Daily News Digest April 24, 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:
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:
Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We’ve been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun. — Eugene V. Debs
Videos/Podcasts of the Day:
Big Oil – Masters of Deception
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. Tax 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
Homeless “Sweeps” Increase Mortality Rates of Unhoused People, Research Finds “‘Sweeping’ people is not a solution to homelessness, but is rather a form of violence,” researchers say. New research, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), finds that police sweeps of homeless encampments have the potential to increase deaths among people who are unhoused by 25 percent by 2028. On a single night in 2022, more than half a million people in the U.S. were unhoused, the research found, with LGBTQ youth, Black people and Indigenous people experiencing homelessness at disproportionate rates. Partially as a result of exorbitant housing prices and the U.S.’s often discriminatory housing market, the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness increased by 3 percent between 2020 and 2022.
‘Free-Market Dogma’ Creates Disasters from East Palestine to Ukraine How Wall Street’s drive to financialize every aspect of the economy has derailed trains, harmed health care, bottle-necked supply chains, and made it harder for the U.S. military to aid its allies. By now everyone is familiar with the derailment of Norfolk Southern (NS) freight train 32N on February 3 in East Palestine, Ohio. After a nearly two-mile long train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, a controlled burn of the chemicals in several railcars resulted in the release of noxious gases into the air. These included phosgene, a substance used in gas warfare in World War I. After many days of contradictory explanations, foot-dragging, and buck-passing, the railroad and all levels of government finally conceded the seriousness of the incident. What caused the derailment? Twenty miles from the accident site, a third-party security camera spotted fire underneath one of the NS railcars. This raises the question: Why didn’t the railroad’s own wayside hotbox detectors already see the problem and alert the crew? The train crew eventually did receive a warning and applied the brakes just before East Palestine–but it was too late. According to a railroad union spokesman, the braking action, combined with too many heavy cars at the back of a very long train, could have caused an accordion effect leading to a catastrophic derailment.
“He Loved America…”* The cursory way in which media outlets covered the alleged leaks of secret US intelligence information is highlighted in this BBC newscast. What kind of surprise, with less than startling information, does the BBC think is revealed when it reports that the US spies on friends and so-called enemies alike? Spying and open warfare and covert warfare is the name of the US game. The bulk of spying on Russia and the former Soviet Union encompasses entire libraries full of information. Equivalent masses of information must exist in other world powers’ archives. What’s missing from the BBC report is the incredible account in Teixeira’s alleged leaks that many US allies and the US are reported to have special forces on the ground in Ukraine. Think of the magnitude of the latter. Several nuclear powers, and most strikingly the US, have forces active in a war in which they are not involved as combatants and which includes the second most armed nuclear power in the world, Russia. These are startling, but not unexpected revelations!
Capitalism, Racism and Selling the AR-15 When it comes to mass shootings in the United States (like the one that just took place in Nashville), the figures are unequivocal. “Active shooter” cases have become more common in recent years. The percentage of mass shooters using semi-automatic rifles in those incidents has risen since 2009, with those armed with such rifles killing more people on average than those with handguns. One particular weapon, the AR-15-style rifle, stands outin recent incidents. Some estimates put the number of AR-15-style rifles owned by civilians in the U.S. somewhere between 5 and 20 million. This may represent a small share of the roughly 400 million firearms privately owned in the United States; however, due to their customization and versatility, these rifles are being increasingly used in mass shootings. The AR-15 has thus consolidated itself not only as “America’s Rifle” – as the National Rifle Association (NRA) cheerily calls it -, but also as the preferred weapon of choice for mass murder in the United States.
Can You Fight for Climate Justice Without Being Antiwar? Short answer–no. The Pentagon is the world’s No. 1 fossil fuel polluter, and conflict wreaks environmental havoc. Can organizations sincerely say they are leading the climate justice fight without also being unapologetically antiwar? Short answer–no. Here’s why. We cannot end climate change without ending war. The United States military is the planet’s largest single emitter of greenhouse gasses and consumer of oil. The U.S. military and its weapons, consistently deployed to secure economic dominance for the few while ensuring suffering for the many, have no place on a just and livable planet. The corporate interests and fascist, militarist tendencies that lead humanity into conflict are the very same that view our Earth, its atmosphere, and its abundant life as a resource to be exploited for profit. Ending war means ending the war economy–the colonial system of extraction and exploitation that got us into this mess in the first place.
Environment — Ecosocialism of Ecocide!:
Approaching Eocide: With Climate Indicators ‘Off the Charts,’ UN Chief Calls Policies of Rich Nations a ‘Death Sentence’ “We have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. “But we must pick up the pace.” The World Meteorological Organization warned Friday that climate change indicators are “off the charts,” one day after United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told officials from wealthy countries that their refusal to halt fossil fuel expansion amounts to a civilizational “death sentence” and pleaded with them to urgently decarbonize the global economy. The WMO’s State of the Global Climate 2022 report details how record-high greenhouse gas levels are causing “planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere.”
It’s Time to Try Fossil-Fuel Executives for Crimes Against Humanity It isn’t hyperbole to say that fossil-fuel executives are mass murderers. We should put them on trial for crimes against humanity. Guilty Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Just one hundred fossil fuel producers — including privately held and state-owned companies — have been responsible for 71 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions released since 1988, emissions that have already killed at least tens of thousands of people through climate-fueled disasters worldwide.
The Climate Deception Dossiers Internal Fossil Fuel Industry Memos Reveal Decades of Corporate Disinformation
Recommendations: To be sure, responsibility for climate change is spread across society. Governments, carbon-emitting industries (for example, electric utilities), and individuals all bear some responsibility. But given that the world’s largest fossil fuel companies have actively worked to deceive the public and block climate action while knowing that their products have caused significant damage to people and the planet, they must be held responsible for their actions (Frumhoff et al., under review).At a minimum, society should expect them to: At a minimum, society should expect them to:
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Stop disseminating misinformation about climate change. The science is clear. Burning fossil fuels is a primary driver of climate change, and the impacts are already being felt today—from rising seas to longer and more frequent droughts to extreme heat. It is not acceptable for fossil fuel companies to deny the science, nor is it acceptable for them to publicly accept the science while funding climate contrarian scientists or front groups that distort or deny the science. Fossil fuel companies must distance themselves—publicly—from deceptive activities. To make clear that they are making such commitments, companies should publicly disclose all funding they provide to researchers, political organizations, and cultural institutions.
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Support fair and cost-effective policies to reduce global-warming emissions. The fossil fuel industry has generally opposed a wide array of policies, including carbon pricing, cap-and-trade, renewable energy standards, renewable fuel standards, direct emission regulation, and others. It is time for the industry to identify and publicly support policies that will lead to the reduction of emissions at a scale needed to lessen the worst effects of global warming.
- Reduce emissions from current operations and update their business models to prepare for future global limits on emissions. Fossil fuel companies should take immediate action to cut emissions from their current operations, for example, by ending the wasteful practice of flaring natural gas. They should update their business models to reflect an understanding of the risks of unabated burning of fossil fuels, as well as the importance, and the necessity, of national and international policies limiting carbon emissions. As a key component of this, fossil fuel companies should map out the pathway they plan to take in the next 20 years to ensure we achieve a low-carbon energy future.
- Pay for their share of the costs of climate damages and preparedness. Communities around the world are already facing and paying for damages from rising seas, extreme heat, more frequent droughts, and other climate-related impacts. Additional investments must be made to protect and prepare communities for these risks today and in the future, and fossil fuel companies should pay a fair share of the costs.
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Fully disclose the financial and physical risks of climate change to their business operations. By law, public U.S.-based fossil fuel companies are required to discuss risks that might materially affect their business in their annual Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. However, compliance with this guidance is not consistent. Fossil fuel companies should fully assess climate change risks and disclose any material risks to the SEC and their shareholders (adapted from Frumhoff et al., under review). . . .
Memo Exposes Renewable Energy Trade Group’s Close Ties to Fossil Fuel Industry “Despite its name, American Clean Power is yet another fossil fuel lobbying group trying to trick people into believing its greenwashing,” said one campaigner. “Any political leader who claims to care about the planet’s future should shun this organization.”
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
The Movement to ‘Stop Cop City’ Is a Movement for Climate and Social Justice Clearing a valuable urban forest for the police training complex would continue a long, cruel, racist history of Atlanta land use. Along the South River, in the southwest corner of DeKalb County, Georgia, lies a forested area of about 300 acres that has been owned by the nearby City of Atlanta for over a century. It was once part of a vastly larger wooded landscape, home to the Muskogee (Creek) people. They gave the river and forest the name “Weelaunee.” In 2021, Atlanta officials decided to split 85 acres off this remnant of the Weelaunee forest and lease it to the Atlanta Police Foundation, a nonprofit organization, for construction of a $90 million tactical training center. If built, it will be one of the country’s largest such facilities and include an entire “mock village” in which cops can practice doing the kinds of things cops do. For the past two years, a broad, loose coalition comprising neighborhood associations, schools, environmental groups, justice activists, civic leaders, and forest defenders has been pushing back hard against what they call “Cop City.” Writing for Atlanta magazine in January, Timothy Pratt captured the sheer breadth of the coalition’s motives and goals:
Labor:
Economy:
Inflation: Wages Versus Profits The Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey set the attitude of the mainstream view on the impact of inflation in February, when he said that “I’m not saying nobody gets a pay rise, don’t get me wrong. But what I am saying is, we do need to see restraint in pay bargaining, otherwise it will get out of control”. Bailey followed the Keynesian explanation of rising inflation as being the result of a tight (‘full employment’) labour market allowing workers to push for higher wages and thus forcing employers to hike prices to sustain profits. This ‘wage-push’ theory of inflation has been refuted both theoretically and empirically, as I have shown in several previous posts. And more recently the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) study confirms that “by some measures, the current environment does not look conducive to such a spiral. After all, the correlation between wage growth and inflation has declined over recent decades and is currently near historical lows.”
This Shaow Government Statistics Chart Shows That US Wages have been Deflating. While the Economy Inflates!
World:
Japan Signals an Attitude Shift to the Growing Power of the Global South In mid-April, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released its Diplomatic Bluebook 2023, its most important guidebook on international affairs. Japan’s foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, wrote the foreword, which begins: “The world is now at a turning point in history.” This phrase is key to understanding the Japanese approach to the war in Ukraine. Hours after Russian forces entered Ukraine, the Japanese government signed the G7 statement that condemned the “large-scale military aggression” and called for “severe and coordinated economic and financial sanctions.” The next day, Hayashi announced that Japan would sanction “designated individuals related to Russia,” freeze assets of three Russian banks, and sanction exports to Russia’s military. In its Diplomatic Bluebook 2022, Japan condemned Russia and urged the Russian government to “withdraw its troops immediately, and comply with international law.” Russia’s war, the Japanese argued, “shakes the very foundation of the international order,” an order whose attrition, as the new Bluebook argues, has brought the world to this “turning point.”
Canada: PSAC’s 155,000 Federal Workers Preparing for Picket Lines – Strike to Win! We republish here an article written by comrades of Fightback, the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency, written in advance of the recent public sector strike. This strike involved over 155,000 workers organised by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), making it one of the largest strikes in Canadian history. This article, originally published 18 April, provides useful background information for an international audience
Canada: Angry Voices From the PSAC Pickets – ‘We Can Put the Powers That Be in Place’ Over 155,000 federal government workers organized with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) are leading one of the largest strikes in Canadian history, after years of real wage cuts and fruitless negotiations. Picket lines are up, in front of federal buildings across the country, at more than 250 sites and affecting roughly 28 departments and agencies—from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to Passports. Speaking to Fightback on the picket lines in Toronto, the workers expressed a firm readiness to fight to win.
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