Daily News Digest March 11, 2024
Images of the Day:
A Brief History of International Women’s Day
A Brief History of International Women’s DayExhibition to Commemorate ‘Bread & Roses’ Strike The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO announces the Bread and Roses Exhibition, a productionof its MayWorks Project, which this year celebrates the centennial of the 1912 “Bread and Roses Strike” by textile workers in Lawrence, Mass. This eight-week strike by the mostly immigrant women was historic in its militancy, focusing the entire nation on the need for dignity as well as fair wages and working conditions.
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”
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: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, andThe 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! Globaly, With the Current Gaza War, The Right of Assembly is Under Attack! 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:
Alexandra Kollontai International Women’s Day Women’s Day or Working Women’s Day is a day of international solidarity, and a day for reviewing the strength and organization of proletarian women. But this is not a special day for women alone. The 8th of March is a historic and memorable day for the workers and peasants, for all the Russian workers and for the workers of the whole world. In 1917, on this day, the great February revolution broke out.[2] It was the working women of Petersburg who began this revolution; it was they who first decided to raise the banner of opposition to the Tsar and his associates. And so, working women’s day is a double celebration for us. But if this is a general holiday for all the proletariat, why do we call it “Women’s Day”? Why then do we hold special celebrations and meetings aimed above all at the women workers and the peasant women? Doesn’t this jeopardize the unity and solidarity of the working class? To answer these questions, we have to look back and see how Women’s Day came about and for what purpose it was organized. *** How and Why was Women’s Day Organised? *** Not very long ago, in fact about ten years ago, the question of women’s equality, and the question of whether women could take part in government alongside men was being hotly debated. The working class in all capitalist countries struggled for the rights of working women: the bourgeoisie did not want to accept these rights. It was not in the interest of the bourgeoisie to strengthen the vote of the working class in parliament; and in every country they hindered the passing of laws that gave the right to working women. Socialists in North America insisted upon their demands for the vote with particular persistence. On the 28th of February, 1909, the women socialists of the U.S.A. organized huge demonstrations and meetings all over the country demanding political rights for working women. This was the first “Woman’s Day”. The initiative on organizing a woman’s day thus belongs to the working women of America. In 1910, at the Second International Conference of Working Women, Clara Zetkin [3] brought forward the question of organizing an International Working Women’s Day. The conference decided that every year, in every country, they should celebrate on the same day a “Women’s Day” under the slogan “The vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle for socialism” Not very long ago, in fact about ten years ago, the question of women’s equality, and the question of whether women could take part in government alongside men was being hotly debated. The working class in all capitalist countries struggled for the rights of working women: the bourgeoisie did not want to accept these rights. It was not in the interest of the bourgeoisie to strengthen the vote of the working class in parliament; and in every country they hindered the passing of laws that gave the right to working women. Socialists in North America insisted upon their demands for the vote with particular persistence. On the 28th of February, 1909, the women socialists of the U.S.A. organized huge demonstrations and meetings all over the country demanding political rights for working women. This was the first “Woman’s Day”. The initiative on organizing a woman’s day thus belongs to the working women of America.
Pocasts/Videos of the Day:
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. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford ford 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
It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody’s blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely…. — Malcolm X
What Joe Biden’s State of the Union Speech Didn’t Mention The president’s speech made no mention of the forever war continuing in the Middle East. When assessing State of the Union speeches, what isn’t said can be just as interesting as what is. During his speech last night, President Joe Biden did not mention how the war in Ukraine is ever going to end. He didn’t mention U.S. service member deaths since Hamas’s October 7 attack (including three U.S. troops killed by an attack drone in Jordan and two Navy SEALs who died during a mission to interdict a ship carrying weapons to Yemen). He didn’t talk about the 170 attacks on U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq since Israel’s war in Gaza began, the thousands of U.S. troops stationed in those same countries, plus Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Djibouti, and even in small numbers, in Lebanon and Egypt. He didn’t address the forces in central Asia and Pakistan still overseeing an over-the-horizon war in Afghanistan. He didn’t talk about U.S. military aid to Israel, or Benjamin Netanyahu, or how the United States plans to use its influence to bring about an end to the conflict. Biden didn’t mention the creeping surveillance state, or his recent affirmation of the NSA’s spying powers by pushing for the reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He didn’t speak of upcoming increases in the military, intelligence, and homeland security budgets or justify why more than $2 trillion is now needed. He didn’t talk about the administration’s laser focus on domestic terrorism and extremism or how to pursue threats of violence and illegality while preserving the public’s right to privacy and free speech. He didn’t speak to the alleged national security threat posed by TikTok or the White House’s support for legislation that will try to ban the powerhouse social media app. He didn’t mention the growing dangers of war in space (or the space race now underway). He didn’t talk about alarming developments like autonomous weapons, robots, and drone armies, all of which through AI already threaten to change the very nature of warfare. And of course, not a word was said about nuclear arms control or any programs seeking disarmament.
Beyond the State of the Union, We Must Confront the State of the Genocide In the aftermath of Biden’s 2024 State of the Union, we offer an alternate address: “The State of the Genocide.” President Joe Biden gave his State of the Union address Thursday night as a majority of Americans maintain that the genocide in Gaza needs to immediately end and a new “uncommitted” movement is sweeping the nation and has become the biggest story of the 2024 presidential primaries. Biden briefly mentioned the more than 30,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza during his address but offered Israel no rebuke for its genocide and its destruction of almost all of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. He made no attempt to condition aid or weapons sales to Israel. He neglected to call for a ceasefire, for an end to occupation and apartheid, or for Palestinian liberation. Instead, he repeated platitudes about humanitarian aid and stale promises of a two-state solution.
Michael Brenner: The West’s Reckoning? The West has set itself on a path of collective suicide — both moral and economic. Western leaders are experiencing two stunning events: defeat in Ukraine, genocide in Palestine. The first is humiliating, the other shameful. Yet, they feel no humiliation or shame. Their actions show vividly that those sentiments are alien to them – unable to penetrate the entrenched barriers of dogma, arrogance and deep-seated insecurities. The last are personal as well as political. Therein lies a puzzle. For, as a consequence, the West has set itself on a path of collective suicide. Moral suicide in Gaza; diplomatic suicide – the foundations laid in Europe, the Middle East and across Eurasia; economic suicide – the dollar-based global financial system jeopardized, Europe deindustrializing. It is not a pretty picture. Astoundingly, this self-destruction is occurring in the absence of any major trauma – external or internal. Therein lies another, related puzzle.
Empire Decline and Costly Delusions Instead of caution, delusions prompted ill-advised judgments by the collective West (roughly the G7 nations: the U.S. and its major allies). Those delusions emerged partly from the collective West’s widespread denial of its relative economic decline in the 21st century. That denial also enabled a remarkable blindness to the limits that decline imposed on the collective West’s global actions. Delusions also flowed from a basic undervaluation of Russia’s defensiveness and its resulting commitments. The Ukraine war starkly illustrates both the decline and the costly delusions it fosters. The United States and Europe seriously underestimated what Russia could and would do to prevail militarily in Ukraine. Russia’s victory—at least so far after two years of war—has proven decisive. Their underestimation stemmed from a shared inability to grasp or absorb the changing world economy and its implications. By mostly minimizing, marginalizing, or simply denying the decline of the U.S. empire relative to the rise of China and its BRICS allies, the United States and Europe missed that decline’s unfolding implications. Russia’s allies’ support combined with its national determination to defend itself have so far defeated a Ukraine heavily funded and armed by the collective West. Historically, declining empires often provoke denials and delusions that teach their people “hard lessons” and impose on them “hard choices”. That is where we are now. The economics of the U.S. empire decline constitutes the continuing global context. The BRICS countries’ collective GDP, wealth, income, share of world trade, and presence at the highest levels of new technology increasingly exceed those of the G7. That relentless economic development frames the decline of the G7’s political and cultural influences as well. The massive U.S. and European sanctions program against Russia after February 2022 has failed. Russia turned especially to its BRICS allies to quickly as well as comprehensively escape most of those sanctions’ intended effects.
U.S. Armed and Funded Palestinian Genocide:
US Media and Factcheckers Fail to Note Israel’s Refutation of ‘Beheaded Babies’ Stories In late November, the Washington Post (11/22/23) factchecked President Joe Biden’s repeated claims that babies had been beheaded during Hamas’s October 7 attack in Israel. Biden’s remarks during a November 15 news conference triggered the factcheck: Hamas has already said publicly that they plan on attacking Israel again, like they did before, to where they were cutting babies’ heads off to burning women and children alive.
Canada, Sweden Restore UNRWA Funds as Report Accuses Israel of Torturing Agency Staff “The work that UNWRA does cannot be overstated,” said Canadian lawmaker Salma Zahid. “It will save lives as we have seen the visuals of children dying of hunger in Gaza. The need for immediate aid is non-negotiable.”
Environment:
Fund Climate! — Not Genocide! One of Many Ways to Begin to End Global Warming: Expose ‘Greenwashing’ — Tax the Polluters 100%! After World War II Rosa Luxenburg Coined the Slogan: ‘S0cialism or Barbaism’! Now the Slogan Should Be: ‘Ecosocialism or Ecocide’!
Capitalism’s Wars for Oil: When Bodies Start Stacking Up From Climate Change-Related Disasters, Will These Monsters be Held to Account?
Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa Week beginning on March 03, 2024: 425.51 ppm. Week beginning on February 18, 2024: 425.21 ppm. Weekly value from 1 year ago: 421.44 ppm. Weekly value from 10 years ago: 398.78 ppm. Last updated: March 09, 2024
Coastal Cities at High Noon Antarctica, the massive continent of ice, the size of the continental US and Mexico combined, is breaking apart more and more as a recent scientific expedition discovered unambiguous signals of considerably more danger than previously realized. “The changes to the sea-ice indicate that in the coming decades coastal cities will need to be reconfigured because of sea level rise,” according to Craig Stevens, Auckland Professor of Physical Oceanography. (Source: Signs Found of Worryingly Fast Antarctic Ice Melt – New Zealand Expedition, RNZ, March 3, 2024.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
The New Jim Crow:Florida Passes ‘Cruel’ Bill Curbing Water And Shade Protections For Workers Industry pressure has led state to prevent any city, county or municipality from adopting laborer protections amid extreme heat. The Florida legislature passed a bill on Friday that prevents any city, county, or municipality in the state from adopting legislation aimed to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat, prompting many to call out lawmakers for being “cruel” to the “most vulnerable workers”.
Labor:
Since the 2008 Crash the 1% Have Gotten Richer, the Working Class Have Gotten Poorer! — No Recovery!
Since June 2009 Americans have lived in the false reality of a recovering economy. Various fake news and manipulated statistics have been used to create this false impression. However, indicators that really count have not supported the false picture and were ignored. For example, it is normal in a recovering or expanding economy for the labor force participation rate to rise as people enter the workforce to take advantage of the job opportunities. During the decade of the long recovery, from June 2009 through February 2024, the labor force participation rate consistently fell from 65.7 to 65.2 percent. —Paul Craig Roberts, The Diminishing American Economy (Updated)
Out of a Civilian Labor Force of 167,426,000 People, Over a Third of them are Not Longer Participating! The current Labor Force Participation Rate Is 62.5% 
Economy:
Senator Elizabeth Warren Calls Fed Chair Powell “Weak-Kneed”; Says He Is “Driving Efforts Inside the Fed” to Gut Higher Capital Requirements Engaged Americans are watching in real time a replay of how Wall Street mega banks in 2008 created the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression, then used their campaign money and lobbying clout to intimidate Congress and the Obama administration into passing the pathetically watered down financial “reform” legislation known as Dodd-Frank in 2010. The Fed has been bailing out the mega banks’ excesses and casino style of banking ever since.
World:
Tariq Ali: Pakistan’s Electoral Chicanery Despite the efforts of Pakistan’s army, chiefs of police and civil servants to rig the results in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League and the Pakistan People’s Party, the vehicles of the country’s two political dynasties, the Sharifs and the Bhuttos (whose sordid history I’ve discussed in this paper on many occasions), Imran Khan triumphed in the general election of 8 February.* Khan won the last elections in Pakistan in 2018, but lost power after a confidence vote in April 2022. Just before this year’s election, he was sentenced on charges of corruption (fourteen years), leaking state secrets (ten years) and marriage law violations (seven years); he faces many more charges. He had already been blocked from standing in the election and the candidates of his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (the Movement for Justice), had to stand as independents. Nonetheless, Khan’s party emerged as the largest in the National Assembly, with 93 seats. All the signs had pointed to an even better result for the PTI, and it now seems clear that without ballot-rigging it would have been very close to an overall majority: the PTI claims it won 154 seats; 169 are needed for a majority. Since the validity of many results is under challenge in the courts, no final results can be declared. There is always some chicanery in Pakistan’s elections, but this time the army went too far. Spontaneous demonstrations have erupted in every province.
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, 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