ever since Margaret Thatcher famously claimed, “There is No Alternative,” mass layoffs have ripped through Western democracies. In good times and bad, employees are discarded en masse. In the United States during the early 1980s, the axe first fell harshly on industrial workers as manufacturing collapsed. Now mass layoffs are crushing workers at tech companies with a fury. More than 159,000 tech workers lost their jobs in 2022, and 78,000 more just in January 2023 alone. Since 1996, more than 30 million workers have suffered through mass layoffs, accounting for nearly a fifth of the US labour force
Kosovo and the Current Situation in the Balkans For several months now, we have been bombarded with images about a supposedly imminent military escalation between Kosovo and Serbia. With the war in Ukraine as a backdrop, there is talk about old wounds potentially being reopened. However, in order to accurately assess the probability of such new conflicts in Southeast Europe, it is necessary to start with an analysis of the economic situation, and the interests of the ruling classes in the region, as well as the interests of imperialism. Note: this article was originally written in January 2023. The Balkans in the hands of the imperialists. We will begin with the situation in Serbia. Besides Turkey, Serbia is the only EU candidate country that has not imposed sanctions on Russia. The main reason for refraining from sanctions lies in the fact that Serbia is completely dependent on Russian gas, as well as in the fact that Russia supports the Serbian position regarding Kosovo. Although we have seen attempts at diversification, such as relying on gas supplies from Azerbaijan, the current situation reveals a clear picture.
Education. Health, 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, pass universal healthcare for themselves, but cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let the People Vote on Healthcare!