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An initiative of Chilean Socialist José Mateo and British Communist Gerrard Sables led to the founding of North Devon Liberation www.devonliberation.org the only local branch of Liberation the long time campaigning body against imperialism. Liberation was formerly the Movement for Colonial Freedom.
On Saturday 14 January to celebrate a year of campaigning the branch held a musical event. Jorge Morales thrilled the 50 or so gathered in Barnstaple’s historic Guildhall with songs from Chile. Cahit Baylav member of Liberation’s national steering committee read out the message of support from Jeremy Corbyn our national president and told us how in Turkey they had sung Chilean revolutionary songs in Turkish. He then entertained us with his violin and performed a duet with his wife Akgül. Gerrard then told of the history of Liberation in North Devon and made the collection of £236.
Breaking Boundaries is a Latin American quartet comprising Colombian singer Ludz, Chilean singer Patricia, Bolivian guitarist and vocalist Milton and Peter on guitar and vocals who had come from the Outer Hebrides for the event. they had the audience clapping and stamping in appreciation.
Dave Clinch played us out and we went for a splendid meal cooked by our good friend Belal whose excellent curry was devoured.
All in all a great afternoon’s entertainment and one which has made us many new friends.
Check out this article about the famous labor leader and organizer, Joe Hill, who prior to his death commanded working people, “Don’t mourn, organize!”
Via http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2012/01/theater-of-absurd.html
Talented artists are gifted with the ability to take some commonplace belief or unquestioned assumption and reveal underlying nonsense. Still others craft inventive works that expose fatuity lurking behind pomposity and platitudes.
But consider some of the events transpiring over the last few weeks. Reality is indeed stranger than fiction. These events rival any work of literature in illustrating hypocrisy and proud ignorance. And the real-life actors in this public theater know no shame or regret.
The Republican primary medicine show is low entertainment. Its candidates and their stage hands have amused liberal, but spineless commentators and shocked international observers with the primary debate inanities.
Within the arena of right-wing ultimate fighting, Gingrich has assailed Romney’s money making career as “vulture capitalism.†Romney sups at the table of Bain Capital, a private equity fund that preys on vulnerable businesses weighed by debt and burdened by marginally criminal mismanagement. Bain buys these businesses at a heavily discounted price by leveraging their substantial assets and then guts the victims chiefly of their employees, imposing a new draconian labor discipline, and reselling the polished product at an enormous profit. Indeed, “vulture capitalism” is the appropriate term for this parasitic process widely practiced among ambitious capitalists in the US.
But wait! This exposé came from Newt Gingrich? Not from Paul Krugman? Joseph Stiglitz? Or any of the other economists or pundits arrayed around the liberal wing of the Democratic Party? None of the Party’s shrewd operatives rallied around President Obama? Or the President himself?
No, this exposé of vulture capitalism came from one of the icons of the ultra-right. Further, the ultra-right fed on the revelation that Romney only paid taxes at a rate of 15% or less compared to the much higher rates paid by most citizens.
Surely this is class warfare initiated from the right. And just as surely no prominent Democrat – representing the presumed Party of working people – joined the chorus. As David Bromwich noted, in The New York Review of Books (2-9-2012), “Gingrich… fleetingly placed himself to the left of President Obama, who has been careful to portray the financial collapse as a disaster without a villain.†Isn’t this an indictment of the hypocrisy and deception of the two-party circus?
Yes. Exposing a sector of capitalism as illegitimate is beyond the pale, beyond the two-party discourse, even though no one but Romney has rushed to defend it. Everyone knows that private equity firms – that have worked their black magic on over 3,200 firms – engage in wholesale destructive behavior (apologists call it “constructive destructionâ€) yet no one will say it – except Gingrich.
Similarly, Ron Paul, the only candidate in years with a set of internally consistent principles, has dared to challenge the two-party consensus on aggressive imperialism, arguing that the US should abandon its occupations and wars and let the rest of the world (including Iran) go its own way. Paul, the only Republican right-wing ideologue who believes what he says, stands for an anachronistic Republicanism favored by the Party before the New Deal. The target of liberal derision because of his appearance and mannerisms and discounted by conservatives because of his slender fund-raising, Paul continues to have his campaign energized by poll results and young volunteers impressed with his integrity. And he dares to speak heresy.
Of course those who respect the man’s integrity should consider the consequences of his free market and barely-breathing government principles before jumping on his bandwagon. Nineteenth-century nostrums are not the solution to twenty-first-century problems, regardless of Paul’s honesty.
It is incredible, however, that no one among the left of the Democratic Party’s luminaries has either defended Paul’s anti-imperialism or, at least, used it as a spring board for a tepid critique of US policies regarding Israel, Iran, or the rest of the Middle East. Again, writing in the New York Review of Books, David Bromwich ventures: “In addressing such issues, he has no rival among Republicans, and, after the death of Robert Byrd and the defeat of Russ Feingold, none among Democrats of national stature. On issues of national security and war, he is the American politician who speaks to Americans as if they were grownups interested in their own condition…â€
But who speaks for “grownups†on the other urgent issues? Certainly not the Democrats. This is surely a measure of the untenable, unpopular and unsustainable US two-party system and its money-driven pre-election entertainment.
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Hungary has its own Ron Paul in the body of conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban. A political maverick born of the anti-Communist scramble for power after Hungary’s socialist government crumbled, Orban won election in 2010 representing the right-wing, nationalist Fidesz Party. Lacking Paul’s principles or any principles at all, Orban delights in playing to nationalist sentiments and defying the EU and the IMF. I wrote earlier of the outrage created by Orban when he dared to tax banks to reduce Hungary’s deficit. As I sarcastically noted, austerity programs to lower the deficit on the backs of working people are prescribed by these august bodies, but raising revenue by taxing banks is strictly forbidden, even though the deficit-lowering results would be the same! So much for the independence and objectivity of the EU and the IMF.
Orban struck again late last year securing a parliamentary law that slightly limits the powers of Hungary’s Central Bank. Like most Central Banks, Hungary’s enjoys a special status buffering it from any popular or governmental influence. In essence, capitalist Central banks are enormously powerful economic actors that are isolated from any kind of democratic control, pressure, or oversight. And the EU, the IMF, and capitalism, in general, want to keep it that way. It is capitalism’s ultimate economic tool immunized from the will of the people.
Orban’s parliament would place a government minister on the Bank’s monetary council, seemingly a small step towards democratizing the Bank, as well as requiring the Bank to share its meeting agenda with the parliament, another small step towards transparency. The move was met by righteous indignation from the European Commission (threatening to sue), the IMF (threatening to withhold funds) and the entire global financial hierarchy. They charged indignantly that the new law compromised the Central Bank’s “independenceâ€.
Of course the question is independence from whom. Currently the Bank is independent from any sort of Hungarian popular governance, but it is hardly independent from outside influence, particularly the IMF, the EU, and financial markets. This is a strange sort of independence advocated and protected by foreign financial forces. To quote the famed philosopher, Humpty Dumpty: “When I use a word… it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.†Financial elites occupy the same fantasy world created by Lewis Carroll.
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US workers can breathe easier. The wholesale destruction of their living standards, benefits, and wages, coupled with a dramatic increase in the rate of exploitation over the last decade is paying dividends. But not dividends for them.
Recently Caterpillar Inc locked out its Canadian workers in London, Ontario, contending that the workers need to cut their pay dramatically. They point to the fact that Caterpillar pays its workers 50% less in Lagrange, Illinois. Quoting The Wall Street Journal (US: A Cheaper Labor Pool 1-6-2012): “…[B]ut instead of pointing to the usual models of cheap and pliant labor, such as China and Mexico, it is using a more surprising example: the US.â€
So the tables are turning and today we find that US workers are setting miserable standards of pay and benefits against their Canadian and European counterparts. They, in turn, could repeat the same sad misguided tactic popular in the US by blaming poorly paid “foreigners†– in this case US workers or their government’s policies — for the pressure on their living standards. US hourly compensation costs in manufacturing rose only 39% over the last decade, while average comparable labor costs grew by 74% in OECD countries and 91% in Canada.
Put differently, labor costs per unit of output in the US are 13% less than they were in manufacturing a decade earlier. In Germany they rose 2.3%, the Republic of Korea 15%, and Canada 18%. These figures are most telling because they reflect—assuming roughly similar levels of productive force development – differences in the relative rates of exploitation. Clearly US workers have surrendered far more than their international brothers and sisters while being squeezed much harder in the work place.
Instead of the divisive and diversionary tactic of blaming foreign governments or foreign workers for job losses or pay cuts – typically China – it’s time to target the trans-national corporations that exploit labor cost differentials to increase profits. Like the machine-breakers of yore, workers and their trade union leaders must correctly identify the enemy and embrace class struggle unionism if they have any hope of stopping this destructive game of competition to see who can offer the best wage deal to rapacious corporations.
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Speaking of China, the Western media reported on January 17 an ominous drop in fourth quarter GDP in the Peoples Republic of China; quoting Reuters: “Growth of 8.9% over a year earlier was slightly [my emphasis] stronger than the 8.7% forecast by economists in a Reuters poll, but the data on Tuesday raised concerns about the immediate outlook and how much support China can offer a struggling global economy… Growth for all of 2012 slipped to 9.2%, a pace last seen in 2009… from 10.4% in 2010.”
While it is true that the PRC GDP growth dropped slightly (5%) from the 3rd to the 4th quarter, it meant that that the PRC GDP would double, at that rate, in a little over eight years rather than a bit more than seven and a half – not a bad performance either way for the world’s second largest economy. Put into perspective, the OECD estimates that from 2011 through 2013 the collective OECD states (including PRC) will only average less than 2% growth. At that rate, it would take the entire OECD over 37 years to double its economic output!
But the Reuters report, like so many other media accounts of PRC 4th quarter GDP performance, masks two implicit points:
1. The Chinese economy is vigorous even in the midst of world wide economic turmoil (2009, for example, and now).
2. Most importantly, economic wizards concede that the health of the global capitalist economy depends critically on the continued vigor of that economy.
So it’s not the future of the Chinese people that so worries the pundits, but the impact of the Chinese economic engine on capitalism’s future. At the same time, they continue to demonize the policies that fuel that powerful engine. Strange, indeed.
Zoltan Zigedy
zoltanzigedy@gmail.com
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Posted By zoltan zigedy to ZZ’s blog at 1/23/2012 11:57:00 AM
By James Thompson
I have been reflecting on this great nation of ours over the last week or so and our history of gradual progress in the face of adversity. The revolution which founded our country was one of the first to defy and overthrow British colonialism and imperialism. For this, our country is world renowned for overthrowing tyranny and has served as a guiding light in the struggle against oppression and exploitation by foreigners. Just a few years following the founding of our nation, our forefathers engaged in a Civil War which ended slavery in this country. Meanwhile, there was a glorious history of labor struggles, struggles for women’s rights and civil rights. People died for the 40 hour work week and the right to vote. When the capitalist economic system collapsed in the 1930s, there was a strong response from Labor and the Communist Party which resulted in social reforms which benefitted all working people in this country. Following this there was the crucial struggle and victory against fascism, Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism. All these social victories must be viewed in the context of constant advances in science and technology which must be considered as victories in and of themselves.
This is not a nation of cowards or quitters. It is a nation of fighters for progress.
Frederick Douglass said it best:
Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reforms.
The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions, yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.
We did not get to where we are by cutting deals with the powers that be.
The worldwide communist movement has a long, glorious history of fighting for the interests of the working class. Many people have died in this long struggle, both in this country and around the world.
It has been a long struggle and will continue for a long time.
In this current capitalist crisis, it is not the time to throw in the towel. With people on the street in Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas and around the country, it is not time to back down and grovel in the corner. With the workers in Tunisia, Greece, North Africa and the Middle East in full revolt, it is not time to cower in the background. With the U.S. expanding its imperialist wars and occupations while at the same time mounting a monumental effort to roll back the progress that workers have made since the 1930s, it is not time to shirk our duty to stand up for worker’s rights and oppose capitalism and imperialism as well as the exploitation, oppression and alienation that they bring to our communities.
I recently attended the UNAC rally and march in New York City on April 9 as well as the Texas State Employees Union rally and march in Austin, Texas. In both actions there were over 6,000 participants from diverse backgrounds. Simultaneously with the action in New York there was an AFL-CIO rally for jobs and against budget cuts in New York. I was told that the AFL-CIO rally was about 6,000 as well. The lack of unity was unfortunate in these events and this is probably the result of lack of leadership which could have combined the two events and would have resulted in a bigger event with more impact. An event with 12,000 people would have been more powerful than two events of 6,000 each.
However, it is important to look at the bigger picture. People around the country and around the world are standing up to the evils of capitalism in mass protests and actions.
My experience in Austin, Texas was rather disappointing. Following a loud, spirited rally with many progressive speakers firing up the crowd from around the state of Texas, many of us entered the Capitol to attempt to “lobby†the members of the state Congress. The first Congressperson’s office that we went to was somewhat receptive and sent out a staff member to meet with us. This was a Congressperson who was opposed to the draconian budgets cuts advocated by the Republicans. My group went to three other Congresspeople’s offices and no one was available to meet with us and hear our demands, even though they were all supportive of our demands. This is a colossal failure of the electoral system and legislative struggle.
The lesson here is that electoral and legislative struggle is not enough. We must devise new tactics to meet the political realities of our current struggle for progress. We cannot count on the bourgeois electoral system to meet our demands or even hear our concerns. Even our so-called “allies†shut us out.
Where does the leadership of the CPUSA stand amidst this time of struggle? Sam Webb and his hangers-on are calling for subservience to the Democratic Party which is shutting out workers and slashing programs of benefit to working people to assuage the right wing bullies.
The Communist Party is not a party of cowering, sniveling hypocrites who blast the war policies of Republicans, but zip their lips when Democrats expand the war policies of the right wingers. We are better than that. We are not a party that blasts the attempts of Republicans to privatize Social Security and everything else including our toenails, but sit on our hands when Democrats cow tow to Republican demands. We are not a party that fails to tie the expanding wars to the so-called budget crisis. We are not a party that remains silent when children in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan and who knows where else are slaughtered while the children in this country are hungry, and have their healthcare and educational benefits slashed.
Sadly, our party has received international condemnation for its anti-communist program. Leninism, the teachings of Stalin, the victories achieved in the former USSR, democratic centralism and even the word “communism†has been denounced by our leadership. What else must they do to get the attention of the membership of the party?
Let us heed the words of the KKE and refute the program proposed by the current leadership of the CPUSA! Let us unite as workers and party members and oust the leaders who have brought nothing but ruin to the CPUSA! We have nothing to lose but the cronies and sell-outs to capitalism!
http://en.ria.ru/world/20120120/170856516.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
January 20, 2012
MOSCOW: The U.S. and its NATO allies already have about a thousand missiles capable of intercepting Russia’s intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Russian first deputy premier in charge of defense said.
“Along with allies, whom the U.S. now persuades to buy ships equipped with the Aegis Combat System, the overall potential can be estimated at about 1,000 interceptor missiles,†Dmitry Rogozin, who is also the Russian president’s special representative for talks with NATO, said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
He said that the figure is currently approaching the limits established by the recently signed Russia-U.S. strategic arms reduction treaty.
“There are no guarantees that after first, second, third phases [of the U.S. missile shield project] are completed, there will be no fourth, fifth and sixth. Do you really think they will halt all their technologies after 2020? That’s nonsense! They will go ahead with developing and boosting technical parameters of their interceptor missiles and performance capabilities of their warning [missile defense] systems,†Rogozin said.
He said that U.S. interceptor missiles cover all European Russia to the Urals Mountains, and are capable of hitting not only small and medium-range missiles of “rogue states,†but also intercontinental ballistic missiles of Russia’s armed forces.
“The fact that the missile defense system can hit strategic missiles and the fact that those bases and fleet are deployed in northern seas demonstrate the evident…anti-Russian nature of the [U.S.] missile defense,†Rogozin said.
Russia-NATO missile defense talks are close to deadlock as Moscow is seeking written, legally binding guarantees that the U.S.-backed European missile defense program will not be directed against it. Washington, however, refuses to provide the guarantees, saying the shield is directed against threats from Iran and North Korea.
Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on European missile defense system at the Lisbon Summit in November 2010. President Dmitry Medvedev proposed a joint system with full-scale interoperability to ensure that the alliance’s system will not be directed against Moscow. The military bloc, however, favors two independent systems which exchange information.
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com / (blog)
Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. ~Henry David Thoreau
by James Harrington
First of all I am neither a republican nor a democrat. I firmly believe that both of these parties are parties of WAR! I just happen to be a communist!
It seems the republicans have several immoral candidates running for the highest office of the land this year.
First there was Herman Cain, the bigoted anti-Muslim candidate who is the former C.E.O of Godfathers Pizza. There is a Godfathers Pizza right around the corner from where I live in Texas. They always send out these flyers which mention that they serve halal meat. Halal is the Muslim tradition of saying a prayer for the animal before it is slaughtered.
Mr. Cain said early on in the campaign that he would not place any Muslims in his administration if elected president. He also said anti-Muslim stuff to a Christaian group located in Florida.
Cain was trying his best to deflect comments from several former female employees of his, calling all of them liers. He boasted that he was a family man who had been faithful to his wife for many years. His wife even came to his aid.
Finally, the straw that broke the camel’s back fell when his mistress of sixteen years came forth and spilled the beans about her affair with Mr. Cain. Thats when the do-do hit the fan and he had to drop out of the race!
Gingrich, one of the strongest attackers of Bill Clinton, was cheating behind his wife’s back with another woman. Now we see how Mr. Morals wanted an open marriage with his second wife!
The Republicans seem to want to make the world safe for hypocrisy.
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