d SA LAUNCHES SOCIALIST NEW MEMBER EDUCATIONAL SERIES! ACTION P. 3
VOL. 38, NO. 8, AUGUST 2020 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. $1 / CANADA $2
Which Way for Today’s Mass Radicalization? Capitalism’s Impending Catastrophe... Or a Socialist Future
By Jeff Mackler
Predatory capitalism is facing its great- est crises ever. The gap between the ex- ploiting few, who rule by guile and deceit – and brute force when necessary – and the vast majority, who are compelled to sell their labor to survive, has never been greater. A stunning half of the work- ing-age population stand unemployed or subjected to a low-wage, part-time, gig economy wherein unprecedented num- bers live paycheck to paycheck in fear of eviction or foreclosure. One in five fam- ilies are unable to provide food for their children. 27 million Americans and their family members have lost health insur- ance coverage during the pandemic. That systemic racism permeates every institution of U.S. society is only de- nied by an ever-declining tiny minori- ty, cheered on by racist hatemongering Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday Donald Trump, who persists in increas- Daily COVID-19 infection rates soar any concerns about the predicted mas- Yet astonishingly, several of the na- ingly irrational rants and threats of vio- sive loss of human lives. tion’s top research groups, including the lence despite the counsel of his frequent- A month ago, when the rate of new dai- The phased re-openings brought on Centers for Disease Control and Preven- ly-fired sycophant advisors and the top ly COVID-19 infections “plateaued” for disaster. Insanity prevailed. One month tion (CDC), now advocate reopening leadership of the Republican Party. Even a week or so at 22,000, all 50 state gover- in, by July 27, close to 70,000 new in- public schools. Their previously released the worst of them fear going down with nors, Democrats and Republicans alike, fections were registered daily for a total stringent guidelines to do so, they now Trump’s sinking ship. CNN reports that devised plans for a return to work. Ig- now exceeding 4.5 million, with epide- insist, are “suggestions” only. They pre- 84 percent of Americans support the an- noring the generalized opposition of the miologists estimating that perhaps ten tend ignorance of the hundreds of bil- ti-racist demonstrations that have mobi- scientific community, the ruling class as times this number have been infected, lions needed to implement them – an lized an estimated 15-26 million in over a whole calculated that “the economy,” with most infections going undetected. amount that is absent from the new round 2000 cities and towns. The times are that is, the trillions of dollars in profits The number of daily deaths has risen to a-changing indeed. extracted from their workers, trumped over 1,000. To date, 164,000 are dead. (continued on page 3) A manifesto for our times The Challenge to Abolish Systemic Racism Initiated by Alice Walker, Glen Ford, Pam Africa, Jeff Mackler, and many more!
REQUEST FOR SIGNERS Massive opposition to SYSTEMIC demonstrators. An estimated 15-25 mil- times the rate of whites. Sixty-three per- We reprint this Manifesto at the re- RACISM and the inseparable general- lion have participated in the protests. cent of those recently killed by Minneap- quest of its original signers. It is be- ized social inequality that permeate ev- It is this SYSTEMIC RACISM, not olis police – 19 people – were Black; 17 ing circulated far and wide with the ery institution in U.S. society, are the just the police murders of George Floyd, percent – or 5 people – were white. intention of opening a broad-ranging discussion of how today’s unprece- only serious explanations for the mag- Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and INGRAINED RACISM: And a century dented movements against systemic nificent, unprecedented, defiant dai- Rayshard Brooks, that has infuriated the and a half before these murders, during racism and class oppression might ly multi-racial mass mobilizations in vast majority. That daily racist police the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era, develop toward new and independent 2000+ U.S. cities and towns. In the face murders of unarmed Blacks have been 1865 to 1876, 2,000 racist lynchings of organizations capable of challeng- of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and the norm for decades is no longer denied Black men, women and children were ing the ever-deepening incursions police repression courageous millions with impunity. Minneapolis is but one recorded, that is, after the Emancipa- on fundamental social, political and have taken to the streets. The resounding example: Twenty percent of the popu- tion Proclamation. And another 4,400 economic rights. The initiators an- declarations of Black Lives Matter! and lation of 430,000 are Black. But when lynchings between 1877 and 1950. And ticipate many activists will add their No Justice, No Peace! have reverberated the police employ violence – with kicks, countless more since. And two more in names and help circulate this text. To across the world. An unprecedented 84 chokeholds, punches, shoves, take- Los Angeles a few weeks ago. And four add your name/organization, email: percent of the U.S. population, according downs, Mace and Tasers – nearly 60 per- [email protected] to CNN polls, agree with the anti-racist cent of their victims are Black – seven (continued on page 6) Mumia Speaks - 2 U.S. War Machine - 7 Trump & Immigration - 12 INSIDE New Member Classes - 3 AMLO-Trump Meeting - 9 Free Mumia Rally - 13 SOCIALIST ACTION Marx, Lenin & Elections - 5 Northern Lights - 10 NY Mayor Busts Occupy - 14 Mumia Abu-Jamal Speaks WHERE TO System Change, FIND US Not Climate A Little Matter Bay Area, CALIFORNIA Change! P.O. Box 10328 Oakland, CA 94610 [email protected] Climate Crisis Commentary of History (510) 268-9429 By James Fortin North Bay, CALIFORNIA [email protected] Boulder, COLORADO [email protected] You don’t say!? A group of the largest pension funds in the U.S. jointly man- Chicago, ILLINOIS aging a trillion dollars of investments, P.O. BOX 578428 now says the looming climate catastro- [email protected] phe “poses a systemic threat to finan- cial markets and the real economy, with Lexington, KENTUCKY significant disruptive consequences to [email protected] asset valuations and our nation’s eco- Louisville, KENTUCKY nomic stability.” And you are going to [email protected] do what for Mother Earth? Brunswick, MAINE No exemptions for heroes on ped- [email protected] estals. Cop brutality and murders of Blacks has transformationally altered Detroit, MICHIGAN the way U.S society thinks. Not ex- [email protected] empt from this sea change is the Sierra Kansas City, MISSOURI Club, a leading environmental group of [email protected] 3-plus million members. Its founder, (816) 221-3638 John Muir, was an avowed racist whose ideal of a white man in sync with na- Statue of Thomas Jefferson pulled down in Portland (Jamie Goldberg/The Oregonian) Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN ture to the exclusion of people of color [email protected] is now being questioned by the organi- By Mumia Abu-Jamal America, “One hour suffered under zation. Get ready slave master George such conditions was fraught with more Buffalo, NEW YORK [email protected] Washington, another tumbling wall is When I was a young man – a boy re- misery than ages of that suffered under shaking the ground. ally – I found barbershops to be fasci- the British by white Americans who nating places, for there men gathered rose in rebellion to oppose them.” NEW YORK CITY [email protected] Mass movements 3, fossil fuel pipe- in an air of relaxed familiarity and dis- This is really a quite astounding (212) 781-5157 lines 0. Keystone XL – not now says cussed things they didn’t do elsewhere. statement by not only an American the Supreme Court. Dakota Access I heard tales of ancient African empires, slave-owner but a revolutionary. It tells Salem, OREGON pipeline – shut it down orders a federal of unknown roads, of unknown roads of us that Jefferson knew well the miser- [email protected] judge. Atlantic Coast pipeline – can- Black history, and often the name of the ies inflicted by him and his class. One (503) 910-5988 celled by big business and celebrated brilliant self-taught historian J. A. Rog- might say, he knew it intimately. by opponent Appalachian communi- ers. I’d later search many a bookstore If we take Jefferson seriously, he sug- Dallas-Fort Worth, TEXAS ties. We can almost smell the clean air. for his work often, without success. gests something else: That Blacks have [email protected] I thought of those days because of a a greater right to revolution than did “Social Cost of Carbon,” under- little-known quote I’d read in the work British Americans under a foreign, dis- played. It comes as no surprise that the of two late Black scholars and his- tant king. Socialist Action Trump regime uses every opportunity torians, Ishakamusa Barashango and Think on that. A little matter of his- to minimize the impact of growing lev- Lerone Bennett. The quote was from tory. n CANADA els of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Thomas Jefferson, president and slave- This commentary was originally pub- socialistaction.ca believing that will help Trumps’s bud- owner, and it reflected his paradoxical lished at PrisonRadio.org and recorded [email protected] dies in the fossil fuel industry. Cli- nature. by Noelle Hanrahan. Mumia’s audio is 1-647-986-1917 mate expert Michael K. Dorsey states, Said Jefferson of African slavery in available here. however, that “the only thing it does, unfortunately, is undermine … critical resources to communities that are expe- riencing the unfolding climate crisis.” Join Socialist Action! But then again, fudging the numbers is Socialist Action is a national organization of activists committed to the emancipation of workers and the oppressed. We strive to revitalize the just a part of the social cost of capital- antiwar, environmental, labor, anti-racist, feminist, student, and other social movements with a mass-action perspective. Recognizing the divisions ism. that exist on the left and within the workers’ movement, we seek to form united front type organizations around specific issues where a wide range Pork and hides. Since the bi-partisan of groups have agreement. In this way we seek to maximize our impact and demonstrate the power and effectiveness of mass action. members of Congress get very little In the process we hope to bring activists together from different backgrounds into a revolutionary workers’ party that can successfully challenge done, generally, and it is an election the wealthy elite – whose profit-based system is driving down living standards and threatens all life on this planet. year, specifically, why not pass around We are active partisans of the working class and believe in the need for independent working-class politics – not alliances with the bosses’ parties. a little pork to make everyone in the es- That is why we call for workers in the U.S. to break from the Democratic and Republican parties to build a labor party based on democratic fight- teemed chambers look good. So…here ing trade unions in alliance with the oppressed and exploited. goes $9.5 billion for the Great Amer- We support the struggle of those who are specially oppressed under capitalism – women, LGBTQI people, national minorities, etc. We support the ican Outdoors Act to upgrade conser- right of self-determination for oppressed nationalities, including Blacks, Chicanos, and Puerto Ricans. We are internationalists and hold that work- vation projects and national parks over ers of one country have more in common with workers of another than with their own nation’s capitalist class. We seek to link struggles across the next 5 years (which we welcome), national boundaries, and to build an international revolutionary movement that will facilitate the sharing of experiences and political lessons. We and to generate a few votes for incum- maintain fraternal relations with the Fourth International. bents everywhere (which does not sur- Socialist Action believes that the capitalist state and its institutions are instruments of the ruling class, and that therefore they cannot be used as prise). Hides are worth protecting, too, tools of the working class but have to be abolished and replaced with institutions of direct working class rule. That is why we fight for revolution. you see. Bets are off, though, for the When we fight for specific reforms, we do so with the understanding that in the final analysis real social change can only come about with the balance of the estimated $20 billion overthrow of capitalism, the establishment of a workers’ government and the fight for socialism. Our ultimate goal is a truly democratic, environ- mentally sustainable, and egalitarian society organized to satisfy human needs rather than corporate greed. We invite you to join us in the struggle needed for deferred maintenance. to make the world a better place! Signs of the times. Participating in the For info about Socialist Action and how to join contact: July 20 Strike for Black lives, the US Socialist Action National Office Climate Strike Coalition championed P.O. Box 10328 the slogan and carried placards that Oakland, CA, 94610 stated, “Climate Justice is Racial Jus- tice.” As many organizations that make Call: (510) 268-9429 Email: [email protected] up the present-day climate movement
have already affirmed, the struggle for SOCIALIST ACTION Closing news date: June 30, 2020 racial justice intersects with virtually Editor: Nick Baker Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Socialist Action (ISSN: 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610. all struggles for social justice, demo- Send address changes to: Socialist Action, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610. cratic rights and economic equality in RATES: For one year (12 issues, (1st class mail) — U.S., Canada, Mexico — $20. All other countries —$30. Money orders and checks should be in U.S. dollars. the U.S. today. n Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials.
SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 2 Socialist Action Launches New Member Educational Series
New Member Educational Series All classes start at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time Mon., Aug. 10 Building the Revolutionary Socialist Party Today: Lessons of the Russian Revolution Jeff Mackler Mon., Aug. 24 The United Front: What It Is, and How It Can Change the World Barry Weisleder Mon., Sept. 7 Class Struggle Feminism Ann Montague & Lisa Luinenberg Mon., Sept. 21 Leninism: Understanding Imperialism, the State and the Revolutionary Party Gary Porter Mon., Oct. 5 How Haiti’s Slave Revolution Changed the World “Books in all branches of knowledge.” Soviet poster from 1925. Marty Goodman By James Fortin tionary Marxists followed by open Q&A Mon., Oct. 19 Marxism and Freedom dialogue. Gary Bills Socialist Action announced today the Eight classes are scheduled for the launch of a new member educational se- first round of the program running from Mon., Nov. 2 Introduction to Marxist Economics ries. The bi-weekly educational program mid-August to mid-November. Provi- Nick Baker is a response by the Party to educate and sional members are strongly encouraged integrate a growing wave of new recruits to participate in all 8 sessions. The series Mon., Nov. 16 Racism: Its Origins and How It Will End, A drawn to the ideas of revolutionary so- is open to all North American comrades Marxist Understanding cialism. (U.S. and Canada) regardless of lon- Ed Jurenas “Now that we have recruited larger gevity in the socialist movement. Older numbers of members across the country, members are requested to defer to the Trotsky, the 1917 Russian Revolution in its formative years in the 20th centu- we have the obligation to forge an edu- questions and discussion of newer mem- ended capitalist rule in the largest na- ry? How does it differ from the Popular cated cadre that is well versed in the his- bers, however, as the program is geared tion in the world. Mackler will present Front? How does Socialist Action apply tory, theory and practice of revolutionary to them. a Marxist analysis of that revolution. the United Front tactic, at least in Can- socialism,” states Jeff Mackler, Socialist An initial schedule of classes is pub- Points covered will include the program ada? Action’s National Secretary. “Our new lished in the August issue of Socialist of Lenin’s Bolshevik Party, how that par- These are some of the questions to be member educational series is intended Action and online at socialistaction.org. ty and its leadership functioned, the con- covered in this presentation of an essen- to help in that process. Classes will be To kick off the series, U.S. Nation- ditions in Russia that made a revolution- tial mobilization tool used by the revolu- offered by our movement’s own accom- al Secretary Jeff Mackler and Socialist ary transformation possible, and why the tionary Left. plished activists and educators.” Action-Canada Federal Secretary Barry revolution degenerated and succumbed Provisional and recently-joined mem- The class series will commence via Weisleder will present the first two class- to the subsequent Stalinist dictatorship. bers are asked to block out class times on Zoom on Monday nights, beginning es in the schedule. On Aug. 24, Barry Weisleder will fol- their personal calendars. The educational August 10, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 7:00 Jeff Mackler’s talk on Monday, Aug. low suit with “The United Front: What It series is one that will shape the political Central, 6:00 Mountain and 5:00 Pa- 10 is “Building the Revolutionary So- Is and How It Can Change the World.” development of Party newcomers and cific times. The format will consist of cialist Party Today: Lessons of the 1917 Weisleder will analyze the character- assist them in becoming well-informed a 30-40-minute presentation on a wide Russian Revolution.” istics of the United Front. What is the and effective revolutionary activists and range of topics of importance to revolu- Led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon history of the United Front, particularly leaders. n
virus vaccine. Its stock then quadrupled over the course of two days in June, after Vaxart first announced that it had “signed ...Capitalism’s Impending Catastrophe a letter of intent with another company” for possible future mass-production of of hoped-for bi-partisan bailout propos- viral SARS-CoV-2 test less than 12 days of one becomes the collective proper- a coronavirus vaccine, and the next day als, which largely focus on giving money before arriving,” according to the report. ty of all. Imagine a scientist or hacker announced that it had been selected for a to corporations. The CDC’s sudden con- Three days after campers arrived on June stealing the data on an effective vaccine preliminary study around cern over the “psychological damage” to 21, “officials began sending campers or cure, making it freely available to all Such companies often promote their students deprived of in-person education home on June 24 and closed the camp on humanity, and being jailed for it! drugs with a unique gimmick to make it barely masks the underlying pressure ex- June 27,” the CDC reports. These “intellectual property” laws cre- an attractive prospect for investors and erted by the corporate elite to ignore the The fact that even backyard gatherings ate opportunities for enormous profits for government funding. Another compa- science in order to free up parents from of family and friends are now discour- the drug companies, as their stock pric- ny, Novavax, promotes theirs as using childcare responsibilities and thus enable aged nationwide flies in the face of the es shoot upwards with any positive an- an “innovative” technology that would workers to return to capitalism’s facto- notion that millions of students can safe- nouncement that carries with it the prom- make the vaccine easier to mass-produce ries and myriad workplaces. ly interact with their teachers, other stu- ise of megaprofits from being among the – except that neither Novavax nor its “in- The CDC’s assertion that students are dents and their families without deadly first companies to produce a COVID-19 novative technology” have ever succeed- less vulnerable to COVID-19 is increas- consequences. vaccine. In the last few months, execu- ed in producing a working vaccine of any ingly contradicted by evidence of the Capitalism and the search for a tives of these drug companies – many of kind. Vaxart’s strategy for eye-catching likelihood that students will return home vaccine which have never successfully produced is that its vaccine, unusually, would be each day to infect their more vulnerable a vaccine – have made over $1 billion taken as a pill. parents and grandparents, not to mention The notion is absurd in the extreme by selling stocks that skyrocketed after Immediately following these an- their teachers and other school workers. that the search for a vaccine can most companies made announcements about nouncements and the immense stock A recent study found that children are effectively take place in the framework their work on a vaccine or received some rises they engendered, the hedge fund very effective carriers of the disease, of the largely secret research facilities of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed vac- owner of Vaxart sold 21 million shares of with infected young children having 5 of monopolized pharmaceutical corpo- cine funding, according to a July 25 New the company, worth more than $197 mil- to 100 times more virus material in their rations, where profits are first and fore- York Times article, titled “Corporate lion. Novavax got $1.6 billion from the upper respiratory tract than adults. most, as opposed to the nationally and Insiders Pocket $1 Billion in Rush for Trump administration’s program, and its On July 31, the CDC reported that 260 internationally organized and coordinat- Coronavirus Vaccine.” stock – soon after its executives awarded children and staff became infected with ed efforts of scientists everywhere. The One example is the hedge fund-owned themselves nearly 1 million shares – has the virus at a Georgia overnight camp af- former is the logic of today’s debates drug company Vaxart, which the article gone from $24 a share in April to $143 ter less than a week. Of those tested, 76% over the sanctity of “intellectual property notes “has never brought a vaccine to today. were infected. The camp had required rights” and cyberwar secret surveillance market.” Vaxart’s stock price increased For capitalists, whether or not their “all trainees, staff members, and campers and espionage; the latter is the logic of tenfold after from January to April after to provide documentation of a negative the socialist future, where the knowledge it announced it was working on corona- (continued on next page) SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 3 lie in the generalized and increasing impoverishment of the vast majority. Capitalism’s multiple failures in deal- ...Capitalism’s Catastrophe or a Socialist Future ing with any of the present existential crises – from the COVID-19 horror to the impending global warming climate (continued from page 3) overt but not too dissimilar racism, sex- lent police repression has been the rule, catastrophe and endless wars of mass ism, warmongering, climate crisis denial regardless of which party holds office. murder and conquest – are also no lon- companies ever actually produce a work- and legislation abandoning fundamental Trump himself ordered the withdrawal ger easily swept aside with the electoral ing vaccine is beside the point. The pan- civil liberties have become the corporate of his federal goons from Portland, with wink of a Bernie Sanders, not to mention demic has created extraordinary oppor- media’s prime focus. Yet Trump could be his underlings essentially revealing that Joseph Biden. Yet, those who are adept tunities to take advantage of speculation said to have used Obama’s legislation to there were never more than a dozen in- at social control overwhelmingly contin- in the drug market – which they intend to send federal forces to U.S. cities. volved in the first place. Trump’s bluff ue to place their bets on maintaining the do at the highest price possible! and bluster were once again revealed as facade of democracy and the myth that It is in this context that a great debate Today’s “Dump Trump! Vote Dem- rhetorical bullshit. the Democrats have serious answers to is emerging in both ruling class circles ocrat or fascism is coming!” bombast Electoral advantage in mind, the same the converging crises that plague work- and within the broad array of social jus- mayors who decry Trump’s threats ing class America. They fear that any re- tice organizations as to how the above- In the run-up to the 2018 midterm elec- of violence – and its manifestation in sort to playing the fascist card of mass mentioned great crises can or will be tions, the Democrats shepherded militant Washington, D.C., when the posturing repression, at least at this time, might resolved. teachers, who had successfully struck buffoon ordered peaceful demonstra- well bring on a response that threatens statewide in several red states, into the tors disbursed with clubs and noxious capitalist rule itself. The ruling class perspective on how to electoral arena with their pledge to run gases from Lafayette Square in scenes resolve these crises 300 AFT and NEA union members or broadcast nationwide – employ the same The question of leadership their supporters as candidates – all brutal violence in good measure and Following Trump’s 2016 election and pledged to the Democrats. The promising without reservation. The generals who Today’s massive and unprecedent- again in the run-up to the 2018 mid-term and unprecedented teachers’ uprising was denounced Obama’s 2011 signing on to ed protests remain largely leaderless. elections, the Democrats offered a single The inspiring chants of the Black Lives solution: Vote Democrat! Win majorities Matter movement and its ubiquitous in both houses of congress! And Dump images have almost zero organizational Trump! To this end they meticulously expression, except for the largely on- organized and tightly controlled mas- line presence of the Democratic Party sive demonstrations across the country. election-oriented reformist leadership Make no mistake, the Democrats learned of M4BL and similar groups. Tragically, their lessons when they abstained from no fighting component exists in today’s and actively opposed the massive mo- terribly bureaucratized, class-collabo- bilizations against the U.S. genocidal rationist – if not corrupt – trade union war in Vietnam that slaughtered four movement. The July 20 SEIU and Team- million people, largely civilians. The in- ster-called Strike for Black Lives actions dependently organized mobilizations of were at best symbolic. With regard to the the 1960s and 1970s gave impetus to the Teamsters, their misleaders failed to even important civil rights and antiwar move- publish notices of planned “strikes,” if ments, while also contributing to the there were any at all. SEIU made a better demise of the repressive bipartisan-en- show, listing “strike” actions across the forced McCarthy-era witch hunting. country that were most often symbolic Today, the Democrats are no longer eight minutes and forty-six seconds si- abstentionist. They and their corporate lent observances of George Floyd’s po- supporters and foundations influence lice execution. There is thus a giant gap and fund a vast array of liberal-minded between the generalized and nationally reform organizations, NGOs and faith- supported outage in the streets and any based groups that collectively, for exam- organizational form aimed at challeng- ple, initiated, promoted and financed the ing capitalist power in the electoral are- 2016 Women’s March anti-Trump pro- abruptly cut short and funneled into the the use of federal troops to quell protes- na and at capitalism’s critical points of tests, drawing an estimated five million dead-end electoral arena. Today’s Wom- tors in the U.S. have their counterparts production. Unless and until that gap is protesters across the country. Literally en’s March 2020 website, in addition to a in today’s military establishment. As be- bridged, the present mass protests will every speaker in every city was either broad range of just demands for women’s fore, they are firmly against it – “at this remain sorely lacking in strategic orien- an elected Democrat or directly associ- rights, includes, and is essentially de- time,” they always add. tation. ated with one or more of the vast array fined by, the “Dump Trump” admonition. of Democratic Party-supporting main- The same with the Movement for Black Is the fascist threat posed today? Capitalism’s foundation in slavery stream liberal organizations. Lives (M4BL) organization that emerged and exploitation following a series of police murders of Aside from the moron Trump and a Democrats: Graveyard of social unarmed Blacks. M4BL today states on handful of his subordinates, all in step At a time when the “founding fathers” movements its website, “BLM’s #WhatMatters2020 with an associated rightwing band of rac- capitalist state – brought into being by is a campaign aimed to maximize the ist media personalities, no serious forc- the mass murder and super-exploitation In these actions, and with regard to impact of the BLM movement by galva- es today dare to pose the fascist threat. of slave labor along with the genocide nearly all those that followed in the three nizing BLM supporters and allies to the Indeed, Trump’s camp is being increas- of native peoples – stands exposed as years thereafter, the Democrats, the noto- polls in the 2020 U.S Presidential Elec- ingly deserted by his own party tops, as never before, the movement to end this rious “graveyard of social movements,” tion to build collective power and ensure his recent poll numbers indicate that his capitalist horror in its present manifesta- and their kept allies effectively turned candidates are held accountable for the re-election prospects are dim. When he tions stands before us, closer than ever, society’s growing outrage at the bi-par- issues that systematically and dispropor- recently tweeted out the suggestion that crying out for an independent leader- tisan attacks on working people to the tionately impact Black and under-served the November election may need to be ship. Capitalism’s monstrous founding electoral arena. Obama’s mass deporta- communities across the nation.” M4BL “delayed,” Republican leaders Senator legacies, cleanly erased from the history tions, his seven simultaneous imperialist is a non-profit funded in part by Ford Mitch McConnell and Representative books and from the general discourse for wars of conquest, his massive natural gas Foundation grants. Kevin McCarthy immediately responded centuries, has today emerged full-throat- fracking operations, and his continuity in unison that “Never in the history of the ed – from George Washington’s slaves with the Clinton-era’s bloating expendi- Federal troops in Portland country…have we ever not had a feder- and his dentures made from their pulled tures to the racist prison-industrial com- ally scheduled election on time,” and that teeth, to Planned Parenthood founder plex, were disappeared from the scene Portland Democratic Party mayor Ted there would be no delay of the upcoming Margaret Sanger’s racist advocacy of virtually overnight. Wheeler’s recent publicity stunt in rush- election, regardless of anything Trump selective breeding to “improve” the hu- In Obama’s last atrocity of his first ing to the front lines of a demonstration says. That Trump would impose martial man race, to the Sierra Club’s founding term, he signed the National Defense to denounce the tear gas-launching fed- law or challenge the results of his in- father John Muir, who similarly advo- Authorization Act that allowed the eral forces from ICE and Homeland Se- creasingly probable election defeat is far cated racist eugenics along with driving military to indefinitely detain without curity sent by Trump to protect a federal less a concern of any serious ruling class indigenous people off their lands. None charges terrorist suspects, including building was not much appreciated by think tankers or experienced politician of the above, and a million other atroci- American citizens arrested in the Unit- local activists. Williams was taunted by than is the present broad-ranging radical- ties of the distant past and today’s pres- ed States. At that time, two retired four- demonstrators as he left the protest with ization in progress among unprecedented ent, were mere accidents of history. They star Marine generals had called on the repeated chants of “Tear Gas Teddy,” working class layers. were the inherent economic, political president to veto the bill. In a December stemming from the mayor’s own city po- Turning this radicalization into the safe and ideological expressions of capitalist 2011 New York Times op-ed piece, they lice previously launching the same tear channels of the Democratic Party and imperatives, just as the exploitation of deemed it “misguided and unnecessary.” gas canisters against Portland’s anti-rac- thwarting its coalescing into new and today’s wage slaves is and will be tomor- Generals Charles C. Krulak and Joseph ist protesters. Though Trump threatens to independent mass working class forma- row, until the system itself is abolished. P. Hoar stated, “Current law empowers send federal forces to Portland and other tions are the central and primary concern That time is nearer than ever. It requires the military to detain people caught on cities with Democratic Party mayors – as of today’s capitalist elite. They fully un- the construction of a deeply rooted mass the battlefield, but this provision would if the Democrats have insufficient repres- derstand that the present radicalization revolutionary socialist party whose ranks expand the battlefield to include the sive forces of their own – no one doubts has been sparked by unprecedented sol- have earned the respect and admiration United States…. Due process would that when spirited anti-racist protests idarity with the most oppressed sectors of millions. be a thing of the past.” Today, Trump’s have exploded in cities and towns, vio- of U.S. society, and that its roots also Join us! n SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 4 How Revolutionaries Use Elections
By Lazaro Monteverde votes the candidate earns is an indication lenging these rules in the bosses’ courts of independent working-class political of the mood and consciousness of the can result in massive fines. power and socialism for short term elec- The Ballot or the Streets, or Both? working class, just as statistics on strike In this brief review I have not priori- toral gains and minor reforms. By August Nimtz activity are. If the candidates are elected, tized the voices of Marx, Engels, and In the U.S. context, only the political (Haymarket Press, 2019) they remain under party control and use Lenin, as Nimtz does. Nimtz’s book is groups that came out of the Trotsky- their positions to strengthen the struggles almost a master class in how to use elec- ist tradition of revolutionary socialism, As I write this review, the protests over of working people and the oppressed. tions for revolutionary purposes taught formerly embodied in the old Social- the murder of George Floyd in Minneap- This revolutionary use of elections is by Marx, Engels, and Lenin themselves. ist Workers Party, understood and used olis continue while the liberal and pro- known as revolutionary parliamentarian- As such it is detailed and dense, but also Lenin’s electoral approach. Groups that gressive forces in this country call for ism, the very opposite of parliamentary worth every hour, indeed every minute, came out of social democracy, such as support of “Uncle Joe” Biden to save us cretinism. you spend reading it. the Democratic Socialists of America, or from Trump. These events occur within While these revolutionary legislators This book was originally published the Stalinized left, such as the Commu- a larger social context that includes the do support specific reforms that benefit as an expensive two volume hardcov- nist Party, abandoned the Approach of Covid-19 pandemic, a racial caste sys- and strengthen the working class and er by Palgrave MacMillan. Haymarket Marx, Engels, and Lenin. tem built on violence against Blacks and oppressed, they do not compromise with Press has reissued the book as an af- Socialist Action continues to employ other Peoples of Color, and a looming the oppressors. For instance, they oppose fordable ($28) one volume paperback. Marx, Engels, and Lenin’s approach. Ex- climate catastrophe. At this moment in imperialist war and police oppression. The new edition preserves the two-part hibit A: The candidacy of Jeff Mackler, history, August Nimtz’s The Ballot or the Revolutionary legislators can expose the organization of the original, including Socialist Action candidate for President. Streets, or Both? has never been more class nature of government structures several important historical documents Socialist Action still uses the revolu- needed for those of us who want to build and policies from within. They have contained in the appendices. Volume 1 tionary parliamentarianism. (For an in- a better world. greater access to the media and greater covers the development of revolutionary troduction to this approach in real life, How do we bring about fundamental social change? I am not talking about this reform or that, but deep thorough-going change. This is the question of political strategy for revolutionaries. Every gen- eration of radicals struggles with this question. Before us, three of the great- est revolutionaries of the last 300 years also struggled with these same questions: Marx, Engels, and Lenin. Now political scientist and revolutionary socialist Au- gust Nimtz has explored their thinking and made it available to a new genera- tion of revolutionaries. Nimtz’s book is a manual for today’s revolutionaries both here in the U.S. and in all corners of the world. Nimtz prioritizes the voices of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. We hear them speak and learn what they said. They argued that real change comes only through in- dependent working-class mass action. Furthermore, they did not believe the working class could merely take control of the existing state apparatus, which serves the interests of the ruling class -- the working class had to smash the state and rebuild it. So, did Marx, Engels, and Lenin reject elections and voting rights? No—abso- lutely not! They were strong defenders of universal suffrage—meaning the vote Lenin speaking at Finland Station upon his return to Russia in April 1917, before the October Revolution. In speeches at that time, Lenin for all men and women, of all races and denounced the then-ruling coalition government, saying it was “an agreement between the socialists and the capitalists, it meant suppres- religions. But this defense of democracy sion of the revolution.” The way forward, he said, was “not by an agreement between the workers and the capitalists, and between the and voting was not an end in itself; vot- soldier-peasants and the landowners, but by a struggle of the workers and peasants against their oppressors.” ing was a tactic to strengthen the inde- pendent working-class movement, not a parliamentarism from Marx and Engels see the recent debate between Mackler, strategy of revolutionary change. Unlike Democrats, revolu- through the Russian revolution of 1905. Howie Hawkins, a leading candidate for As Nimtz shows, they were also aware tionary legislators would Volume 2 covers Lenin’s political activ- the Green Party presidential nomination, of the dangers of elections. These dan- use campaigns to educate ity and thinking from 1907 to the Octo- and Michael Albert, a staff writer and ed- gers were summarized in the label “par- ber Revolution of 1917. The genesis of itor of Z Magazine, who advocates a safe liamentary cretinism” used by Engels the masses, strengthen the Nimtz’s book was a pamphlet by Doug state strategy of voting for third party and later by Lenin. Parliamentary cretin- independent organizations Jenness in 1971 entitled Lenin as Elec- candidates only in states where Biden is ism is the set of beliefs that what happens tion Campaign Manager, that Nimtz had sure to win at https://www.youtube.com/ in congress or in an election is more im- of the working class, and read many years ago. In Nimtz’s words watch?v=ryWNdUvXf_Q). portant than what happens in the streets, expose the class nature of the pamphlet is “still the best introduc- Nimtz concludes his extremely valu- that real change comes from legislation, government structures. tion to the topic, and thus, to this book” able exposition of the revolutionary leg- not mass action. Parliamentary cretinism (p. X). Lenin as Election Campaign acy of Marx, Engels, and Lenin with a is a form of opportunism, a willingness opportunities to promote independent Manager is still available from Pathfind- clear summary of the book’s relevance: to compromise with the ruling class for mass action in the streets. They can use er Press for $5. “For most of the twentieth century, the short-term gains at the expense of long- their positions to educate, agitate, and Together the two parts of the book con- center of world revolutionary process term objectives. Ultimately, parliamen- build independent working-class politi- clusively demonstrate that Lenin’s revo- was in the so-called Third World. The tary cretinism abandons socialism as a cal power. lutionary parliamentarianism was rooted unprecedented and still unfolding cri- goal for reforms that might perhaps bring It is for these reasons that the ruling in a profound understanding of Marx and sis of global capitalism has shifted the about a kinder, gentler capitalism. class does everything it can to keep rev- Engels, that Lenin devoted extensive axis of politics to the advanced capitalist The alternative to this opportunism olutionaries off of the ballot and exclude time and thought to the use of elections world, where there are far more oppor- and abandonment of socialism is to use us from participation in its elections. The as a way to build revolutionary working tunities in the electoral and parliamen- elections to build the independent work- lists of requirements for candidates to class power, and that revolutionary par- tary arenas—making Lenin’s strategy of ing-class movement. This is done through appear on the ballot in bourgeois elec- liamentarianism was crucial to the suc- revolutionary parliamentarianism more revolutionaries running their own candi- tions are long, arbitrary, and overseen cess of the October Revolution. relevant now than ever. But to realize its dates independent of the capitalist par- by capitalist courts, which have no inter- As Nimtz shows, the thinking of Marx, potential, it has to be used. This [book] is ties. These candidates are selected by a est in allowing a revolutionary socialist Engels, and Lenin is still relevant to- a contribution toward that end for those revolutionary party or group and pres- to take part. When Socialist Action and day. Calls by social democrats to elect who are truly anticapitalist and who not ent the positions of the group, not their others have run candidates, the ruling progressives to congress exemplify only seek but are willing to fight for a personal views. It is not important that class judges simply declare thousands of parliamentary cretinism, to use Engels’ working class alternative” (p. 412). they win. What is important is that they signatures on our ballot petitions invalid, favorite term. Calls to support “Uncle Read this book. Use voting and elec- use the campaign to educate the masses then say we have too few to qualify – or Joe” Biden to defeat Trump exemplify tions to build independent working-class and strengthen the independent organiza- any of the other myriad reasons they can the lesser-evil politics of opportunism, power. Overthrow the capitalist world tion of the working class. The number of use to deny socialist candidates. Chal- the urge to sacrifice the long-term goals system. n SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 5 one and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. too: “Since ...Manifesto for Our Times we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.” The instant largely cosmetic conces- sions won to date in a matter of days and weeks affirm what Douglas, Malcolm and Martin learned from bitter struggle – with regard to Malcolm X and Dr. King, at the cost of their lives. SYSTEMIC RACISM in U.S. society will be fundamentally altered only with profound changes in relations of power between those who hold and abuse it, and their victims – between the few who own nearly half the wealth of the nation and the vast majority who live pay check to paycheck, and the Black, Latinx and Native Americans who are often com- pelled to live on less. Democratic Community Control: The Right of Self-determination The right of Black, Brown and Native American people to democratically con- trol and govern their own lives and com- munities will emerge today with the for- mation of new, united and independent organizations dedicated to the freedom struggle in all its manifestations. The struggle to disarm, defund, and disband the racist institutions of police power can only be envisioned in this context – in a political, social and economic frame- work where the $billions spent on the in- stitutions of racist police repression can be deployed to defend and safeguard our interests not theirs – where the $trillions spent on bailing out the corporate elite, and the $trillions more transferred to them in “tax reform” bills will be spent on re-building the nation’s poor neigh- borhoods, inner cities, and tribal lands. The movement we aspire to bring forth in alliance with all exploited working people will fight for: * Free quality health care and educa- tion for all from the cradle to the grave, including generalized virus testing and
Top photo: A Katz. Bottom photo: Getty Images. A photo: Top PPE now! * An end to all evictions and foreclo- (continued from page 1) cent of the military’s soldiers are Black, ed, rather than be subjected to threats of sures during this COVID-19 pandemic looped lynch ropes ominously tied to Brown and Native American – victims of martial law, at least for now, had to be and depression era! Limitations on rent trees in an Oakland, CA park a few days the economic draft – and trained to police respected. At least for now! No doubt the to no more than 20 percent of household later. the world at a cost one $trillion annual- rebellious spectacle of U.S. troops taking income! SYSTEMIC RACISM: That is, the ly while our cities decay, our environ- the knee or otherwise fraternizing with * Billions for human needs not endless school-to-prison scenario, where ev- ment destroyed, our waters polluted, our rather than repressing their own people wars of intervention. er-segregated, underfunded schools in schools fail, our health care disappears, was a risk to be avoided. And Juneteenth, * An end to racist deportations. Tear the communities of the poor “graduate” our jobs deemed obsolete, our wages cut, June 19, when federal troops arrived in down the walls! Full amnesty and equal near majorities of functionally illiterate our children go hungry and our hopes for Texas in 1865 to announce the end of rights for all! No human being is illegal! students channeled into the ever-pri- a better future increasingly dashed. slavery, is to be declared a national hol- * An end to the violence and discrim- vatized-for profit mass incarceration Today, with undaunted millions in the i d a y . T h a t i s s u p p o s e d t o fi x e v e r y t h i n g . ination against women and LGBTQI+ prison-industrial-complex to work at streets, frightened figures in power have Where do we go from here? people! Fortune 500 corporations at slave wage conceded more in days than in multiple * Save the earth! Stop the impending rates averaging 50 cents per hour. Half of decades, indeed centuries. Statues hon- We begin with the proposition that fossil fuel-induced climate catastrophe. the incarcerated are people of color. The oring the secessionist slaveocracy have the term police reform is an oxymo- Nationalize the entire fossil fuel corpo- nation that ranks first in the number of been removed at the hands of the peo- ron. Derek Chauvin’s knee has been rate monopolies for a rapid transition to billionaires ranks first in the number and ple and even by decree of local and state on Black necks for four centuries. His a safe, ecologically sustainable energy percentage of its population in jail. governments and in the nation’s capital. police ancestors were the slave patrols system. Jobs for all at a living wage for SYSTEMIC RACISM: When Their portraits have been ordered dis- of yesteryear formed to track down es- all replaced workers during the transi- COVID-19 deaths of Blacks, Latinx appeared from the halls of Congress. caped chattel. They were the post Civil tion! No to environmental racism and to and Native Americans are triple the rate Promises of “police reform” have been War police who arrested en masse Black toxic waste dumping! of whites and quality health care, if any instantly announced in cities across the Code designated “vagrants” turned into UNITY! UNITY! UNITY! health care, is absent for the great ma- country. Generations of racist brutali- instant prisoners transferred to planta- The courageous spectacle of unprece- jority. ty and discrimination are pledged to be tion chain gangs to work free for former dented numbers of inspired white youth SYSTEMIC RACISM in the poverty remedied with the passage of a piece of slave owners; they were the racist Bull standing firm and side by side with their wage, part time, “gig” economy, “flex- paper. Buildings honoring racist Klan Connor heads of Birmingham’s Public Black, Latinx and Native American sis- ible” workforce largely of the poorest member U.S. senators have been instant- Safety Commission hired to enforce the ters and brothers, in defiance of curfews, “essential workers” forced back to work ly renamed. A handful of police chiefs state’s “separate but equal” Jim Crow police clubs and exploding noxious gas in deadly unsafe/unprotected conditions resigned. A few racist cops have been laws; they were and remain the cops em- grenades, portends wondrous victories to to salvage the profits of corporate Amer- charged with murder and may be con- ployed to break union strikes and club be won now and in the immediate future. ica. The darker the skin color, the lower victed in contrast to yesterday where civil rights demonstrators. They are all What was impossible, unimaginable, un- the wage. And even more so for the low- such charges, not to mention convictions part of the system’s inherent function expected, unthinkable yesterday is on the est rungs of the scale largely occupied by were the rare exception. to maintain the social order of the few order of the day today! n poor, Black women. against the vast majority. Spectacle of U.S. troops taking the Alice Walker, author, poet, activist SYSTEMIC RACISM AND CLASS Abolitionist Frederick Douglass said it knee Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report EXPLOITATION when trillions of dol- well, “Power cedes nothing without a de- Pam Africa, Int’l Concerned Family lars in the recent CARES Act corporate Even the nation’s leading generals, mand. It never did and never will.” And Friends of Mumia bailout legislation were gifted to behe- who oversee U.S. wars around the world, Malcolm X, a century later came to the Cliff Conner, author, The Tragedy of moth corporations – with a handful of counseled caution with regard to sending same conclusion, “Power never takes a American Science billionaires getting $457 billion – while active duty troops, 43 percent of whom back step – only in the face of more pow- Jeff Mackler, Socialist Action a one-time pittance is allocated, if at all, are people color, to quell the massive an- er.” Malcolm added: “I believe that there Joe Lombardo, UNAC to working people. ti-racist protests. “The right of the peo- will be a clash between those who want Michael Steven Smith, host WBAI SYSTEMIC RACISM when 43 per- ple peaceably to assemble,” they assert- freedom, justice and equality for every- radio’s “Law and Disorder” SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 6 Pandemic Doesn’t Stop U.S. War Machine
By Jeff Mackler
That Russia paid the Taliban financial bounties to kill 18 U.S. and “coalition” soldiers in Afghanistan is in dispute to say the least. Both Democrats and Re- publicans cite various and conflicting official U.S. intelligence agencies on the veracity of this latest New Cold War episode. The July 9 New York Times re- ported, “The C.I.A. – as well as analysts at the National Counterterrorism Center – expressed medium or moderate con- fidence in that conclusion. The Nation- al Security Agency, which puts greater stock in surveillance intercepts, was more skeptical, officials have said.” As with the Democrats’ Russiagate charges that Vladimir Putin and Compa- ny rigged the 2016 elections – without a shred evidence of a single ballot box or computer voting machine manipula- tion anywhere in the U.S. – today’s Cold War Democratic Party tops are leading the charge in demanding that the U.S. increase its sanctions on Russia, while accusing President Trump of being soft on “tyrants” the world over. Bi-partisan bluster and bluff aside on the 19-year U.S. war on Afghanistan – the longest U.S. war in history – the warmongering corporate media’s twisted “big lie” reporting misses the proverbial forest for the trees, or better, for a hand- ful of alleged twigs on the trees. U.S. military forces guard an oil derrick in Syria. (Photo by Special Ops Joint Task Force-OIR)
The truth about the Afghan war Need we recall that the U.S. war on in the lucrative drug trade, as it did in civilians. But with the help of its allies, Afghanistan, launched in 2001 following partnership in the 1980s with the Colom- Syria successfully turned back and de- The truth about the Afghanistan War the September 11 bombing of the World bian Medellin cartel… and freedom too! feated the U.S./NATO-backed jihadist is stark and horrifying. After 19 years Trade Center, began when the Afghan invaders, who by brute force sought to and $2 trillion in Pentagon spending, government was charged, not with any The U.S. war on Syria continues impose their version of Sharia law on after deploying more than 120,000 U.S. role in the Trade Center bombing, but a reluctant population. Over the course troops at the highpoint of the war – half with harboring Osama bin Laden and his Today, the U.S./NATO-orchestrated of two years, these jihadists were driven of them U.S.-financed Blackwater and al-Qaida associates, who were alleged war against Syria, with the support of ji- from one occupied city and region after other privatized mercenary and war to be hiding out in caves in the Afghan hadist military forces trained and armed another. A major poll of Syria’s popula- crimes-committing forces accountable mountains. During the Soviet Union’s at U.S. military bases in Turkey, contin- tion organized by ORB International, a to no one – after more than 460,000 1979-89 war of intervention in Afghan- ues, albeit with more limited goals as London-based Gallop-affiliated organi- civilians killed directly and indirectly istan – a deadly war violated that poor compared to the previous U.S. objective zation, during these years indicated that and 2,400 U.S. troops dead and another nation’s right to self-determination – bin of total conquest and permanent occupa- the U.S./NATO forces and all of their 20,660 wounded, the war continues. The Laden’s al-Qaida forces and those of tion. That war, beginning in 2012, saw “coalition of the willing” jihadist allies U.S. government, however, and not its some of the seven factions of the jihad- U.S.-financed, armed and trained forces had the support of less than nine percent imposed puppet government of warlords ist Mujahidin, were armed and financed from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere at one of Syria’s people. In contrast, the Assad and corrupt corporate intriguers, is nego- by the U.S. government. Bin Laden, who point occupying more than two-thirds government, pilloried and demonized by tiating a “peace” treaty with the Islamic later claimed responsibility for the 9/11 of the country. At that moment, the U.S. the U.S. media and falsely accused of us- theocratic Taliban, who occupy much of attack, was assassinated by U.S. Navy was openly presiding over conferences ing poison gas on its opponents, had the rural Afghanistan. The latter negotiations SEALs in Pakistan in 2011. But the U.S. in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere support of a significant majority. are said to be held up due to the Taliban’s war continues to this day. Not for free- with its invited guests assembled to dis- Today, with the exception of the north- failure to agree to release some U.S. pris- dom and democracy, to be sure, but for cuss the permanent division of Syria and west province of Idlib, bordering on Tur- oners. “geopolitical advantage” – that is, booty. its resources in the context of the expect- key, where the remnants of al-Qaida and The above figures, except for the Since the U.S. war began in 2001, Af- ed imminent departure of Syrian Presi- its allies are protected and armed by the 360,000 indirectly killed due to the ghanistan, 80 percent rural countryside, dent Bashar al-Assad. U.S., NATO and Turkey, all of Syria re- U.S. war, are the official tallies of the has been the world’s leading illicit opi- With U.S.-backed jihadist forces, in- mains under the al-Assad government’s U.S. Defense Department. They omit um producer. Its opium poppy harvest cluding al-Qaida and its formerly as- control, minus the fertile and oil-rich the estimated 55,000 dead among the produces more than 90 percent of heroin sociated al Nusra Front firing missiles northeastern region bordering on Turkey U.S.-trained and financed Afghan Army globally and more than 95 percent of the into the capital city of Damascus, few where a contingent of some 2,000 U.S. forces as well as the dead and wounded European supply. More land is used for believed that the outcome would be oth- troops remain to protect U.S. “interests.” among the U.S.-orchestrated “coalition” opium in Afghanistan than is used for erwise. As with Iraq, following the U.S. “We’re keeping the oil,” proclaimed the of a dozen nations brought on board to coca cultivation in all of Latin America. removal of the Saddam Hussein govern- moron imperial President Trump when lend an “international” appearance to Further, Afghanistan’s lithium reserves, ment at a cost of 1.5 million Iraqi lives, he was attacked by the Democrats for the “war on terror.” We add to the hor- worth trillions of dollars, are the most Syria’s resources, if not its geographic removing most of the U.S. forces from ror the dead and wounded in neighboring valuable in the world, ahead of Boliv- borders, were to be divided by the impe- Syria! Meanwhile the U.S. and its NATO Pakistan, where the U.S. has been drone ia. Since 2011, the Pentagon’s financial rial U.S. in a manner not too dissimilar allies openly threaten to bomb Syria to bombing with impunity for much of the arm has been in negotiations with var- from the French and British division of smithereens should it move to liberate war’s duration. After 19 years, with the ious corporate entities as to which will the Middle East imposed after WWI. its nation from its imperialist-backed Pentagon “experimenting” with obliter- be granted mining contracts. Similarly, Beleaguered Syria, however, decid- occupiers. An estimated half of Syria’s ating the Taliban’s underground bunkers Afghanistan’s gold, niobium, cobalt and ed otherwise. As a poor and oppressed population was driven into internal or with the largest non-nuclear weapons other minerals may well transform this nation, it justly exercised its right to external exile during this imperial war of ever and with drones constantly hunting poorest of the poor nations on earth into self-determination and asked its allies mass murder and destruction of Syria’s for prey in remote regions, some 25,000 a global foreign-owned mining hub. As for assistance. These included Iran, Rus- infrastructure. And the horror continues U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, half with the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, sia and the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon to this day, as the U.S.’s unilaterally-im- of them mercenaries and “contractors” where oil was the booty, the Pentagon’s that years earlier had defeated the Israe- posed sanctions have reduced Syria’s organized by enterprising U.S. corpo- U.S. corporate favorites are likely to end li attempt at conquest. The U.S.- war economy to barely survival levels. rations in the business of death and de- up with the lion’s share. The U.S. fights against Syria has cost the lives of 60,000 struction for profit. for lithium and gold and perhaps a hand Syrian soldiers and an estimated 500,000 (continued on page 9) SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 7 AMLO and Trump: A Meeting of the Desperate
Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador and Trump holding a joint press conference at the White House on July 8. (Anna Moneymaker/Pool/Getty Images)
By Manuel Aguilar Mora kinds. Those who consider it negative- his visit appears as an endorsement of LO’s anti-neoliberal discourse, since its ly, as a completely unfortunate initia- Trump’s re-election. Trump is focused approval represents the continuity of the The outlook cannot be bleaker. A tive of AMLO due to the complex and on securing his re-election, and all po- previous NAFTA, signed by his number Covid-19 health pandemic that is at its difficult political situation in which the litical activity he undertakes is focused one political enemy, the super-neoliberal highest, with a large number of infec- U.S. government finds itself, in the midst on that goal. He will use AMLO’s vis- [former President Carlos] Salinas de Gor- tions, hospitalizations and around 650 of the electoral campaign, are palpably it to gain supporters in the “Hispanic” tari. The T-MEC represents a version of deaths per day and whose effects do not the majority. He certainly has defenders sectors among which Mexican workers the previous treaty with derisory changes stop growing, so much so that deaths are among his Morena [López-Obrador’s or descendants of Mexicans are in the that maintain the essential subordination forecast by the end of the year to dou- party] supporters, but his position is very majority. In this way, AMLO will not be of the Mexican economy to that of the ble or plus the current ones (more than weak. Many strongly criticized President able to avoid being splashed by Trump’s United States. Just to mention a key as- 52,000 today), the worst economic crisis Peña Nieto when, in 2016, he invited to failure in November, a failure that Agent pect of this subordination and exploita- – depression – in 90 years, exponential Los Pinos the then still only candidate Orange himself announced when he said tion, we can refer to what is document- increase in violence and an AMLO gov- Donald Trump. How can they not do the last week publicly and without evidence ed by ECLAC [Economic Commission ernment that continues without evaluat- same when accepting the invitation to that the 2020 presidential election will for Latin America and the Caribbean] ing the radical social and political change Washington of a president so discredit- be “the most corrupt in the history of our in only one of the productive sectors: that these events have meant with respect ed in his own country that all signs and country”. Why? Because he will be de- the average wage received by workers to his start of government in December polls indicate that he will be defeated in feated. in the automotive industry in Mexico is 2019. His Fourth Transformation (4T) is his re-election attempt in November? $2.88 per hour, while their counterparts sinking because obviously to face the co- AMLO explained that his visit “is go- Nationalism and Anti-Imperialism in American earn about $24 in the same lossal problems that such events mean, it ing to be a political meeting in the good amount of time; manufacturing in Mex- is far from enough to undertake the con- sense of what politics is.” But such an at- AMLO, he himself says, does not feel ico, instead of the U.S., generates “labor struction of the Maya Train, the Santa titude before his meeting with Trump is good in the wide and foreign world out- savings” for companies of between $600 Lucia airport and the Tabasco refinery, completely out of place, because the U.S. side of Mexico. But clearly his foreign to $700 per vehicle. The resulting profits the iconic projects to which the president president is not just any “political” char- policy advisers, starting with Chancel- are extraordinary if we simply multiply clings almost inexplicably, showing an acter. The actions of his government have lor Marcelo Ebrard, who should know these figures by the number of vehicles optimism that sounds completely false culminated in the last hundred days that more than his boss, seem incapable of produced in the country: 3,500,000 in and forced. have shaken the neighboring country are influencing him. The trip to Washington 2018. The government has a strong com- It is in this scenario in which we must the facts that mark his criminal clumsi- is the first planned foreign policy action mitment to T-MEC but without founda- place the initiative of AMLO, which he ness in handling the Covid-19 pandemic that AMLO has undertaken, it is also the tion. The previous 25 years of NAFTA himself announced, of his visit to Don- with 162,000 deaths and his racist arro- evidence of his political and ideological did not signify any more significant ald Trump on July 6, 7 and 8. Initially, gance in the face of massive protests in- limits. His “nationalism” is very narrow progress in the Mexican economy, which this visit had been conceived as a way stigated by the murder of George Floyd, and even accommodating. Before be- barely grew, with an average in the period to celebrate the implementation on July an African American man asphyxiated coming president, he wrote a pamphlet of 2.0 percent. Inequality became abys- 1 of the “free trade agreement” between by a Minnesota police officer. To meet titled “Hey, Trump.” In it, he criticized mal. Capitalism remains the great obsta- Mexico, the United States (USA) and with this gangster of U.S. politics, a pub- the racist and discriminatory attitude that cle to the true progress of the people of Canada (USMCA, known in Mexico as lic enemy of the planet, believing that he Trump has always had against Mexico Mexico. But for AMLO, who maintains “T-MEC”). But the confirmed absence will respect “The good sense of politics” and Mexicans, insulting both as no other that “the class struggle” does not operate of Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau at is an attitude bordering on naivety. U.S. president had done. As president, in Mexico, this colossal display of ex- the meeting is the demonstration that it A cunning politician like AMLO can- AMLO has not even dared to criticize ploitation that makes any other type of is a meeting in which the pretext of the not help but appreciate the risk he takes Trump. Since accepting that Mexico’s corruption small is part of the “business T-MEC will serve, while the Mexican with his visit. Why, in spite of everything, National Guard become an assistant to as usual” of economic functioning. That and U.S. presidents discuss other issues. does he do it? He has stated bluntly that the U.S. Border Patrol on the two bor- is why, under pressure from the large im- The exercise of secret diplomacy that he does not intend to meddle in “parti- ders on Mexico – northern and southern perialist corporations, the confinement these two bourgeois politicians are ex- san” politics and has explicitly said that – to stop and control the flow of Cen- in the maquiladora zones in the north of perts in practicing conceals what will be he will not meet with Democratic candi- tral American immigrants to the United the country was so quickly concluded, their talks and discussions. date Joe Biden, who in three months will States, AMLO has boasted of having and that is why Susana Prieto, the leader The numerous arguments that have almost certainly be elected as Trump’s the best relations with the ogre from the of the Matamoros maquiladora workers motivated this controversial meeting, successor. That is why, whether AMLO White House. (mostly women) was also arrested (and for and against its undertaking on the wants it or not, the situation in which Precisely the implementation of part of the Mexican president, are of all Trump finds himself makes it so that T-MEC is evidence of the farce of AM- (continued on page 9) SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 8 Operations wars, privatized army wars and open wars that near instantly destroy any nation’s fundamental infrastructure are daily bi-partisan deeds. The Obama ...U.S. war machine persists in the pandemic administration presided over seven U.S. wars. The U.S. secret surveillance intelli- gence apparatus has no rival on earth. Its (continued from page 7) when the George W. Bush administration prison.” “enemies” and “allies” of the moment handed off the cyber operations to the McLeod continues: “Washington’s are near defenseless in its wake. In the The U.S. destruction of Iran Obama administration – part of a broad power and influence have helped bring name of “national security,” the U.S. covert effort to cripple Iran’s nuclear the Venezuelan economy to a standstill, maintains the capacity to spy on its en- The U.S. and Israeli governments bare- program. At the same time, the Israelis with oil exports at their lowest in mod- tire population, if not the world’s. 1,100 ly conceal their role in the July 2 mas- were killing Iranian scientists.” ern history… Sanctions are a bi-partisan U.S. military bases in 80 countries stand sive bombing of Iran’s nuclear research Today, U.S. warships are deployed to endeavor, beginning under President ready for action. The United Kingdom, facilities at Natanz. An NYT article en- stop Iranian oil tankers bound to U.S.-be- Obama in 2015, who declared a ‘national France and Russia combined have 30. titled “Long-Planned and Bigger Than leaguered Venezuela, whose oil reserves emergency’ due to the ‘unusual and ex- China has 11. Thought: Strike on Iran’s Nuclear Pro- – the largest in the world – have been ren- traordinary threat’ Venezuela was posing While the horror of the world’s most gram,” authored by veteran staff writer dered near worthless due U.S.-imposed to the United States.” deadly pandemic in a century has cap- David E. Sanger and others is quite ex- sanctions, sabotage, a virtual blockade Not to be outdone, the Democrats’ tured world headlines, the U.S. war ma- plicit: and embargo. U.S. sanctions, according hoped for president-in-waiting, Joseph chine operates uninterrupted today but “As Iran’s center for advanced nucle- to a former UN rapporteur, including Biden, retorted, “Trump talks tough on with the glare of terrible deeds largely ar centrifuges lies in charred ruins after blockage of food and medical supplies, Venezuela, but admires thugs and dicta- obscured from public view. an explosion, apparently engineered by cost the lives of 100,000 Venezuelans. tors like Nicolas Maduro. As President, Israel, the long-simmering conflict be- U.S. sanctions and acts of war against I will stand with the Venezuelan peo- U.S. ranks first in COVID-19 cases tween the United States and Tehran ap- Iran and Venezuela have similarly re- ple and for democracy.” Picking up on pears to be escalating into a potentially duced these oil rich nations to near star- Biden’s one-upsmanship denunciation The endless U.S. imperial drive for dangerous phase…” vation levels with their currencies have of Trump and aiming to win 2020 votes power and profit is not limed to the in- Sanger et al. continue: “Officials fa- been reduced to near worthless. from Florida’s rightwing Venezuelan and ternational stage. In the face of the miliar with the explosion at Natanz com- Cuban exile communities, a Democrat- COVID-19 pandemic, when the average pared its complexity to the sophisticated Venezuela under renewed attack ic Party Super PAC touted Biden’s cold daily new cases in the U.S. “plateaued” Stuxnet cyber attack on Iranian nuclear war credentials by not only comparing for a few weeks at 22,000 per day, all fif- facilities a decade ago, which had been In late June, Trump’s Special Repre- Trump to Maduro, but to his predecessor ty states, ignoring the warnings of the sci- planned for more than a year. In the case sentative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, Hugo Chavez, and former Cuban leader entific community, began to implement of last week’s episode, the primary theo- announced yet another round of sanc- Fidel Castro! plans for a return to work. Capitalism’s ry is that an explosive device was planted tions – but not just on Venezuela, which The rabid bi-partisan rantings of Trump wage slaves were deemed expendable in in the heavily-guarded facility, perhaps is under a near total blockade, but on any and Biden and their twin parties notwith- comparison to the profits extracted from near a gas line. But some experts have company found to be helping the impor- standing, the U.S. war machine presses their labor. Human lives, in the U.S. and also floated the possibility that a cyber tation of goods to Venezuela in any way. on. Ever threatening U.S. warships pa- the world over are subordinate to capital- attack was used to trigger the gas sup- Mint Press reporter Alan Macleod pro- trol the world from the South China Sea ist profits. Today, at over 4 million, the ply.” The attack at Natanz was accompa- to the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, U.S. stands first in the world in the num- nied by a series of bombings across Iran. the Caribbean, the Arctic waters, both ber of COVID-19 infections, accounting Trump’s former C.I.A. director, Mike coasts of Africa and now off the coast of for more than one quarter of the world’s Pompeo, now Secretary of State, has Flaunting his Cold War Venezuela, in all cases insisting on Pen- total cases. With the “safe” reopening long worked closely with Yossi Cohen, credentials, Joseph Biden tagon and Defense Department procla- criteria deployed, the daily infection rate who heads the Mossad, Israeli’s secret said recently, “Trump talks mations to wit the whole world poses a has soared to 70,000 with daily deaths spy agency and counterpart to the C.I.A. threat to so-called U.S. national security once again over 1,000 and climbing! “The two men talk often,” Sanger wrote, tough on Venezuela, but interests. Johns Hopkins University reported that “making it difficult to believe that Mr. admires thugs and dictators the U.S. has a death rate of 44.11 per Pompeo had no idea about what was Genocide in Yemen and beyond 100,000 people that ranks fourth-worst coming, if indeed it was an Israeli oper- like Nicolas Maduro.” in the world among the countries most ation,” as opposed to a direct U.S. oper- Biden then re-affirmed his The U.S. is a partner with Saudi Ara- affected by the coronavirus! ation. bia in the ongoing genocidal war against Just as systemic – that is, institutional Sanger added, “Cohen was a key player support for the Guaidó the people of Yemen, where millions – racism is imbedded in the very fabric in the sophisticated series of cyber strikes coup. die from U.S.-supplied weapons to the of U.S. society, so are its imperatives known as Olympic Games that took out Saudi invaders and from starvation and to war, exploitation, environmental de- nearly 1,000 operating centrifuges at Na- cholera. Elsewhere, U.S.-supported and struction and climate catastrophe in all tanz – near the site of last week’s explo- vided the details: imposed dictators preside over corporate their myriad and horrific forms. Today, sion and fire – a decade ago.” Cohen was “Abrams has managed to force Lon- “interests” on every continent, inflicting for the first time in a very long while, also head of Mossad during its supposed don-based Lloyd’s Registrar to with- death squad punishment or overt war on mass forces are emerging in the U.S. “seizure” of extremely dubious “secret draw insurance and registration to ships any forces that challenge its domination. and worldwide to challenge capitalism’s Iranian nuclear documents,” which was the U.S. deems to be helping break the Its crippling economic sanctions are im- deadly prerogatives and bring into being followed immediately by a bombastic blockade, meaning they are unable to posed on 37 nations; stealing assets in a future where the multiple horsemen of presentation of the “secret documents” dock anywhere in the world. ‘It’s just overseas bank accounts, as with Ven- the capitalist apocalypse are forever ban- by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne- not worth the hassle or the risk for [com- ezuela, and imposing heads of state by ished and human beings – the vast ma- tanyahu used to justify further extremes panies],’ he gleefully told Reuters. ‘[If] force or rigged elections have been the jority as opposed to the billionaire elite of U.S. sanctions and attacks against there are people who don’t cooperate… historic U.S. government practice. In the – build a new world where freedom, jus- Iran. We’ll go after the ship, the ship owner, modern era cyberwar stealing of scientif- tice and social equality reign across the And finally, Sanger concluded, “In the ship captain.’ U.S. citizens breaking ic discoveries is the norm. Drone wars, globe. For the socialist future now! Join some way it feels a bit like a decade ago, the embargo already face 30 years in death squad assassination wars, Special us! n
ties, alliances of California, Texas, Ari- zona, New Mexico, Illinois (Chicago), New York, Oregon and so many other ...AMLO-Trump meeting places whose immigrant advocacy lead- ers, the “Dreamers,” groups and unions, are all very critical of Trump and in no (continued from page 8) “before the United States we can main- ular. On the contrary, he will confront way view his meeting with AMLO as tain our decorum, our independence, our the rebel populations that today contest positive. already released). sovereignty”: words, a cataract of words the racist white supremacism promoted The meeting between Trump and AMLO’s “nationalist” conception gets in the mañaneras [daily morning press by the Republican president. Instead, AMLO, in which both desperate politi- along very well with the imperialist pol- conferences] and in the constant decla- the anti-imperialist policy of Mexican cians need each other, is a conjunctur- icy of his senior partner in Washington. rations. workers must forge cross-border ties al meeting, with no future, from which But as we have seen, he is short-sighted, While AMLO bets on the alliance with the multi-ethnic proletariat of the nothing positive will emerge for the peo- because he has bet on a loser. The rea- with the inhabitant of the White House. United States: whites, Blacks, Asians ple of Mexico nor those of the United son is that the urgency of Washington’s The true anti-imperialist policy is be- and, above all, the so-called “Hispanics,” States. n support is crucial from an economic and ing forged in the process that the situa- which includes Mexicans and descen- Manuel Aguilar Mora is a militant political point of view. That’s how tough tion itself promotes both in Mexico and dants of Mexicans and constitutes one of of the League of Socialist Unity (LUS). the contradictions will be on this sec- in the United States. The mobilizations the most exploited layers of workers in Professor at the Autonomous Universi- ond anniversary of his electoral victory that shook U.S. policy on the occasion the U.S.A. This last sector is the one that, ty of Mexico City (UACM), in 1968 he on July 1, 2018. His celebration added of the assassination of George Floyd and with the remittances to their relatives, is joined the Committee of Philosophy and nothing again to the abstract general the link that the pandemic is forging be- the leading contributor of liquidity to the Literature fight alongside José Revuel- discourse that continues without over- tween the populations of the two coun- Mexican economy, ahead of the dollars tas. He was the founder of the Revolu- whelming answers. “The worst is over,” tries, increasingly united by the same of tourism and oil. They despise AMLO, tionary Workers Party (PRT). Author of “the recovery will begin in August,” “we catastrophes, point the way. His meeting with his meeting with Trump. They are numerous books on the political and so- are about to come out of the pandemic,” with Trump will not make AMLO pop- the sectors of the coalitions, communi- cial history of Mexico. SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 9 Northern Lights News and views from Socialist Action Canada website: socialistaction.ca
Cops Snatch 3 Black Lives Matter - Toronto Activists
the security forces of the white middle class and upper bourgeoisie, to show that attacks on white heritage will not be tol- erated. Except that the victory and news conference showed that these cops are no longer in total control of the streets or the narrative. Their attacks, lies and propaganda were countered by a strongly organized response and by hundreds of accomplices showing up at 52 Division, driving the cops inside, and demanding, and obtaining the release of the three hostages -- but not without a fight. Rodney Diverlus, co-founder of BLM- TO, broke down the previous day’s events when he stated “we have seen less action from the police when we die.” He identified nine people of colour who were killed in interactions with po- lice since April of 2020. Diverlus then re-stated the demands around defunding the police which include first defunding, demilitarization, disarming and disman- tling. They pointed to a billion-dollar po- lice budget in the City of Toronto and the immediate need to redirect a minimum of 50% of it to social services and com- munity needs. Related demands include the end of mass surveillance, cops out of schools, an end to the special constable program, cops out of the TTC, the end of paid policing programs and the end of plainclothes officers. Diverlus and BLM-TO voiced to the TPS: “We’re not going anywhere, and this will only, the pressure will only grow, and we won’t stop until you are Statue of King Edward VII in Toronto. “Defund. Disarm. Dismantle. ABOLISH.” defunded, until you are dismantled.” Another BLM-TO member stated: 6 p.m. a large rally was held to clarify in a previous press release to the media. “This art-based peaceful protest was By Sam Eric the situation, charge the TPS with ge- The supervisor could not give a satisfac- drawing attention to the genocidal vio- Three activists from Black Lives Mat- stapo and intimidation tactics, and again tory answer. The cops were then driven lence and racist histories of these statues, ter - Toronto (BLM-TO) were snatched demand not only the release of the activ- inside the station completely, not to re- but also of the system of policing and off downtown Toronto streets on- Sat ists that day but also to defund, disarm, turn for the rest of the evening. At almost prison in Canada.” urday, July 18, by an enraged Toronto dismantle and abolish the Toronto Police 3 a.m. BLM-TO organizers announced “Why was pink paint on that statue Police Service (TPS). The abductions Services. Participants asserted that the that all three activists had been freed more important than Black Queer Wom- occurred around 11 a.m. after a peaceful protest and budding encampment would from police custody. en?...Her life did not matter more than protest and art install, which included continue until all of the taken activists “Black Lives They Matter Here!” that fucking statue” said a BLM-TO or- pink paint being thrown on symbols of were released by the cops. The line was “Who Keeps us safe? We Keep us ganizer. Canadian colonialism and white suprem- drawn when one of the speakers em- Safe!” The status and history of Egerton Ry- acy. Shortly thereafter, the official twitter phatically stated “If they [TPS] take one “We keep each other safe. We are abol- erson, John A. Macdonald and King account of @BLM_TO described the sit- more of our people we will burn this sta- ishing police today, we are abolishing Edward VII were identified within the uation and issued a call for accomplices tion down”. prisons today.” space of the colonial white suprema- to converge on TPS 52 Division to free Festive music, dancing and food-shar- At a news conference held the next cy they inhabit and represent. Peaceful the activists. ing, interspersed by speeches, chants morning at Gould Street on Ryerson activists engaged in an art installation, After failing to kettle the crowd at and cultural displays of Indigenous song University Campus, just next to the re- challenging the legacy of these royals, Queen’s Park, and thwarted in their ef- and music, continued into the night. In purposed and pink- painted statue of the sycophants and technocrats, were bru- forts by BLM-TO event marshals, the one tense moment a police supervisor residential schools architect Egerton Ry- tally targeted by the state. But it turned cops settled on abduction of three Black emerged to discover that his officers had serson, a cohort of BLM-TO organizers out to be a complete failure on the part activists that they could get their hands allowed the protestors, who were loud debriefed the corporate media on the of TPS. on. An hour after the abductions took and militant, too close to the door. He events of the previous 24 hours. Like the federal agents in the streets place BLM-TO was not even able to took it upon himself to start pushing on “They are criminalizing dissent, and of the USA, the cowardly reaction of ascertain the whereabouts of the arrest- the line of protestors at the front lobby, we will not let them do this” said Ravyn the security forces of the ruling class ed attendees of the event, let alone en- which solicited the entire crowd of hun- Wings, BLM-TO. only made the people’s resolve stronger. sure they had access to counsel. It was dreds outside 52 Division quickly to push No less than three police divisions These statues will be taken down, and so subsequently revealed that after driving back and corner the half dozen cops. In and soon-to-retire Chief Mark Saunders, will the TPS. n around the city for three hours with the what was a made-for-TV Canadian Her- went into overdrive to coordinate the Note: The 3 Artist/Activists have been hostages the cops brought them to 52 itage Moment, Saron Gebresellassi, law- crackdown, lies and propaganda over the charged with mischief under $5000 and Division on Dundas Street West. It was yer and mayoral candidate, with a shaky act of throwing paint on statues. These conspiracy. We call for the immediate at least another two hours later before NDP MPP Chris Glover beside her, ar- were not engineering students on frosh dropping of all charges and an investiga- the activists were granted access to legal gued with the cop supervisor to let her week, but Black artists and activists tar- tion into the TPS and their gestapo-like counsel. have access to her client(s), patiently ex- geting symbols of racism, colonial vio- intimidation tactics, along with their im- By this time the crowd outside of cop plaining that the police had already lied lence and white supremacy. In this con- mediate disarming, defunding, disman- house #52 swelled into the hundreds. At about two of the activists being released text, these acts elicited a response from tling and abolishment! SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 10 Northern Lights from Socialist Action Canada Morneau The Real WE Scandal and Trudeau:
By Yves Engler ternational development’ but still don’t ration”, which then planned to pay them know what an IMF structural adjustment below the legal minimum. Charity as Too Rich Once again, the media focuses on sala- program is.” Imposed by the Washing- replacement for social services is what cious details rather than the big picture. ton-based international financial insti- WE and Canadian-government-funded While TV and newspapers have dwelt tution, structural adjustment programs NGOs do all over the world. In a country to Notice on the whiff of corruption surrounding (SAPs) pushed indebted African, Asian like Haiti, for instance, social services the government’s $912 million con- and Latin American countries to privatize are almost entirely privatized, run by tract with the WE Charity, some broad- state assets, weaken labour regulations “charities” often based in other countries their Own er points have been ignored. Whatever and liberalize trade and investment rules. who decide whether one qualifies for the Trudeau and Morneau families have Through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s assistance. Foreign-funded NGOs have pocketed from WE, the deleterious im- Canada channeled hundreds of millions contributed to a process that has under- Corruption? pact that NGO has had on social services of dollars in “aid” to support SAPs. Ca- mined Haitian governmental capacity. and young Canadians’ understanding of nadian mining companies greatly bene- This foisting of “charitable” interna- global inequities is much more signifi- fited from liberalized mining laws, but tional social services delivery systems By Barry Weisleder cant. structural adjustment policies produced on poor countries shouldn’t surprise In a series of poignant tweets Simon deep social and economic crises. Nutri- Canadians since the same corporate in- Finance Minister Bill Morneau says Black, an Assistant Professor of Labour tional status, health, education and other terests that promote privatizations over he’s repaid the WE charity organiza- Studies at Brock University, highlighted social indicators declined in the wake of there push similar efforts at home. In tion more than $40,000 to cover ex- how WE has directed young people to- SAPs. For many African countries the fact there have been hundreds of battles penses related to two trips his family wards ineffective political actions and a structural adjustment period was worse over many decades in every corner of took in 2017 after recently realizing he narrow understanding of doing good in than the Great Depression. International the country against right wing efforts to hadn’t been charged. the world. He noted, “teaching kids that creditors argued that the flipside of this dismantle public social services. Most Morneau told the House of Com- ‘breaking the cycle of poverty’ (WE’s government downsizing would be in- Canadians understand what’s going on mons Finance Committee on July 22 words) involves travelling to a ‘devel- creased aid, particularly to private sector when pro-corporate forces argue for cut- that he reviewed his family’s records oping’ country to build a school and NGOs. Ottawa asked the NGO sector to ting social services. Yet when the federal and discovered that he was “unable to not marching on the IMF, World Bank, “undertake tasks previously performed government pushes similar policies else- locate receipts” related to expenses in- White House or Parliament Hill to de- by governments, such as the delivery of” where there has been little protest, most- curred at “WE facilities” during those mand the cancellation of global South health, sanitation and other services. ly because the dominant media simply trips, including a “humanitarian” visit debts. That’s the real #WEscam.” In The NGO as replacement for govern- does not report what’s happening. to Ecuador. fact, a little discussed reason the federal ment service is another side of the cur- If the media were interested in telling “I expected and always had intended government funds NGOs is to co-opt in- rent WE scandal. On Facebook Matthew the real story it would broaden the dis- to pay the full cost of these trips. Not ternationalist minded young people into Behrens explained, “the real crime, which cussion about #WEscam. Ottawa, WE doing so, even unknowingly, is not ap- aligning with Canadian foreign policy. the media has utterly failed to mention, and other NGOs’ role in undercutting so- propriate,” he said. “My practice has In another tweet Black mocks WE’s is that Trudeau was essentially privatiz- cial services and confusing young peo- always been to pay for expenses in- educational program. “Thanks to the ing a chunk of the Canada Summer Jobs ple about global inequities is a far bigger curred.” Keilburgers and WE,” he writes, “a gen- program — which provides summer jobs scandal than however much one charity Mr. Morneau and Prime Minister eration of kids have learned about ‘in- at minimum wage — to a private corpo- paid the Trudeau family. n Justin Trudeau are both facing probes being conducted by the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner over their partic- ipation in deliberations that led the gov- ernment to award WE the since-can- celled oversight of a $912-million SA Canada Remembers Joe Flexer program, which seeks to place students in volunteer positions in exchange for On the 20th anniversary of his death bursaries.
We print here exerpts from an essay in tween the meeting hall, the library, and membership of organizations to which remembrance of Joe Flexer (1933-2000) the bar. He became convinced that the Joe belonged looked to him as a central Trudeau’s mother and by Barry Weisleder, Federal Secretary of Canadian nationalist and left-reformist political leader, a theoretician and a la- Socialist Action-Canada. For the full es- leaders of the Waffle were wrong, and bour movement coordinator. For years brother received hundreds say, go to socialistaction.ca. that the young revolutionaries, fresh Joe led an internal tendency which strove of thousands of dollars in from the anti-war, student and feminist to orient the membership towards the By Barry Weisleder movements, were much more his polit- working class movement, to speak the speaking fees from WE. ical cup of tea. Always an ardent inter- language and to live the struggles of rank Joe’s son Dani told the Toronto Star nationalist, this was no great leap for Joe and file workers. that Joe “became a communist and a me- Flexer. In the Fall of 1995 Joe decided it was chanic at about the same time, at about He helped to found the Red Circle, a “party building time”. Of course, size Conflict of interest rules stipulate (age) 15.” His ideas took him from his Marxist group within the Waffle. When matters. But if your aim is the transfor- that high-ranking public officials can- native Brooklyn, New York to the Mid- Ontario NDP Leader Stephen Lewis is- mation of class society, the creation of not accept free trips. NDP ethics crit- dle East where he joined an Israeli Kib- sued the famous ultimatum to the Waffle a cooperative commonwealth based on ic Charlie Angus, MP for Timmins– butz in the 1950s. His principles com- in 1972, and the Waffle debated what to a socialist democracy, the starting point James Bay, noted that Mr. Trudeau was pelled him to break with Zionism, and do and then walked out of the NDP, Joe must be political programme. And that found in violation of those rules when to champion the fight for Palestinian and the Red Circle campaigned as part includes a commitment to direct in- he vacationed at the Aga Khan’s pri- self-determination. In Israel, Joe was, of the Stay and Fight Caucus. But the re- volvement with working people, inside vate island in the Caribbean at no ex- unhappily a soldier, and most happily, pression of the Waffle took its toll, and their mass trade union and political or- pense to him and his family. a labour militant and communist. In the for a generation the NDP was depleted of ganizations. Joe looked around the Left And recall the SNC Lavalin scan- mid-1960s, Joe returned to North Ameri- intellectual ferment and radical activism. and made his decision. He asked to join dal. Trudeau insisted in 2018 that the ca, lived in Winnipeg and briefly in Mon- It was in this period that I met Joe. This Socialist Action, and immediately be- giant Canadian engineering firm be ex- treal, and became an important figure in was the beginning of a thirty-year friend- came a member of the editorial board of cused from prosecution for law-break- the movement against the war in Viet- ship between us, one that matured into Socialist Action newspaper. At the time, ing corrupt practices. More recently, nam and on the socialist left. Joe settled a very close political collaboration and our paper consisted of a meager 16 pag- Trudeau’s mother and brother received in Toronto in the early 1970s. He became comradeship, one that intensified over es, published twice a year. The paper has hundreds of thousands of dollars in a provincial organizer for the left-nation- the past five years. Joe, as a person, was advanced a bit since then. Suffice it to speaking fees from WE, to which the alist Waffle movement in the New Dem- the biggest single political influence on say that to see the critical link between Prime Minister turned a blind eye. ocratic Party. I believe that one of his my life. the socialist organization today and the Does the rule ‘three strikes and you’re political assignments was to counteract The Red Circle helped to found the Rev- socialist future of humanity requires a out’ apply only in baseball? the radical socialist wing of the Waffle olutionary Marxist Group in 1973, which person of considerable vision, analysis, At any rate, the bigger issue is the in Ontario. Some of its key elements ex- in turn joined forces with the League for selflessness and dedication. These and very mission of WE which does little, hibited the growing influence of Marxist Socialist Action and the GMR, a Quebec similar traits are revolutionary qualities if anything, to curtail global underde- and Trotskyist ideas. Trotskyist group, to launch the Revolu- that Joe Flexer had in abundance. velopment. n But a funny thing happened to Joe be- tionary Workers’ League in 1977. The Joe Flexer, Presente! n SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 11 The Roots of Trump’s Immigration Policy
By Barry Sheppard difficult. Many die along the way, most first five years of their stay in the U.S. be deported. often from dehydration – this is the “de- Also in that year, Clinton signed the Clinton also made it even harder for Sand and Blood: America’s Stealth terrence.” The border between El Paso Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Pen- migrants to apply for legal documents War on the Mexico Border and Juarez is the Rio Grande, crossed alty Act, after the World Trade Center to enter. The reason there are so many By John Carlos Frey by bridges. Some try to evade the Bor- and Oklahoma City bombings. The Act immigrants crossing the border with- (Bold Type Books, 2019) der Patrol by swimming or using rafts to allowed the government to increase pros- out documents, is that it can take years cross the river, and there are drownings ecutions and arrests of suspected “terror- – even two decades – to get legal doc- This book presents a harrowing – another “deterrence.” ists.” But it also allowed immigrants, uments for migrants from Mexico and well-researched description of Wash- It isn’t known how many migrants legal or otherwise, to be apprehended points South. ington’s war against immigrants on the have died in the deserts and mountains and detained without due process, if they Also under Clinton, the military in- Mexican border. The author is an inves- since “prevention through deterrence” were convicted of certain felonies. As a creasingly was used at the border to tigative journalist and documentary film- was implemented, for reasons Frey ex- result, the number of immigrants held in enforce anti-immigrant laws. The Posse maker. Comitatus Act of 1878 said the military Frey was born in Tijuana, Mexico. cannot be used as a police force domes- His parents moved across the border to tically – unless the Congress or the Pres- southern San Diego in 1965, where he ident authorizes it. This loophole was could see Tijuana as a child. His mother rarely used, but that has been reversed in was Mexican, and his father was a Unit- the war against immigrants at the Mexi- ed States citizen, so he was a U.S. citizen co border. too, which enabled him to move fairly In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the freely back and forth between the U.S. “War on Terror” was launched justifying and Mexico. the war against Afghanistan and Iraq, and Americans are well aware of Trump’s with attacks on civil liberties domestical- cruel treatment of immigrants and asy- ly. The border with Mexico was falsely lum seekers at the border. Less well claimed to be an entry point for terror- known is how the stage was set for ists, and the militarization was greatly Trump’s war against immigrants by pre- increased. Under George W. Bush, the vious administrations. annual budget for the the Border Patrol A qualitative turning point came in jumped from $1 billion to $2 billion. 1986 under the Regan administration, Under Obama and Trump the amount as immigration from Mexico grew, with continued to rise and is now around $4 what became known as the “amnesty billion. bill” because it allowed legal status for Bush established the Department of many undocumented immigrants who Homeland Security (DHS) and the Bu- had worked in the U.S. for years and had reau of Customs and Border Protection put down roots. (CBP), which took over all functions of “But the bill did not address the root Customs, Immigration and Naturaliza- causes for the migration …. [T]he bill’s tion Service (INS), including the Border authors also made sure to provide for a Patrol, creating the largest police force militaristic approach to border enforce- in the country – some 60,000. It was ment. [It] would be fortified with phys- composed of Customs and Border Patrol ical barriers, and more border guards agents, and immigration inspectors. ICE would be deployed” Frey writes. did not fall under the CBP, but was part “If the United States was going to grant of DHS. an exception to codified immigration law The George W. Bush administration by granting amnesty, it was going to added another law, making crossing the make sure, by sheer force, that migrants border without papers a crime for the would not come illegally again.” But, of Trump tours a section of the border wall on July 23. (Evan Vucci/AP) first time. course, they continued to come anyway. The Trump administration’s cruel bor- Frey also says, “Southern California plains, but it is in the thousands. Many der policies required no new laws. The was the destination for undocumented bodies and skeletons have been found Trump’s cruel border laws passed under Clinton and Bush – immigrants, and they would gain access by humanitarian volunteers who venture policies required no new whose policies were continued and ex- to the United States through Tijuana and into these areas to leave water for the mi- panded by Obama – sufficed. cross into San Diego …. But in the late grants. laws. The laws passed Under Obama, ICE ballooned to eighties and early nineties, this pristine These heroic volunteers notify local under Clinton and Bush – 20,000 employees, with 400 offices area became one of the main centers authorities, who sometimes can bury the around the country. Its duties morphed to for the militarization of the border with bodies. But most of the time they can continued and expanded include a massive immigrant detention Mexico.” only advise the Border Patrol where the by “Deporter-In-Chief” center complex, and deportation force, Under the administration of George bodies are. Although the Patrol has the Obama – sufficed. with a budget of $6 billion. ICE oper- H.W. Bush, 1989-93, the size of the Bor- resources to find and bury the corpses, ates throughout the country, but also in der Patrol was doubled and seven hun- and keep track how many there are – and the border area where the Border Patrol dred miles of new border fencing was are supposed to do so – they most often detention doubled. operates. built. But the real militarization of the do nothing. Another law signed by Clinton, the “Obama continued the legacy of all border began under Bill Clinton as im- In his State of the Union address to Illegal Immigration Reform and Immi- U.S. presidents and administrations migration continued to grow along with Congress in 1995, Clinton struck many grant Responsibility Act, placed new re- since Ronald Reagan, making life more anti-immigration sentiment whipped up themes and presented falsehoods still strictions on immigrants anywhere in the difficult for immigrants,” Frey writes. by the Republicans. used today by Trump: country who were caught without docu- “Obama’s rate of deportations of immi- Sensing a winning issue, Clinton “All Americans, not only in the states ments, denying them due process. If an grants already established in the country out-Republicaned the Republicans on most heavily affected but every place in undocumented immigrant was deported, was higher than any president before or immigration. Under Clinton’s order, the this country, are rightly disturbed by the they could not apply for any legal means since. During his eight years in office, Border Patrol issued the Border Patrol large numbers of illegal aliens entering to re-enter the U.S. for ten years. This Obama deported more than five million Strategic Plan 1994 and Beyond – Na- our country. The jobs they hold might meant families of mixed-status undocu- people, and, so far [2019] even Trump tional Strategy, which became known otherwise be held by citizens or legal mented, documented and citizen mem- has not beat that record. as the “prevention through deterrence immigrants. The public services they use bers could be separated for ten years. Frey notes that, “Obama also expand- strategy,” which is still being employed impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s Most likely, those deported would try to ed family detention facilities for women today. why our administration has moved ag- re-enter the country without documenta- with their children,” as a response to an The strategy was to build up fencing gressively to secure our borders by hiring tion. influx of thousands of Central Americans and Border Patrol agents at the border a record number of new border guards, The law also allowed the Attorney fleeing violence and poverty. between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mex- by deporting twice as many criminal General’s office to, in effect, deputize lo- The stage was set by both Democrats ico, and to do the same between Tijuana aliens as ever before, by cracking down cal law enforcement as federal immigra- and Republicans for the openly racist and San Diego. This would force those on illegal hiring, by barring welfare ben- tion officers. Sheriffs and cops could stop Trump to intensify and deepen the war entering the U.S. without documents efits to illegal aliens….” anyone and demand proof of legal res- against immigrants on the border, in all to cross the border in the inhospitable When Clinton ended “welfare as we idency. This measure sent shock waves the horrific manifestations we see today. and sometimes scorching hot terrain of know it” in 1996, included in the bill was of fear in Latino communities. People End the raids and deportations! Imme- mountains and desert. the provision that barred even legal im- stopped trusting police, and avoided re- diate legalization and full equal rights for The trek across this terrain is long and migrants from accessing welfare for the porting crimes to local police, lest they all immigrants! Open the border! n SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 12 Hundreds in Philly Demand: Free Mumia!
By Jeff Mackler Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Tucker’s in his antechambers before entering the unusual “King’s Bench” petition filed ruling effectively re-opened Mumia’s courtroom, in front of another judge and by Daniel Faulkner’s widow, Maureen Three hundred activists mobilized on case. Mumia had previously exhaust- award-winning court stenographer Terry Faulkner, who alleged that the current July 4 at Philadelphia’s City Hall to de- ed all his appeals. Citing the 2018 U.S. Maurer Carter, “Yeah, I’m going to help Philadelphia District Attorney, Larry mand “Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and All Supreme Court decision that a prosecu- ‘em fry the n****r.” Mumia’s trial was Krasner, who declined to challenge the Political Prisoners.” Pam Africa, chair of tor – in Mumia’s case then Philadelphia so replete with massive suppression of Trucker ruling reopening Mumia’s ap- the International Concerned Family and District Attorney Ronald Castillo – who evidence of innocence, intimidation of peals, was guilty of bias in hiring staff Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, addressed later becomes a judge, cannot rule in a witnesses, exclusion of Black jurors, members who were Mumia supporters. the rally and welcomed the outpouring case that he previously prosecuted. Cas- lying police testimony – including lit- Faulkner, supported by the Fraternal Or- of a new generation of anti-racist activ- tillo, who later became a Pennsylvania erally driving exculpatory eyewitnesses der of Police, which has campaigned for ists. Africa noted that July 4th protests Supreme Court judge, refused to recuse out of town and hiding testimony of an Mumia’s execution since 1981, demand- for Mumia Abu-Jamal’s freedom had himself from ruling in Mumia’s appeal, eyewitness who saw Faulkner’s murder ed that Krasner be removed. In March been organized annually for decades to ignoring Mumia’s demand in an appeal and two men fleeing the scene while 2020, the PA Supreme Court appoint- mark the racist admonitions to the jury in 1982 by the presiding judge to hurry their deliberations so that they could go home to celebrate the holiday. They did so and found Abu-Jamal guilty on July 2 and imposed the death penalty a day later. The July 4th rally was initiated by a broad range of organizations supporting Abu-Jamal’s freedom struggle. Imprisoned since 1981 on frame-up murder charges of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, Mumia, as he is known by friends and supporters world- wide, has been for decades a leading crit- ic of the racist criminal “justice” system in all its myriad aspects. Mumia’s tormentor Frank Rizzo The July 4 protest occupied the very plaza where a statue of Philadelphia’s white supremacist former Chief of Po- lice and then Mayor, Frank Rizzo, was dramatically taken down in the wake of the mass national mobilizations that forced the removal of statues honoring racist figures from the Civil War era to the present. Rizzo, indeed, as Philadel- phia police chief, early on threatened Mumia with police retaliation following Pam Africa speaks at July 4 rally calling for Mumia’s freedom. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY) Mumia’s central role as an award-win- ning journalist covering the U.S. Justice that he recuse himself. The simple no- Mumia lay wounded on the ground – ed Senior Superior Court Judge John Department’s filing corruption charges tion that one cannot be a prosecutor and that organizations ranging from Amnesty Cleland as a Special Master to review against and securing prison sentences for then a judge in the same case, thus al- International, the European Parliament Faulkner’s charges and make a recom- a number of Philadelphia cops charged lowed Mumia to continue his legal battle and the NAACP to hundreds of national mendation as to their validity back to the with engaging in prostitution rings, drugs for exoneration. I might add that it was and local U.S. trade unions and several Supreme Court. and other such ventures. Then a radio Castille, in his capacity as District Attor- city councils in major cities across the Mumia’s lead attorney Judith Ritter journalist, Mumia was similarly central ney, who presided over the preparation country have demanded a new trial or told Socialist Action that to date there is to the defense of the MOVE human and of an official Pennsylvania state video Mumia’s freedom. no news as to Cleland’s report, although animal rights organization, whose mem- instructing prosecutors in how to remove Faulker and FOP win delay she expected it may become public, per- bers were persecuted by racist police and Blacks from juries, based on the premise haps in the months ahead. Nevertheless, whose Powelton Village, West Philadel- that Blacks were less likely to vote for With Judge Tucker’s ruling last year Ritter told this writer that in today’s phia commune was attacked by police the death penalty than whites. to essentially reopen all Mumia’s Penn- context of the dramatic emergence of in 1978. Nine MOVE members were sylvania Supreme Court appeal denials massive anti-racist protests across the Mumia’s infamous 1982 trial arrested and subsequently sentenced to some 30 years ago, the stage was set for country she was confident “that truths prison terms exceeding 40 years. Rizzo Volumes have been written about ev- an unprecedented review of major rul- long hidden or denied on a broad range later bombed the MOVE house, killing ery aspect of Mumia’s 1982 racist trial ings against him. But this review itself of issues provided renewed reasons for 11 people. Indeed, it was Rizzo, who presided over by the infamous “hang- has been stalled when the Pennsylvania optimism in winning Mumia’s freedom.” publically stated that Mumia “would be ing judge” Albert Sabo, who declared Supreme Court last year approved an Free Mumia! n held responsible” for his journalistic at- tacks on Philadelphia police. Shortly af- ter, Mumia became a victim of the horrif- ic police/court frame-up trial that ended Like our newspaper? Subscribe! with a death penalty sentence. Following decades of litigation and a Go to: socialistaction.org/subscribe massive national and international move- ment that included the largest demon- or use the mail-in box below strations ever for a political prisoner – 25,000 each in San Francisco and Phil- adelphia in 1999 – Mumia defeated two r $5 for 6 months r $10 for 12 months court-ordered attempts at his execution and finally won a decision that took him Name ______Address ______off death row in 2011, when his death penalty sentence was reversed due to fundamentally flawed instructions to the City ______State ______Zip Code ______jury. Yet he remained in prison, where he is currently serving a life sentence. Phone ______E-mail ______New appeal rights won Two years ago, this sentence itself was r I want to join Socialist Action! Please contact me. brought into question when Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Leon Tucker, the Clip and Mail to: Socialist Action Newspaper first Black judge to become involved in Mumia’s case, ordered a review of P.O. Box 10328 Oakland, CA 94610 all the decisions against Mumia by the SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 13 SOCIALIST ACTION
Democrat NYC Mayor Busts “Occupy City Hall”
NYPD outside City Hall in July. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
By Marty Goodman away homeless people’s possessions and issues,” despite the regular volunteer But by linking arms and with tremen- camp supplies, which included food and cleaning of Zuccotti Park. Bloomberg’s dous bravery, OCH managed to prevent a At 4 a.m. on July 22, hundreds of New books. “health issues” were trotted-out once police rout and held their ground. York City cops in riot gear descended on The camp’s homeless reflected the again this past month, this time by de Occupy City Hall Occupy City Hall (OCH), the anti-racist city’s homeless crisis under de Blasio, a Blasio, as reason to crush OCH. encampment in lower Manhattan inhab- product of systemic racism. 80,000 are Although denied by de Blasio, many Occupy City Hall or Abolition Plaza ited by about 70 protesters and homeless without a permanent home, including pointed to the Mayor’s desire to fore- was located in a park immediately ad- persons. 20,000 children. stall President Trump’s threat to send in jacent to NY City Hall. It was founded OCH was demanding that NYPD’s $6 Jawanza James Williams, the director federal agents to NYC, a la Portland, as on June 24 by hundreds of anti-racist ac- billion budget be cut by at least $1 bil- of organizing for Vocal New York, told part of the Mayor’s underlying reason to tivists, including the non-profit VOCAL lion in fiscal 2021. The NY City Council BuzzFeed News that the city was “pres- shut down OCH. Trump’s threats were NY, which demanded a $1 billion cut in passed a sham $1 billion NYPD budget sure-washing away the messages of free- also a possible motive for his week-long next year’s NYPD budget. Some in OCH cut on June 30. After the vote, howev- dom, Black Lives, a world without po- curfew in early June, beyond de Blasio’s were calling for abolishing the NYPD. er, many remained in the park as part of lice and prisons, in the same ways that defense of so-called “property rights” of The NY City Council, dominated OCH. workers pressure-wash away the spilled big chain stores. De Blasio now boasts by Democrats, passed a $1 billion cut On July 22, cops said they gave OCH blood of Black people murdered by po- that he will bring court action against on June 30. The so-called cut, with the 10 minutes to vacate, then quickly lice for now hundreds of years.” Trump’s federal agents invading NYC. backing of the mayor, a self-described cleared the park. The NYPD claimed that Williams said that even with the dimin- Whatever the reason, de Blasio boasts “Democratic Socialist,” was a sham, there were about seven arrests, mostly for ishing OCH population after the June 30 that he, “always respect[s] the right to essentially transferring $1 billion to the failure to disperse and one for throwing budget vote, “The activities of political protest,” an assertion proven false by the Education Department to oversee polic- a brick at a cop, denting the cop’s shield. education continued, direct actions out- NYPD’s early morning storming of OCH ing in schools. City Comptroller Scott But some protesters disputed that ac- side of the camp continued, celebrations on June 30 at 5 a.m., the day of the vote Stringer called the changes in police count, saying that they didn’t hear a and performances continued, art creation, on the NYPD budget. spending “a bait-and-switch and a pa- warning before police poured in. Once and cultural production in general.” As peaceful OCH protesters chant- per-thin excuse for reform.” inside, cops threw people’s possessions OCH took inspiration from the 2011 ed, “Why the riot gear? There’s no riot The budgetary reform, plus police away and pushed them around. anti-corporate movement, Occupy Wall here!,” de Blasio’s goons descended on practice reforms recently enacted by the “They tried to run us over with bikes,” Street (OWS) in Zuccotti Park, aka “Lib- the park. City and State were the ruling class’s Nene Thompkins, a 19-year-old woman erty Plaza,” located a few blocks from “We were dancing in the street one panicked reaction to the size and mili- living at the camp, told Gothamist. “They City Hall. minute, and the next minute they were tancy of mass mobilizations. But, in no pushed us with shields. They told us we In 2011, the then-Public Advocate, beating the shit out of us,” Jet, 23, told way can some of these necessary reforms couldn’t be on the sidewalk so walk on Bill de Blasio, loudly defended the free Gothamist. “It wasn’t human.” (if ever properly enforced under capital- the street, then as soon as we got on the speech rights of OWS, under attack by NYPD officers in riot gear rushed pro- ism!) ever eliminate systemic cop rac- street they ambushed us.” billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg. testors, arresting two and injuring sever- ism, the product of a sick U.S. capitalist One unnamed city official told the Also supporting Occupy Wall Street al others. system, or more fundamentally, change press that Mayor Bill de Blasio approved were several unions, including TWU Lo- One protester that morning told public who has control of the police: the capital- of the attack, long planned by the NYPD. cal 100, NY’s subway and bus workers. radio that he witnessed a young woman ists or the working class and oppressed That evening, dozens OCH supporters Soon however, Bloomberg teamed up break her leg in a barrier, as cops pinned communities? (“NY Cop Reforms? The held a march downtown in the driving with President Obama and the national protesters. “They were beating me every Whole System Has to Go!” in July SA) rain to retake City Hall Park, but de Bla- police departments to smash Occupy. way they could, but all I could see was Socialist Action says, “Disarm, dis- sio’s cops blockaded entry. Mayor Bloomberg used a phony pretense her leg bent in a way it shouldn’t have band and dismantle the racist cops! Black In the process of the attack, cops threw for shutting down OWS, citing “health been.” community control of the police!” n SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2020 14