U.S. Politics and the Economy Tsipras Speaks in London

SocialistViewpoint May/June 2013 Vol. 13, No. 3 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT www.socialistviewpoint.org Contents email: [email protected] (415) 824-8730

U.S. Politics and the Economy Tsipras Speaks in London ...... 32 Socialism: Utopian or Scientific? ...... 2 By Georgios Diakogeorgiou By Bonnie Weinstein Bulgarians Take to the Streets ...... 34 Today’s Situation and What Is To Be Done Next . . 4 By Kristen Ghodsee By Joe Johnson Slovenia Hit by ‘Zombie Uprising’ ...... 36 The 30-Hour Workweek ...... 6 By Brigita Gracner By John de Graaf Israel’s Segregated Buses ...... 38 Chicago’s Fast Food Walk Out ...... 8 By Ofra Yeshua-Lyth By Josh Eidelson Incarceration Nation Corporate Terrorism in West Texas ...... 10 Free All Irish Republican Political Prisoners . . . .39 By Russell Mokhiber By Graham Durham U.S. ‘Human Rights’ Wars ...... 11 A Visit with Lynne Stewart ...... 40 By Glen Ford By Carole Seligman Supreme Court Overturns The Persecution of Lynne Stewart ...... 41 Basic Democratic Rights ...... 12 By Chris Hedges By Barry Sheppard Petition to Free Lynne Stewart ...... 44 Gun ‘Background Check’ on Pentagon ...... 13 Bradley Manning is Off Limits By Norman Solomon at San Francisco Gay Pride Parade ...... 46 The Corporate Takeover of Education ...... 14 By Glenn Greenwald By Luma Nichol The Shame of America’s Gulag ...... 49 Profiting From Human Misery ...... 16 By Chris Hedges By Chris Hedges Oregon Prisoners Driven to Suicide ...... 52 21st-Century Slavery Widespread In America . . .18 By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson By Steven Rosenfeld Lorenzo Johnson—An Innocent Man Freed GMOs Driving Monarch Butterfly to the Brink . . 23 from Prison, Only to Be Re-incarcerated! . . . .55 By Lauren McCauley Innocent! ...... 57 Down Is a Dangerous Direction ...... 24 Lorenzo Johnson interviews Jeffrey Deskovic By Barbara Garson Mumia is Innocent! Free Mumia Now! ...... 59 It Can Happen Here ...... 27 Four by Mumia Abu-Jamal By Ellen Brown What’s a ‘Jailhouse Environmentalist?’ ...... 60 Staring Armageddon In The Face ...... 29 The Last Day ...... 61 By Paul Craig Roberts Supreme Justice? ...... 61 Vampire Holiday: The Passing of Chávez . . . . . 62 International Book Review Attacks on the National Health Service ...... 31 Control Unit Prisons ...... 62 By Graham Durham Book Review By Ron Jacobs

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Vol.Vol.Vol. 13, 13,3, No.No. 233 Socialist Viewpoint 1

U.S. Politics and the Economy Socialism: Utopian or Scientific? By Bonnie Weinstein

Four recent news stories leave no Science of Addictive Junk Food” 2 read For example, according to the arti- doubt that capitalism’s criminal profit like a futuristic science fiction story cle, “General Mills had overtaken not motive trumps basic human needs. where fiendish businessmen spend bil- just the cereal aisle but other sections From the obscene paychecks of hedge lions of dollars to hire Harvard gradu- of the grocery store. The company’s fund managers; to the huge profits of ates to devise the most addictive, Yoplait brand had transformed tradi- massive food corporations; the health- cheaply produced, least nutritious tional unsweetened breakfast yogurt care industry and, even clothing manu- foods designed to cause people to eat into a veritable dessert. It now had facturers, capitalists can’t continue to more and more and still not be satiat- twice as much sugar per serving as earn huge profits without risking the ed. The only problem is, it’s not fiction, General Mills’ marshmallow cereal lives of millions of workers and con- nor futuristic. It’s real and it’s happen- Lucky Charms. And yet, because of sumers. ing right now! yogurt’s well-tended image as a whole- some snack, sales of Yoplait were soar- Hedge Fund managers ing, with annual revenue topping $500 In an April 22, 2013 article titled, million. Emboldened by the success, “Hedge Fund Manager ‘Earns’ $1 The top ten took home the company’s development wing Million an Hour,” by Matt Bewig, that $10.1 billion, and top pushed even harder, inventing a Yoplait appeared at AllGov.com, variation that came in a squeezable “Last year, even as 15 million manager David tube—perfect for kids. They called it Americans continued to look for work Tepper—who did not Go-Gurt…” and that, “By year’s end, it would hit $100 million in sales.” and the average wage barely kept up even make the top 25 with the cost of living, the 25 best paid Furthermore, as a result of these hedge fund managers raked in a total last year—made off with practices, “More than half of American of $14.14 billion, an average of $565.6 $2.2 billion, equivalent adults were now considered over- million-per-year, according to an anal- to $1,057,692 an hour, as weight, with nearly one-quarter of the ysis published last week by Institutional adult population—40 million peo- Investor Alpha. The top ten took home much as the average ple—clinically defined as obese. $10.1 billion, and top manager David American family makes Among children, the rates had more Tepper—who did not even make the than doubled since 1980, and the num- top 25 last year—made off with $2.2 in 21 years.” ber of kids considered obese had shot billion, equivalent to $1,057,692 an past 12 million. (This was still only hour, as much as the average American 1999; the nation’s obesity rates would family makes in 21 years.” 1 The article exposes how major climb much higher.)” Clearly, there can be no justification American food producers such as Again, the primary concern of these for one individual to “earn” over a mil- Pillsbury, Nestlé, Kraft, Nabisco, corporations is to increase their rate of lion dollars an hour. Especially when General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Coca- profit by any means necessary—the the overwhelming majority of working Cola, Mars and many others routinely health of consumers, both adult and people are being forced to accept dras- fight for what they call “‘stomach children, be damned. tic austerity cutbacks across the board. share’—the amount of digestive space And especially since hedge fund man- that any one company’s brand can grab The “healthcare” industry agers do no work. They neither manu- from the competition” by producing In an April 16, 2013 New York Times facture nor produce anything. Their foods high in sugar, salt and a myriad of article by Denise Grady titled, massive wealth is the result of simple food additives that are known to be “Hospitals Profit From Surgical Errors, computer-generated, mathematical addictive and dangerous to our health. Study Finds,”3 “Hospitals make money manipulation of the stock market! And that, in fact, there is “a conscious from their own mistakes because insur- effort—taking place in labs and mar- ers pay them for the longer stays and The Food Industry keting meetings and grocery-store extra care that patients need to treat A February 20, 2013 article by aisles—to get people hooked on foods surgical complications that could have Michael Moss titled, “The Extraordinary that are convenient and inexpensive.” been prevented. …If the system does

2 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 not change, hospitals have little incen- Rage as Hope Fades in Bangladesh,” 4 humans is just basic human nature tive to improve: in fact, some will wind “The collapse of the building, the Rana and, therefore, capitalism is the “natu- up losing money if they take better care Plaza, is considered the deadliest acci- ral” social and economic structure. of patients.” dent in the history of the garment This argument is sophism and is care- The article was based upon a study industry.” The death toll goes up every fully promoted in every aspect of social and editorial published April 9, 2013 in day. So far it has claimed over 600 lives, interaction, education and mass media The Journal of the American Medical and hundreds—perhaps as many as a propaganda throughout the capitalist Association. The study authors are from thousand more workers are thought to world, whether ruled by kings, parlia- the Boston Consulting Group, be missing—buried in the rubble. ments or congresses. Harvard’s schools of medicine and And, according to an article dated In nature, survival of the fittest public health, and Texas Health April 26, 2013, by Julfikar Ali Manik, refers to the successful survival of Resources, a large nonprofit hospital Jim Yardley and Steven Greenhouse entire species—not the few “best of the system. According to the article, “The titled, “Bangladeshis Burn Factories to best” from each species. In nature, study is based on a detailed analysis of Protest Unsafe Conditions,”5 also from endangered species are those whose the records of 34,256 people who had the Times, “Cracks had been discov- population has been decimated, and surgery in 2010 at one of 12 hospitals ered in the structure a day earlier there are only a few survivors left— run by Texas Health Resources. Of (before the collapse), and police offi- and, most importantly—their num- those patients, 1,820 had one or more cials and industry leaders say they had bers could be too few for the species to complications that could have been asked the factory bosses to stop work survive! In other words, it is necessary prevented, like blood clots, pneumonia until the building had been inspected.” for massive numbers of a species to be or infected incisions. The median They didn’t. They forced workers to able to thrive—to live healthy enough length of stay for those patients qua- keep working in spite of the warning lives to reproduce healthy offspring— drupled to 14 days, and hospital reve- placing their profits before the very for the species as a whole to survive! nue averaged $30,500 more than for lives of their workers. Life depends upon the success of the patients without complications entire specie’s ability to survive and ($49,400 versus $18,900). Private The terrorism and irrationality of thrive. Not on the survival of a few of insurers paid far more for complica- capitalism the “most fit!” tions than did Medicare or Medicaid, As these stories expose, such obscene The fact is, it’s utopian to think that or patients who paid out of pocket.” greed is tantamount to economic ter- capitalism can do anything but con- Further, David Sadoff, a managing rorism and results in life-threatening tinue on the destructive path of sur- director of the Boston Consulting poverty and strife—and often death— vival of the most wealthy at the expense Group said, “the current payment sys- for masses of working people the world of all life on Earth. tem makes it difficult for hospitals to over. Capitalism can’t put human perform better because improvements needs before profits. Its entire mecha- Socialism is the only alternative to can wind up costing them money.” nism is driven by the quest for profits the destruction inherent in capitalist above all else. production-for-profit and it’s our only The irrationality of our capitalist hope for all of life’s species and the healthcare system boggles the mind! The capitalists rationalize that the Earth itself to survive and thrive. Only under a profit-driven healthcare competition for profits is endemic to system could hospital mistakes—mis- human nature and that a socialist soci- takes that injure or even kill patients— ety based upon production to satisfy human needs instead of profits is a uto- 1 http://www.allgov.com/news/where-is-the- result in more profits for hospitals than money-going/hedge-fund-manager-earns-1-mil- from well-cared-for patients. pian notion—an unattainable fantasy. lion-dollars-an-hour-130422?news=849813 Clothing manufacturing Human nature, they claim, is based 2 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/maga- upon the struggle for the survival of the zine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food. On April 24, 2013, Rana Plaza, a fittest—the competition between all html?pagewanted=all building in Savar, an industrial suburb living beings for the means of survival. 3 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/ health/hospitals-profit-from-surgical-errors- of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh Capitalism, they argue, is the natural collapsed with thousands of garment study-finds.html?ref=us extension of this basic struggle, i.e., 4 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/world/ workers inside. The factories catered to that the private accumulation of vast Western clothing retailers. According asia/after-building-collapse-tears-and-rage-as- amounts of capital and the military hope-fades-in-bangladesh.html?ref=world to an April 28, 2013 New York Times might to guard that wealth in the 5 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/world/ article by Jim Yardley titled, “Tears and hands of a tiny few of the “fittest” asia/bangladesh-building-collapse.html?hp

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 3 Today’s Situation and What Is To Be Done Next By Joe Johnson

Today we are in a situation similar their union demands the needs of the Ray Dunne told me how the strike to that of just before the 1934 strikes. community. Simple trade union action leadership understood the needs and These similarities are such as to make it is no longer sufficient. problems of the small merchants; knew vital for us to understand those strikes But it is not only communities that of their strengths and their serious weak- and the truths they demonstrated. need to be enfolded within the strike, nesses. They did similar work with the We have an accurate, detailed, his- but other organizations as well, for other elements of society, working quite torical record of the Minneapolis example, the environmental move- successfully organizing and getting the Teamster strikes and this writer spent ment. With the capitalists’ massive active support of the unemployed. months speaking with its leaders before destruction of the Earth there has Acceleration in the class struggle they died. In particular, I talked with developed an ever enlarging grouping A second way the period we are in is Vincent Ray Dunn when Ray had full of people, workers, small capitalists, similar to the time just before the 1934 recall and knowledge of all the strikes’ and even a few large capitalists who strikes is that there is acceleration in major developments. Ray was the wish the destruction of the earth to the class struggle. The working class in major organizer and leader of the stop. Without the leadership of the the United States has been on the Teamster strikes. working class, these people, who have defensive and in retreat for so long that massive resources of money and mem- The two innovations that the it is hard for even the best revolution- bers, can do little but beg the capitalists Teamster strikes produced of most ary to understand that now it is both to do better. Or act like little children importance to us now are: The uniting possible and necessary in select areas to and smash windows and other ultra- of larger and larger sections of the be on the attack. This does not mean left actions that may be more or less working class, and taking the attack to that defensive struggles are not impor- violent, but which lead only to defeat. the capitalists and not simply reacting tant; they remain of great importance. to their attacks. There are many more We can see this in the fast food important lessons to be learned, but strike in New York where the main these two are necessary for us to learn The two innovations demand is for higher wages. Now now. that the Teamster strikes defense will be a part of attack; see for Before the 1934 strikes the workers produced of most example the Chicago teachers’ defense were divided by craft, and this division against closing schools as well as calling with others so weakened them that importance to us now for better schools and more teachers at they were defeated time after time. It are: The uniting of higher wages. was only when under revolutionary There is a subjective problem that leadership that they were able to unite larger and larger needs to be considered. The best, most and win. sections of the working politically advanced, self-sacrificing of We are in a similar situation now. class, and taking the the working class have been deeply The unions are separated from the attack to the capitalists submerged in the retreats and defeats. working class as a whole, so when they It is difficult for them to see that “the do struggle against the bosses they do it and not simply reacting times, they are a changin’.” They can in a divided, weakened condition. to their attacks. see a fighting retreat, a defensive strug- A good example today of uniting is gle, but not an attack. This needs to the recent big Chicago teacher’s strike. change. To point out the errors and It succeeded because the striking teach- crimes of the union leadership, to call ers spent considerable time, energy and In the teamsters strike in for solidarity in defensive struggle is no thought into uniting with the larger Minneapolis it was necessary for the longer sufficient. What is now neces- community, so that when they had strikers to enfold the small merchants sary is bold leadership by the vanguard their mass demonstrations and their into support. This was done as a con- in attacking the capitalists where they strike, they had the active support from scious decision of the leadership. Much are the weakest. We can see those weak the community. They were only able to energy was devoted to this before and areas of capitalism; so let us in an orga- get their support by enfolding within during the strike. nized and intelligent way attack them.

4 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 developing at much different speeds, the leadership that is available in these assemblies will just be on a state, Detroit now, be an assembly that would region or city level. Think of the out-perform the Legislature in Lansing, Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Michigan of the capitalist parties. It Soldiers Deputies as a Russian example would not at this early stage have the of what we should do. body of armed men that the Petrograd Detroit, for example, is ready for Soviet had; that will come later. such an assembly. There are now, in A general strike? Detroit, many sizable militant commu- Should we not first have a general nity groups, civil rights groups, etc. Plus, strike, then form the assembly? It is the there are sizable environmental groups assemblies that will make possible the in and around Detroit. These should general strike. As of now there is not not be minimized because of their small likely to be a general strike of any size and minimal militancy in the past. meaning. The calls that have gone out With global warming and the advanced for a general strike in Wisconsin, and nature of the capitalist destruction of now in Michigan, have little or no the air, water, animal and plant life, preparation, and without deep, thor- these groups are fast becoming stronger ough preparation, the call for a general and more anti-capitalist. Witness the strike is likely to produce a dud. But 50,000 strong March on Washington by the assembly would be capable of giv- these groups recently. True, they need ing real meaning to such a call. to have the leadership that can come out of these assemblies, but they are on Does the development of these assemblies mean the socialist revolu- An area has opened before our eyes. the correct side of the barricades and tionary party with a correct program is Congress has lost the support of over that is what is important now. no longer necessary? Absolutely not. 90 percent of the population. A large All these groups, and let me stress The formation of the Petrograd Soviet majority of the U.S. population, of all there are many, many of them and they did not mean the Bolshevik Party was classes, understands that Congress is have sizable numbers and power on unnecessary. In the assemblies is where made up of the servants of the very rich their side, should be part of the Detroit the Socialist revolutionary party with capitalists. People do not have faith or assembly. This assembly, which togeth- its correct program will win over the support for Congress. This is where we er can deliberate, discuss and debate masses to itself. It will be the forging of need to attack. As revolutionaries we their common problems, and what is the U.S. revolution. do not wish to reform Congress, but to of great importance, can decide what destroy it. This needs to be done not common action to take. It could, with We shall win. with words of criticism but action. A congress of the 99 percent Now, we are not ultra-left; we do not want to throw stones at Congress, and we are not sufficiently united and militarily strong enough to be able to physically attack Congress. What we need to do is to develop a congress of our own. An assembly of the 99 percent where what is to be done can be debated and deliberated on. Just as Congress is the assembly of the ruling class, this new congress would be an assembly of, and for, the working class and its many allies. However, given the size of the United States and that given areas are

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 5 The 30-Hour Workweek When America came “this close” to establishing it By John de Graaf Saturday, April 6, 2013, marked the Roosevelt and Labor Secretary Frances saw that hourly productivity had 80th anniversary of a long-forgotten Perkins also initially endorsed the idea, soared. event in American history that bears but the president buckled under oppo- In his earlier books, and Kellogg’s remembering, especially by progressives. sition from the National Association of Six-Hour Day, Hunnicutt reports that The April 15, 1933 issue of Manufacturers and dropped his sup- the measure added 400 new jobs to Newsweek, one of the first in the maga- port for the bill, which was then defeat- Kellogg’s Battle Creek, Michigan, work zine’s history, contains a remarkable ed in the House of Representatives. force, while improving family and com- cover headline: “Bill cutting work week In its place, Roosevelt advocated munity life dramatically. After World to 30 hours startles the nation.” Indeed job-creating New Deal spending and a War II, Kellogg’s began abandoning the only nine days earlier, on April 6th, the forty-hour workweek limit, passed into six-hour shifts in favor of eight hours, Black-Connery Bill had passed in the law on October 24, 1938, as part of the largely because increasing benefit pack- United States Senate by a wide margin. Fair Labor Standards Act. ages made it cheaper to hire few work- The bill fixed the official American But we came that close to an official ers and keep them on the job lon- work week at five days and 30 hours, thirty-hour workweek in America. Close, ger. But the end of the six-hour shifts with severe penalties for overtime but no cigar… didn’t come until 1985, when the last work. six-hour workers were told that if they In his new book, Free Time, labor Kellogg’s Six-Hour Day didn’t accept the longer work days, historian, Benjamin Hunnicutt of the Nonetheless, many American com- Kellogg’s would leave Battle Creek. University of Iowa, explains that the panies did go to a 30-hour workweek The six-hours workers were angry bill originally had broad support as a during the depression, most promi- but there was little they could do to means of increasing employment dur- nently, the Kellogg Cereal Company, prevent the change. They held a “funer- ing the recession and maintaining full which established five-day, six-hour, al,” complete with a mock coffin, for employment in the future. shifts in December 1930. Kellogg’s and the six-hour day at Stan’s Place, a local the workers split the pay loss resulting “We stand unflinchingly for the six- Battle Creek pub, and Ina Sides, an from the cut in hours; Kellogg’s ini- hour day and the five-day week in African-American woman who had tially paid his workers for seven hours- industry,” thundered AFL president worked most of her life at the plant, a-day, but upped that to the amount William Green to a labor meeting in wrote a eulogy: they had previously received for eight- San Francisco that spring. Franklin Farewell, good friend, oh six hours! hours work two years later, when he Tis sad, but true, Now you’re gone and we’re all so blue! Get out your vitamins, give the doc- tor a call, Cause old eight hours has got us all. In 1992, I traveled with Hunnicutt to interview former thirty-hour week workers in Battle Creek. They spoke movingly of the free time they had when they worked shorter hours— “you weren’t all wore out when you got home,” one man told me. One couple, Chuck and Joy Blanchard, who had both worked at the plant, claimed that the six-hour day made Chuck a “femi- nist” long before the women’s movement. He and his wife shared the

6 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 housework and he was a “room par- other five are tiny and poor) of coun- shortened hours would need to be ent” at his children’s school. tries with no law requiring paid vaca- combined with a higher living wage The Blanchards spoke to us about tions (although residents of Puerto Rico minimum, as they would otherwise how crime had gone up and volunteer- are guaranteed 15 days off each year)? take on extra jobs to make up for ing down in Battle Creek after the six- How is it that we understood the reductions in pay that usually accom- hour day ended, as people had less time need for shorter hours of work in 1910 pany shorter work-time. But in fact, to look out for their neighbor- and 1933 but have forgotten it today? there is no reason why a nation (the hoods. The Blanchards said they had U.S.) where the median worker has little materially, but their lives, blessed Rememberance as a call to action seen almost no pay increases since the with abundant leisure, were happier Progressives who want to end 1970s despite a doubling of worker than those of young families today, unemployment in a way that improves productivity, should not reduce work- who seem to have so much more stuff, health and limits unsustainable eco- ing hours without a pay cut, at least for but never enough time. nomic growth should be advocating the middle-class and the poor. that America provide real vacation Eighty years ago, the American No vacation nation time and shorter working Federation of Labor and the United If the idea that the thirty-hour work hours. Although workers often say States Senate understood that the week almost became the law of the land they’d prefer more money to more healthiest and most sustainable way to EIGHTY years ago comes as a shock, time, the evidence shows they appreci- reduce unemployment was to sharply consider a New York Times headline on ate the time off when they get it. reduce working hours. The anniver- July 31, 1910: A recent experiment with a com- sary of the Black-Connery’s bill passage “HOW LONG SHOULD A MAN’S pressed four-day workweek (albeit in the Senate marks a time to pause VACATION BE? PRESIDENT TAFT with ten-hour days) was extremely and ask why progressives aren’t raising SAYS EVERY ONE SHOULD HAVE popular in Utah. this issue again. THREE MONTHS” More importantly, in Amador John de Graaf is a filmmaker and co- At a time when workers produced a County, California, workers voted 71 to author of Affluenza: The All- tenth of what they do today, William 29 percent to retain a reduced work- Consuming Epidemic and What’s The Howard Taft, a conservative Republican, week of four nine-hour days rather than Economy For Anyway? argued that all workers needed two or return to a five-day, forty-hour week —AlterNet.org, April 2, 2013 three months of holiday time each year with higher pay. See “Life Away From http://www.alternet.org/labor/when- to improve health, family connections the Rat-Race: Why One Group of america-came-close-establishing- and productivity. Yet, more than a Workers Decided to Cut Their Own 30-hour-workweek?akid=10283.229473. hundred years later, Americans average Hours and Pay” (AlterNet, July 2, 2012). sGGxQh&rd=1&src=newsletter819416 two weeks of paid vacation and a quar- Undoubtedly, for poor workers, &t=14 ter of us get none at all. When the organization I represent, Take Back Your Time, worked with Florida Congressman Alan Grayson to propose a very modest paid vacation law in 2009, we were practically accused of plotting the end of western civilization as we know it, and of “trying to turn our America into a 21st Century France,” as if we were going to force everyone to appreciate good food and wine. All this, when the evidence shows that stress from overwork plays a role in five of the six leading causes of death in the U.S. and that workers who don’t take vacations are twice as likely to have heart attacks as those who do.

How is it that the world’s richest Circa 1930s lapel button. Curl reads “Issued By Local No.3 - country is one of only a handful (the I.B.E.W”. International Brotherhood Of Electrical Workers Union.

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 7 Chicago’s Fast Food Walk Out The “Fight for 15” (dollars per hour, a.k.a., a living wage) hits the windy city. By Josh Eidelson

Demanding a hefty raise and a fair vides funding for the New York City That’s a very heavy lift, and the chance to form a union, workers in group Fast Food Forward, which campaign faces what may be impossi- Chicago’s growing fast food and retail brought 400 fast food workers out on bly long odds. But the stakes are high, sectors are walking off the job this strike three weeks ago. Both Fast Food because the future of fast food and morning (April 24, 2013). The one-day Forward and Fight for 15 are collabo- retail jobs has far-reaching implica- walkout began at 5:30 A.M. Central rations between unions and commu- tions for the U.S. economy. Both Time, and organizers expect 500 work- nity organizing groups. industries are among the highest- ers from a dozen chains to participate. A Macy’s official declined a request grossing, fastest-growing and lowest- The work stoppage follows similar for comment on the Fight for 15 cam- paying in Chicago, and in the United strikes by New York City fast food paign Tuesday morning (April 23, States. Retail is largely non-union; fast workers and by Wal-Mart retail 2013). A McDonald’s spokesperson food is almost entirely so. Whether or employees across the country, and referred Salon to a previous statement not these long-squeezed workers can marks the latest escalation in the strug- saying, “We value and respect all the force their bosses to concede some gle between an embattled labor move- employees who work at McDonald’s money, and some measure of democ- ment and two industries that increas- restaurants” and touting “competitive racy, will help shape the future of work ingly dominate and define the new wages, flexible schedules and quality, in the United States. economy. affordable benefits,” and “professional That’s especially true now. Drawing “At the end of the day,” Macy’s development opportunities” for on federal statistics, the National employee Krystal Maxie-Collins told employees. Employment Law Project (NELP) last Salon, “it feels like I’ve done all of this year found that lower-wage occupa- to help everyone else, to help the store, tions made up just 21 percent of the help the managers, help the customers, Whether or not these jobs lost in the Great Recession, but 58 but it doesn’t feel like anyone is look- long-squeezed workers percent of the job growth in the recov- ing out for me.” Maxie-Collins, a ery; the same study found that food mother of four who works part-time can force their bosses to service, retail and employment services for the state minimum wage of $8.25 concede some money, together represented 43 percent of plus a commission, said she had ini- employment growth in the previous tially been hesitant about the strike and some measure of two years. U.S. employment increas- because of the risk of retaliation. But democracy, will help ingly looks more like fast food and “what we are fighting for, the reason shape the future of work retail: service sector work heavy for doing it, kind of overrode the fear on emotional labor—the constant of doing it.” “Usually the things that in the United States. requirement to perform a certain per- are worth it,” she added, “you have to sonality for customers—and light on sacrifice for.” job security, benefits or predictable Katelyn Johnson, the executive Johnson said that Action Now took scheduling. director of the community organizing a leadership role in organizing fast NELP researcher and attorney group Action Now, said she expects a food workers after discovering on Tsedeye Gebreselassie noted that the strike that “really shakes up business as door-to-door canvasses about fare most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics usual for downtown.” Organizers hikes that “people were more con- data listed the nation’s top three occupa- expect the strikers to include employ- cerned with their jobs,” and that once tions as retail salespersons, cashiers and ees of McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, fast food workers started holding meet- “food preparation and serving workers, Subway, Sears, Macy’s and Victoria’s ings, “retail workers heard about it and including fast food.” “Because these are Secret. The Chicago strike is spear- wanted to join the effort.” Like their the jobs that are dominant, in our econ- headed by Fight for 15, a campaign New York counterparts, the Chicago omy,” she told Salon, “the fact that they backed by organizations including workers are demanding raises to $15 are very low-wage jobs” is “setting the Action Now and the Service Employees an hour, and the chance to form a standards for how some businesses think International Union. SEIU also pro- union without intimidation. they can treat their workers.”

8 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 And while politicians from both Maxie-Collins said that changing strikers told Salon that they drew inspi- parties tout training and education as a her industry would also change her ration from workers who walked out of ladder to opportunity, “higher-skilled” community: “I work downtown in a Wal-Mart stores, who in turn cited the jobs’ labor standards are actually on beautiful community, but then I come example of their Wal-Mart warehouse the same downward trajectory as oth- home to a neighborhood where I can’t counterparts. Interviewed while on ers’. In a 2012 report, the Center for even take my kids to the park without strike April 4, New York fast food Economic and Policy Research found worrying about a dangerous situation.” workers said that November’s smaller that from 1979 to 2010, while the num- She said poverty is to blame for the walkout had made that day’s work ber of U.S. workers with advanced crime rate that makes her keep her kids stoppage possible. “I was waiting” dur- degrees nearly doubled, the percentage inside, because “everyone’s trying to ing the first strike, said Brooklyn of workers whose jobs provide decent get over on the next person because of Burger King worker Christelle Lumen. wages, health insurance, and retire- what they don’t have, and what they “I wanted to know, would they be OK ment benefits declined. That was true can’t afford and what they can’t do.” with it? Would they fire the people that for workers with college degrees as well NELP’s Gebreselassie argued that pov- went on strike?” (Organizers say almost as for those without them. The cause, erty wages are also crippling the recov- all of the November fast food strikers argued authors John Schmitt and ery: “We cannot build a recovery on returned to work without incident; a Janelle Jones, wasn’t “workers’ skills,” very low-wage jobs. We have tried it termination at one Wendy’s was but rather “the loss of bargaining for the last three years, and the recov- reversed within an hour after local power” at work. ery has stalled, because people don’t politicians and activists occupied and In other words—like the garment have enough money to spend.” picketed the store.) sweatshops of a century ago—what At a moment when some major Though New York and Chicago makes McDonald’s or Wal-Mart jobs unions have virtually stopped striking, have the only campaigns of their kind bad isn’t that employees lack degrees. It’s these low-wage, non-union workers have to go public so far, fast food organizing that they lack leverage. The same prob- taken up strikes, despite a battery of legal, efforts are also underway elsewhere. lem faces workers doing comparatively political and economic changes that have Could they ever build the clout to glamorous work—from fashion models increased their risk while reducing their bring service sector giants to the table? faced with wage theft, to Apple store impact. As I’ve explained, these recent Maxie-Collins said that seeing fast food specialists without health insurance. work stoppages share a set of tactics workers strike this month gave her In recent months, non-union designed to reduce—but not remove— hope: “That proved to me that if I employees in fast food and retail have the risk that strikers lose their jobs. stand up, and voice our opinion, and mounted unprecedented challenges to The strike wave’s spread to Chicago show everyone what’s going on, a their bosses’ business model. First, offers a hopeful sign for the New York change can happen. It might not be building from a year of store-by-store City fast food campaign. While indi- immediate, but the groundwork will be organizing, Wal-Mart store workers vidual fast food stores are managed by laid for our children and grandchildren staged their first-ever coordinated franchisees, national CEOs are the real … Change is going to start from this.” strikes in October and November. decision-makers in both fast food and Josh Eidelson (josheidelson.com) is Then, a week after Wal-Mart workers’ retail. Given the financial cost and, a Nation contributor and was a union Black Friday walkout, New York City more important, the risk of setting a organizer for five years. He covers labor fast food workers staged a strike of precedent and emboldening a wider as a contributing writer at Salon and In their own; this month, they did again, workforce, it’s hard to imagine execu- These Times. with twice as many people. (Wal-Mart tives for McDonald’s or Macy’s mak- —alternet.org, April 24, 2013 is not among the companies where ing any significant concessions to Chicago retail workers will be striking workers in any city unless faced with a http://www.alternet.org/chicagos- Wednesday, but — as I reported for bona fide national uprising. For that to fast-food-and-other-low-wage-workers- the Nation — Wal-Mart workers in a happen, the strikes would have to go stage-one-day-walk- hundred-some stores plan to go in viral, big-time. out?akid=10361.229473.FcCaRv&rd=1 &src=newsletter830073&t=11 groups Wednesday to confront manag- The strikes aren’t spreading by acci- ers about scheduling issues.) dent. November New York fast food

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 9 Corporate Terrorism in West Texas By Russell Mokhiber

In his first statement in response to settled the case of the April 2010 nally prosecute Massey even though the the Boston bombings, President Massey Energy Upper Big Branch Labor Department concluded that Obama said that “Michelle and I send explosion, which killed 29 miners, with Massey’s “unlawful policies and prac- our deepest thoughts and prayers to a “non prosecution agreement.” tices” were the “root cause of this trag- the families of the victims in the wake Outrageously, the Justice edy.” of this senseless loss.” Department said it would not crimi- Massey had a track record of skirt- In the his first statement in response ing the law and even kept two sets of to the explosion outside Waco, Texas, books for at Upper Big Branch—one President Obama said that “our prayers for internal use, which kept track of go out to the people of West, Texas in Because when it comes workplace hazards—and one for law the aftermath of last night’s deadly to street crime, enforcement, which did not. explosion at a fertilizer plant.” President Obama is the David Uhlmann, the former head of In his statement on Boston, President the Department of Justice’s Obama said that “any responsible indi- top cop. Environmental Crimes Section, and viduals, any responsible groups will feel now a Professor at the University of the full weight of justice.” Michigan Law School, says had he But when it came to the explosion been in charge of the Massey Energy in Texas, President Obama said noth- case, he would have criminally pros- ing about responsible individuals, ecuted Massey. responsible groups or the full weight of In his tenure at the Justice justice. Department, he criminally prosecut- Why not? ed many major corporations for wrongdoing arguably less serious Because when it comes to street than one that results in the deaths of crime, President Obama is the top cop. 29 workers. When it comes to apparent corpo- And he says that the Massey non rate crime and violence, he’s the prosecution agreement is just part of enabler in chief. a disturbing trend, one that has accel- Make no mistake, if it becomes clear erated under the Obama administra- that the Texas explosion was triggered tion, toward settling major corporate by a terrorist attack, a la the Oklahoma crime cases with deferred and non City bombing, then Obama will begin prosecution agreements. talking about “the full weight of justice.” Russell Mokhiber edits But if the focus is corporate crime the Corporate Crime Reporter. and violence, corporate recklessness, workplace safety, “full weight of jus- —counterpunch.org, Weekend tice” rhetoric won’t see the light of day. Edition April 19-21, 2013 http://www. After all, it was Obama’s Justice counterpunch.org/2013/04/19/corpo- Department that in December 2011 rate-violence-in-west-texas/

10 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 U.S. ‘Human Rights’ Wars Arms Control as a Weapon By Glen Ford

The United Nations General embrace of the humanitarian super- subdued by the United States. In a stroke Assembly vote on regulation of the power, who has made human rights a of supreme cynicism, America and its international arms trade purports to be weapon of mass destruction. allies argued that non-state actors—like a modest step away from violence in The newly minted international Arms their jihadist proxies waging a war of ter- the world, but is in fact the very oppo- Trade Treaty, like humanitarian warfare ror against Syria—should not be subject site. The newly approved Arms Trade and that racist mockery of an to the treaty, because “national libera- Treaty is conceived and designed as a tion movements” should be able to pro- facilitator of war by its main sponsor, tect themselves. What shameless hypoc- the United States. The newly approved risy! The U.S. and Europe now sing the praises of national liberation move- At the core of the treaty is a ban on Arms Trade Treaty is arms exports to countries that are ments, after having killed tens-of-mil- under UN embargoes, or that are conceived and designed lions to stifle the national aspirations of accused of promoting genocide, crimes as a facilitator of war by most of the world’s people. against humanity and war crimes. But But, that is no more insane than such language is only a tool of war in its main sponsor, the Washington posing as a force for peace. the hands of the U.S. The cold fact is United States. Not only is the U.S. the top arms export- that, since the establishment of the er in the world, but eight of the top ten United Nations to this very day, the war-profiteering corporations on the United States and its allies, clients and International Criminal Court, is simply planet are American. On the lips of U.S. proxies have been the worst perpetra- another device to strip nations targeted presidents, arms control is bogus, tors of crimes against humanity. From for U.S. attack of the ability to defend human rights is a sham, and words of Vietnam to East Timor to Guatemala to themselves. The immediate targets are peace are actually weapons of war. Iraq to Somalia and to Congo, the U.S. Syria, Iran, and North Korea, which is —Black Agenda Report, April 4, has caused the deaths of well over ten why they voted against the treaty. 2013 million people over the past 60 years. Twenty-three other countries abstained, In the 21st century, in a cruel joke on including Russia, China and India. They http://blackagendareport.com/con- humanity, the mass murderers in understand that this treaty is not about tent/us-%E2%80%9Chuman- Washington put on their “human limiting warfare, but about making rights%E2%80%9D-wars-arms-con- rights” hats and declared themselves to nations into outlaws, to be more easily trol-weapon be the international community’s pro- tectors against so-called “rogue” nations. The doctrine of “humanitarian military intervention” was inflicted on the world. It was not coincidental that each of those nations designated as rogue viola- tors of human rights were also at the top of Washington’s hit list for regime change. Haiti was attacked and occupied, its sovereignty stolen under the auspices of the UN, for supposedly “humanitarian” reasons. Libya was bombed for seven months and plunged into a race war, under the “humanitarian” umbrella. The Democratic Republic of Congo has lost six million people at the hands of U.S. humanitarian policy. Let us one day be saved from the fatal

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 11 Supreme Court Overturns Basic Democratic Rights By Barry Sheppard

In a five-to-four split decision, the editorial, entitled “Unbridled secrecy,” 2008 law, a stance the Supreme Court Supreme Court ruled that, in effect, no the paper wrote that, “The Supreme has now upheld. citizen may challenge the constitution- Court severely damaged the rule of It should be noted that the NSA is ality of any of the executive orders, or law” by its decision. much larger than the CIA. It operates a laws passed by Congress, that violate This editorial, as well as the split huge bank of supercomputers capable democratic rights under the pretext of vote in the Supreme Court, reflects dif- of listening in on all electronic com- the “war on terrorism.” ferences in the ruling class over how far munications, at least of U.S. citizens, The decision was in response to a to use the “war on terror” to violate the and probably much of the world. Just lawsuit filed by the American Civil constitution. what its capabilities are, of course, is a Liberties Union (ACLU), Amnesty This split has nothing to do with the state secret. International, Global Rights, Global squabbles between the Democrats and It will have read and analyzed this Fund for Women, Human Rights Republicans over how much to slash “letter” as soon as I send it off, and Watch, PEN American Center, Service the social wage of working people, cur- placed it in their file about me before Employees International Union, jour- rently revolving around the federal the Green Left Weekly editor will have nalists Naomi Klein and Chris Hedges, budget. read it. and several defense attorneys. The majority of the Supreme Court But the spying goes well beyond the Their suit challenged a 2008 law concurred in its ruling with the Obama 2008 law. William Binney, who worked that gave the National Security Agency administration’s arguments, reflecting for the NSA for 40 years, retired from (NSA) unchecked power to monitor all the views of a large majority of the agency a month after 9/11 due to international telephone calls, emails, or Democrat and Republican politicians. concerns about unchecked domestic any other electronic communications surveillance. of all U.S. citizens with no warrants or Jameel Jaffer, who argued the case stated reasons for surveillance needed. for the ACLU before the court, said Last year, he appeared on Democracy after the ruling that the 2008 statute is Now!, where he said: The plaintiffs charged that these “a very broad surveillance statute.” The “After 9/11, all the wraps came sweeping powers violated their First statute itself grew out of an earlier rul- off for NSA, and ... between the Amendment rights of free speech and ing made by the Bush administration White House and NSA and CIA, association, and their Fourth in the immediate aftermath of the they decided to eliminate protec- Amendment rights against unreason- September 11, 2001 terror attacks. tions on U.S. citizens and collect on able search and seizure. domestically from [AT&T] … prob- Jaffer said: “The National Security In a ruling worthy of a Kafka novel, ably on average, about 320 million Agency was told ‘You no longer have to records of communications of a U.S. the majority of the court said the plain- seek warrants from federal judges in tiffs could not challenge the constitu- citizen to a U.S. citizen inside this order to engage in surveillance of country … tionality of the law because they could American’s international communica- “At that point, I knew I could not not prove that they had been the tar- tions. You can do this on your own…’ gets of surveillance under the law. stay, because it was a violation of the That was against the law.” constitutional rights of everybody in Of course they couldn’t, because the At the time, the ACLU challenged the country. Plus it violated … all NSA keeps secret which citizens it is the ruling, which slowly wound its way the laws covering federal communi- spying on. through the courts. Finally, the Bush cations governing telecoms.” Therefore, the court “reasoned” administration went to Congress to ask Another former NSA official became that the plaintiffs had no “standing” to it to pass the statute, making legal what a whistleblower. In a Democracy now! even bring the matter up. it had been doing illegally for years. interview, Thomas Drake said: Thus the constitutionality of the law The 2008 law was passed with over- “The critical thing that I discov- and similar laws will never be ruled on whelming bipartisan support. The ered was not just the massive fraud, by the Supreme Court, or any other Obama administration has been oper- waste and abuse [he made public], court. ating under it since. It said the courts but also the fact that the NSA had chosen to ignore … the prime direc- In a February 26 New York Times had no rights to judge its actions or the

12 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 tive of the NSA. It was the first amendment at NSA, which is, you Gun ‘Background Check’ on Pentagon do not spy on Americans.” How to Curb Mass Gun Violence After the Supreme Court decision By Norman Solomon closed the door to any legal challenge Stringent “background checks” are viewed in context of present-day mind- to all these executive orders and laws, central to many proposals for curbing set. A meaningful background check Hedges, one of the plaintiffs, wrote gun violence. The following is a back- must include a current psychological that the decision is “one that has ground check on the nation’s largest profile. become routine in a court system that buyer of firearms: in [‘national security’ cases] writes Despite the abundant evidence of lengthy opinions about why the courts The applicant, the U.S. Pentagon, massive carnage made possible by past cannot defend the rule of law.” seeks to purchase a wide variety of fire- Pentagon acquisitions of firearms and arms in vast quantities. This back- other weapons, the applicant is unre- Jaffer concurred, saying: ground check has determined that the pentant. This indicates that the appli- “There is a broader pattern here applicant has a long history of assisting cant is sociopathic—unwilling to in which the courts are abdicating individuals, organizations and govern- acknowledge, let alone express any their role under our constitutional ments prone to gun violence. semblance of remorse for pain and suf- system. They are supposed to be fering inflicted on human beings. ensuring that the government’s The Pentagon has often served as an national security policies are consis- active accomplice or direct perpetrator The unrepentant character of tent with the Constitution. of killings on a mass scale. During the Pentagon is reflected in continued use “Instead what’s happening is last 50 years, the applicant has directly of the alias “Department of Defense.” many of these challenges are being inflicted large-scale death and injuries This background check strongly indi- thrown out at the threshold [before in numerous countries, among them cates the prevalence of a highly func- ruling on the constitutionality of the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, tional yet psychically numbed institu- them]. There are different reasons. Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, tional personality disorder, with reflex- Sometimes it’s standing. Sometimes Kosovo, Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan ive denial and perennial insistence on it’s state secrets. Sometimes it’s (partial list). Resulting fatalities are claiming victim status even while vic- immunity. estimated to have been more than five timizing others. “But the common thread is that million people. In addition, Pentagon has used guns all of these cases are being thrown For purposes of this background of all types to fire on countless civilians out even before the courts reach the check, special attention has been neces- including young people. The ongoing merits.” sarily focused on the scope of firearms threat to children posed by weapons in I would add, no matter what the currently sought by the Pentagon. They the hands of the applicant, therefore, is courts rule, if the powers-that-be have include numerous types of semi-auto- grave. the capability to spy on everyone, and matic and fully automatic rifles as well they have those big banks of super- Grim evidence emerged with the as many other assault weapons. unauthorized release of the “Collateral computers that can check on who Continuing purchases by the applicant knows how many millions of commu- Murder” video three years ago by include drones and cruise missiles WikiLeaks. That video, filmed in 2007 nications-per-second, they will do so, along with the latest models of com- whether allowed by law or not. in the district of New Baghdad, showed patible projectiles and matching explo- a callous disregard for human life as 30 Barry Sheppard was a long-time sives. mm cannon fire from Apache helicop- leader of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party Notable on Pentagon’s shopping list ters caused the deaths of nearly a dozen and the Fourth International. He is the Massive Ordnance Penetrator. Iraqi adults while wounding two chil- recounts his experience in the SWP in a This “bunker buster” weapon—with a dren. two-volume book, The Party—the weight of 30,000 pounds, set for deliv- In a deeply sociopathic mode, Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988, ery by a B-2 stealth bomber—is for available from Resistance Books. Pentagon—rather than expressing prospective use in Iran. remorse or taking action to prevent —Green Left, March 4, 2013 While considering the likely out- such tragedies in the future—has http://www.greenleft.org.au/ comes of authorizing Pentagon to pur- sought retribution against those shed- node/53507 chase such large-scale assault weapons, ding light on many of such terrible past lethal recklessness should be actions. Pentagon has subjected whis-

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 13 tleblower Bradley Manning to pro- The Corporate Takeover of Education tracted inhumane treatment and relentless prosecution. By sharp con- City College of San Francisco in the bull’s-eye trast, in the last few days alone, tens of By Luma Nichol thousands of people have expressed their admiration, love and support by The assault on City College of San “compete successfully in the global signing an online letter to thank Francisco (CCSF) seemed to come out economy.” Bradley Manning1. of the blue. Widely known for its inno- They want schools to eliminate all Meanwhile, Pentagon is seeking vative instruction, this community col- but core classes, shorten the time to approvals for items ranging from new lege had never received a sanction. Last earn degrees, and boost technology for firearms to F-35 jet fighters, recently July it was graded “F” by the Accrediting assessing performance. Part-time and dubbed by Time magazine “the costli- Commission for Community and non-degree students are becoming an est weapons program in human histo- Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and given endangered species. At CCSF class ry.” until March 15 to correct supposed offerings are being limited, and wom- Even a cursory background check defects or face clo- en’s studies, ethnic on the applicant must conclude that sure. With Board of studies, childcare Trustees approval, augmenting Pentagon’s vast stockpile It is a stunning example centers, and art stu- of guns and other weapons would be the Interim dios are on the unconscionable. Chancellor took a of a nationwide strategy chopping block. wrecking ball to If background checks are to be a to overthrow public CCSF — in the Shrinking class meaningful tool for curbing gun vio- name of “austerity.” education, conceived in offerings feed a ris- lence, they must apply to individuals ing industry of and institutions alike, without fear or It turns out that the highest halls of pri- schools for profit, favor. destroying CCSF vate and public power. distance learning, didn’t come out of Norman Solomon is co-founder and Mass Open the blue after all. It of RootsAction.org and founding direc- Online Courses is a stunning exam- tor of the Institute for Public Accuracy. (MOOCS), which ple of a nationwide strategy to over- His books include War Made Easy: How are free web courses financed by entre- throw public education, conceived in Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning preneurs who decide the curriculum. the highest halls of private and public Us to Death. He writes the Political power. The profiteers intend to run schools Culture 2013 column. like factories, super-sizing administra- The loss of CCSF would do great —counterpunch.org, March 7, 2013 tion, and cutting workers’ benefits, pay harm to the people of color, immi- and pension contributions. This can http://www.counterpunch. grants, and working-class students for only be achieved by busting unions. At org/2013/03/07/gun-background-check- whom it is a lifeline. CCSF, the Special Trustee in charge of on-pentagon/ From boardrooms to classrooms enforcing austerity acknowledged that union opposition is a significant barri- The U.S. community college system er to management’s reform plan. enrolls 6 million in public schools that 1 http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/ have open admissions and affordable Profits from the poor public/?action_KEY=7433 tuitions. In the past five years, mega- The foundations virtuously claim foundations of wealthy corporations they care about low-income and have spent billions to privatize this minority students realizing “their full system. Among the biggest spenders potential.” They lie. Unequal access to are Microsoft’s Bill & Melinda Gates education because of mounting racism Foundation, Walmart’s Walton Family and poverty is a major social disease in Foundation, and Lumina Foundation, this country. Foundations are using formed from the student loan profits sham concern for students of color to of Sallie Mae. mask their grab for profits. Like the They want graduates with “labor predatory banksters who target lower market value” so that the U.S. can income home-buyers, education foun-

14 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 dations take aim at the same strata, and rized by the U.S. Department of lion in cuts over three years, CCSF turn a tidy profit by forever dashing Education, and is under pressure from steadfastly stuck to its mission of life- hard-working people’s hopes of it, to impose stricter accreditation long learning and reduced its financial advancing. standards. Its parent organization, the reserves rather than services. So then, a Western Association of Schools and sham accreditation scheme was con- Huge profits come Colleges, received $1.5 million from cocted to pry open CCSF’s doors to the from student loans Lumina in 2011. looming entrepreneurs. Today, most CCSF students get This colossal, nationwide, corpo- But, the students, faculty, staff and grants, but these are becoming scarce. rate-designed shift in policy gets little community supporters are fighting When forced to enroll fulltime because public exposure. The media, for exam- back. The Save City College Campus/ of degree time limits, many will have to ple, largely avoids the story. Except for Community Coalition’s first meeting take out a loan. Student debt is at epic one, belated article in February, the had over 350 attendees. Only a militant proportions. A ball and chain for San Francisco Chronicle has issued a stance against privatization will rescue under-employed and jobless students, barrage of one-sided articles depicting this vital public resource, and source of it means major money to the banks CCSF as a basket case. Such major union jobs. and the U.S. government. papers are the naked voice of corporate Success depends, in part, on allying Public education in cross-hairs power masquerading as news. The with others battling privatization and Chronicle is owned by the Hearst Business interests are hijacking in calling for taxation of the notorious Corporation, whose own foundation higher-ed policy. And the government one percent. The wealth exists. It’s a endows private colleges. is in on it. question of priorities, as voiced in demands like, “No to wars and prisons! President Obama’s 2009 American Coming soon Money for education!” Graduation Initiative for community to a college near you colleges is drawn directly from the cor- This story of austerity-driven priva- —Freedom Socialist Party, April porate playbook. The plan includes tization is all too familiar. A fiscal crisis 2013 such privatizing measures as partner- triggers investment. If no crisis exists, http://www.socialism.com/drupal- ing with industries and for-profit they create one. But despite $53 mil- 6.8/?q=node/2120 schools, transferring loans to private lenders, and funding based on student progress. So clearly, the Democrats don’t plan to save public education. The Gates Foundation’s “Postsecondary Success Initiative” influenced the new “Student Success Initiative” developed last year by the California Board of Governors for Community Colleges and then adopt- ed by the state Legislature. The attacks on CCSF by the ACCJC are lifted from this initiative. Government and big business personnel collaborate in making and enforcing policy, as exemplified by the California accrediting commission. A private commission, ACCJC is autho-

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 15 Profiting From Human Misery By Chris Hedges

Marela, an undocumented immi- “No Human Being is Illegal,” and President Barack Obama, outpacing grant in her 40s, stood outside the “Education not Deportation.” George W. Bush, has deported more Elizabeth Detention Center in “The people who run that prison than 400,000 people since he took Elizabeth, N.J., on a chilly afternoon make money off of human misery,” office. Families, once someone is last week. She was there with a group of said Diana Mejia, 47, an immigrant seized, detained and deported, are protesters who appear at the facility’s from Colombia who now has legal sta- thrown into crisis. Children come gates every year on Ash Wednesday to tus, gesturing toward the old ware- home from school and find they have decry the nation’s immigration policy house that now serves as the detention lost their mothers or fathers. The small and conditions inside the center. She facility. As she spoke, a Catholic incomes that once sustained them are was there, she said, because of her Worker band called the Filthy Rotten snuffed out. Those who remain behind friend Evelyn Obey. System belted out a protest song. A often become destitute. Obey, 40, a Guatemalan and the low-flying passenger jet, its red, green But human beings matter little in the single mother of a 12-year-old and a and white underbelly lights blinking in corporate state. We myopically serve the 6-year-old, was picked up in an immi- the night sky, rumbled overhead. rapacious appetites of those dedicated to gration raid as she and nine other Clergy walking amid the crowd marked exploitation and maximizing profit. undocumented workers walked out of the foreheads of participants with ashes And our corporate masters view pris- an office building they cleaned in to commemorate Ash Wednesday. ons—as they do education, health care Newark, N.J. Her two children instant- and war—as a business. The 320-bed ly lost their only parent. She languished Elizabeth Detention Center, which in detention. Another family took in “The terrible secret is houses only men, is run by one of the the children, who never saw their largest operators and owners of for- mother again. Obey died in jail in 2010 that immigration profit prisons in the country, Corrections from, according to the sign Villar had Corporation of America. CCA, traded hung on her neck, “pulmonary throm- detention has become a on the New York Stock Exchange, has boembolism, chronic bronchiolitis and annual revenues in excess of $1.7 billion. emphysema and remote cardiac very profitable business An average of 81,384 inmates are in its Ischemic Damage.” facilities on any one day. This is a greater for companies and “She called me two days after she number, the American Civil Liberties Union points out in a 2011 report, was seized,” Marela told me in Spanish. county governments.” “She was hysterical. She was crying. “Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons She was worried about her children. and Mass Incarceration,” than that held We could not visit her because we do by the states of New York and New not have legal documents. We helped “Repentance is more than merely Jersey combined. her get a lawyer. Then we heard she being sorry,” the Rev. Joyce Antila The for-profit prisons and their lob- was sick. Then we heard she died. She Phipps, the executive director of Casa byists in Washington and state capitals was buried in an unmarked grave. We de Esperanza, a community organiza- have successfully blocked immigration did not go to her burial. We were too tion working with immigrants, told the reform, have prevented a challenge to scared of being seized and detained.” gathering. “It is an act of turning our draconian drug laws and are push- The rally—about four dozen peo- around and then moving forward to ing through tougher detention policies. ple, most from immigrant rights make change.” Locking up more and more human groups and local churches—was a The majority of those we incarcer- beings is the bedrock of the industry’s flicker of consciousness in a nation that ate in this country—and we incarcerate profits. These corporations are the has yet to fully confront the totalitarian a quarter of the world’s prison popula- engines behind the explosion of our corporate forces arrayed against it. tion—have never committed a violent prison system. They are the reason we Several protesters in orange jumpsuits crime. Eleven million undocumented have spent $300 billion on new prisons like those worn by inmates held signs immigrants face the possibility of since 1980. They are also the reason reading: “I Want My Family Together,” imprisonment and deportation. serious reform is impossible.

16 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 The United States, from 1970 to CCA in 2011 gave $710,300 in polit- immigrants are detained: Essex, 2005, increased its prison population ical contributions to candidates for Monmouth, Delaney Hall and Hudson, by about 700 percent, according to sta- federal or state office, political parties which has the distinction of being tistics gathered by the ACLU. The fed- and 527 groups (PACs and super named one of the 10 worst detention eral Bureau of Justice Statistics, the PACs), the ACLU reported. The cor- facilities in the country,” Phipps, who ACLU report notes, says that for-profit poration also spent $1.07 million lob- is an immigration attorney as well as a companies presently control about 18 bying federal officials along with undis- minister, told the gathering in front of percent of federal prisoners and 6.7 closed funds to lobby state officials, the Elizabeth Detention Center. “The percent of all state prisoners. Private according to the ACLU. CCA, through terrible secret is that immigration prisons account for nearly all of the the American Legislative Exchange detention has become a very profitable new prisons built between 2000 and Council (ALEC), lobbies legislators to business for companies and county 2005. And nearly half of all immigrants impose harsher detention laws at the governments.” detained by the federal government are state and federal levels. The ALEC “More than two-thirds of immi- shipped to for-profit prisons, accord- helped draft Arizona’s draconian anti- grants are detained in so-called con- ing to Detention Watch Network. immigrant law SB 1070. tract facilities owned by private com- U.S. Immigration and Customs A March 2012 CCA investor presen- panies, such as this one and Delaney Enforcement (ICE), which imprisons tation prospectus, quoted by the Hall,” she went on. “The rise of the about 400,000 undocumented people a ACLU, tells potential investors that prison industrial complex has gone year, has an annual budget of more incarceration “creates predictable rev- hand in hand with the aggrandizing than $5 billion. ICE is planning to enue streams.” The document cites forces of Immigration and Customs expand its operations by establishing demographic trends that the company Enforcement, or ICE, which, by the several mega-detention centers, most says will continue to expand profits. way, has filed suit against the very gov- run by private corporations, in states These positive investment trends ernment it is supposed to be working such as New Jersey, Texas, Florida, include, the prospectus reads, “high for because they were told to exercise California and Illinois. Many of these recidivism”—“about 45 percent of prosecutorial discretion in their deten- private contractors are, not surpris- individuals released from prison in tion practices.” ingly, large campaign donors to “law 1999 and more than 43 percent released There is an immigration court and order” politicians including New from prison in 2004 were returned to inside the Elizabeth facility, although Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. prison within three years.” The pro- the roar of the planes lifting off from In CCA’s annual report to the spectus invites investments by noting the nearby Newark Airport forces those Securities and Exchange Commission that one in every 100 U.S. adults is cur- in the court to remain silent every for 2011, cited by the ACLU, the prison rently in prison or jail. And because the three or four minutes until the sound company bluntly states its opposition U.S. population is projected to grow by subsides. Most of those brought before to prison reform. “The demand for our approximately 18.6 million from 2012 the court have no legal representation facilities and services could be adverse- to 2017, “prison populations would and are railroaded through the system ly affected by the relaxation of enforce- grow by about 80,400 between 2012 and deported. Detainees, although ment efforts, leniency in conviction or and 2017, or by more than 13,000 most have no criminal record beyond parole standards and sentencing prac- additional per year, on average,” the illegal entry into the United States, tices or through the decriminalization CCA document says. wear orange jumpsuits and frequently of certain activities that are currently The two largest private prison com- are handcuffed. They do not have ade- proscribed by criminal laws,” it panies in 2010 received nearly $3 bil- quate health care. There are now some declares. CCA goes on to warn that lion in revenue. The senior executives, 5,000 children in foster care because “any changes with respect to drugs and according to the ACLU report, each their parents have been detained or controlled substances or illegal immi- received annual compensation pack- deported, according to the Applied gration” could “potentially [reduce] ages worth well over $3 million. The Research Center’s report “Shattered demand for correctional facilities,” as for-profit prisons can charge the gov- Families.” The report estimates that would “mak[ing] more inmates eligi- ernment up to $200 a day to house an this number will rise to 15,000 within ble for early release based on good inmate; they pay detention officers as five years. behavior,” the adoption of “sentencing little as $10 an hour. “I am in family court once every six alternatives [that] ... could put some “Within 30 miles of this place, there to eight weeks representing some offenders on probation” and “reduc- are at least four other facilities where mother who is surrendering custody of tions in crime rates.”

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 17 her child to somebody else because she 21st-Century Slavery Widespread In America does not want to take that child back to the poverty of Guatemala, Honduras The abuses of the H-2B visa program are mind-boggling. or El Salvador,” Phipps said when we By Steven Rosenfeld spoke after the rally. “She has no option. She does not want her child to A 21st-century version of slavery— displaced and jobless African-American live in the same poverty she grew up in. captive labor—is rampant at the bot- community, he sent recruiters to hire It is heartbreaking.” tom of the U.S. economy, and us. At around $6 an hour, we were We have abandoned the common Washington politicians and business cheaper. As temporary workers, we good. We have been stripped of our lobbies want to keep it that way, or were more exploitable. We were hos- rights and voice. Corporations write even expand it as part of the immigra- tage to debt in our home countries. We our laws and determine how we struction reform talks now in Congress. were terrified of deportation. And we ture our society. We have all become Under a system of “legalized slav- were bound to [owner Patrick] Quinn victims. There are no politicians or ery,” foreign workers are routinely and could not work for anyone else. institutions, no political parties or thrown in massive debt, cheated out of We were Patrick Quinn’s captive work- courts, that are independent enough or wages, housed in squalid shacks, held force.” strong enough to resist the corporate captive by brokers and businesses that “I was so devastated by our situa- onslaught. Greater and greater num- seize passports, Social Security cards tion. I wanted to go home but couldn’t bers of human beings will be con- and return tickets, denied healthcare, because I had no money,” said Julia, sumed. The poor, the vulnerable, the rented to other employers (including who paid $1,500 to come to the U.S. in undocumented, the weak, the elderly, the military), and sexually harassed 2009 from Jamacia to work as a house- the sick, the children will go first. And and threatened with firing and depor- keeper in Florida. “After nearly one those of us watching helplessly outside tation if they complain, according to month of working 40 hours or more a the gates will go next. two detailed reports by the Southern week cleaning hotel rooms, Julia and —Common Dreams, February 18, Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and her coworkers had not received a single 2013 the National Guestworker Alliance paycheck,” SPLC reported. Julia said, (NGA). The reports are based on sworn “I came to the United States to work http://www.commondreams.org/ testimony gathered for lawsuits. and so I could help my family and save view/2013/02/18 The H-2B visa program that brought to go back to school. I had never been 83,000 foreign guestworkers to the U.S. treated so badly before, and I felt like in 2011 for non-farm work has become there was nothing I could do about it.” a stalking ground for some of the worst Under the H-2B visa program, the abuses in American capitalism, accord- foreigners are trapped. They’re not ing to recent reports by anti-poverty allowed to work for anyone else. law groups. These reports describe in “Unlike U.S. citizens, guestworkers do excruciating detail how predatory capi- not enjoy the most fundamental pro- talists in many manual labor-based tection of a competitive job market— industries (supplying national brands the ability to change jobs if they are like Walmart) lure and prey upon for- mistreated,” SPLC said. “They are eigners whose jobs average less than bound to the employers who ‘import’ $10 an hour with little regard for them. If guestworkers complain about human rights, labor law or legal conse- abuses, they face deportation, blacklist- quence. ing or other retaliation.” “We called it modern-day slavery,” “When the supervisor would see said Daniel Contreras, who borrowed that a person was ready to leave the job $3,000 to come from Peru and whose because the pay was so bad, he would story is told in the Guestworker take our papers from us,” Otto Rafael Alliance report. He was one of 300 for- Boton-Gonzalez, a forestry worker eigners brought to New Orleans by a from Guatemala told the SPLC. “He hotel chain after Hurricane Katrina. would rip up our visa and say, ‘You “Instead of hiring workers from the don’t want to work? Get out of here

18 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 then. You don’t want to work? Right Walmart with catfish, crawfish, sweet say, the circumstances that women now I will call immigration to take onions, flowers, herbs, vegetables, guestworkers face can be even worse, your papers and deport you.’” Cajun food, strawberries, rice and let- due to sexual harassment and assaults. These experiences are the tip of an tuce not only had more than 600 fed- They are also often paid less than men economic iceberg that exists in many eral safety violations, but were abusing for doing the same work. states and industries. The abused H-2B their guestworkers. That treatment Sexual harassment and violence is guestworkers in the report include included: real, the advocates say. SPLC cites a housekeepers and desk clerks in hotels • Restriction of movement, such California-based federal government along the Gulf of Mexico, welders and as: confiscating passports, visas, attorney who said that a generation ago pipefitters in Gulf shipyards, strawber- and/or ID documents; constantly many women told him that they “had ry and sugar cane harvesters, environ- accompanying the victim; insist- to have sex with their supervisors to get mental cleanup workers, garden and ing on answering questions on or keep jobs.” While there have been forest workers and even carnival behalf of the victim, and/or trans- efforts by the U.S. Equal Employment employees. lating all conversations; isolating Opportunity Commission (EEOC) More traditional agricultural guest- the victim by not disclosing her and some employers to educate guestworkers, who come under H-2A visas, or her location or address; requir- workers about sexual harassment, a have far more legal protections and are ing the victim to live and work in 2010 SPLC report said “many, howev- better paid. They must be paid for at the same location. er, were not even familiar with the least 75 percent of their contracts, • Harmful living conditions, such as: concept… Indeed, many were not whereas non-farm H-2B workers have restricting access to food and aware of their rights and seemed to no such guarantee. In fact, some H-2B appropriate clothing; forbidding regard incidents of sexual harassment contracts are little more than fabrica- access to medical care; not allowing and sexual violence as yet another tions to obtain the legally required time off or sufficient time to sleep. unpleasant aspect of their job that they had but no choice to endure.” paperwork. The foreigners are “rent- • Harmful working conditions, ed” by their visa sponsors to other such as: in exchange for work This litany of abuse is why guest- businesses, which in turn deny knowl- opportunity, charging a large fee worker advocates are saying the H-2 edge of abusive treatment. that is difficult or impossible to visa program should not become a “We heard stories—some much pay off; requiring unusually long model for anything if the Congress worse than our own—of other guest- work hours with few or no breaks; enacts immigration reform. “It is virtu- workers who were being stripped of restricting days off; providing lit- ally impossible to create a guestworker their dignity by employers,” Contreras tle to no pay or irregular pay. program for low-wage workers that said. “Employers were holding workers does not involve systemic abuse,” These Walmart suppliers were from SPLC’s report said. “The H-2 guest- captive in labor camps, confiscating mid-sized companies across America: their passports, subjecting them to sur- worker program should not be expand- Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, ed in the name of immigration reform veillance, leasing workers for a profit in Utah, Florida, New York, California, violation of morality and the law, and and should not be a model for the Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, future flow of workers to this coun- trafficking workers into conditions of Arkansas, Alabama and South Carolina. imprisonment.” try… It should be completely over- When the abuses reached the New York hauled.” Times, Walmart’s spokesman blamed Underbelly of the “Although bad bosses exist, guest- American economy sub-contractors, saying the giant corporation bore no responsibility, and workers and advocates are very clear These accounts are not isolated inci- attacked guestworker advocates as pro- the problem is not a few bad apples— dents. Last June, just weeks before labor, union-funded groups that have the problem is the entire orchard is Congress blocked the U.S. Department “little to do with solving real issues.” rotten,” the Guestworker Alliance said. of Labor from implementing new H-2B “The structure of the visa outlines the rules that were designed to stop many The multiple accounts by the guest- elements of worker exploitation, creat- of these abuses, the Worker’s Rights worker advocates present a seemingly ing the structure and incentivizing Consortium issued a damning report bottomless pit of bad behavior by busi- exploitive behavior on the part of about abuses by a Louisiana seafood nesses whose only priority seems to be employers. Guestworkers are clear that processor that supplied Walmart. The making money—and not looking for recruiters, subcontractors, employers National Guestworker Alliance then American citizens to do the same work and even the local police have a stake in reported that 12 other firms supplying at a higher, living wage. Needless to

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 19 the economic system which turns “This is not a small business prob- “This tactic is enormously effective guestworkers into exploitable and dis- lem—despite what you hear from at suppressing complaints about pay, posable machines to be used, abused, Senators Mikulski and Landrieu,” she working conditions or housing,” SPLC and cast aside through deportation continued. “There is a business model said. “U.S.-based companies deny when no longer wanted or needed.” that is welcomed by multi-national knowledge of the abuse, but there is However, the businesses whose corporations where the supply chain is little doubt that they derive substantial profit margins rely on importing and dependent on captive labor.” benefit from their agents’ actions. It is abusing low-wage workers have pow- almost inconceivable that a worker Why they come, would complain in any substantive erful allies in Congress. After the why they can’t leave Department of Labor spent a year on way while a company agent holds the writing rules to stop some of the worst The reason foreign workers come to deed to the home where his wife and abuses, trade associations went to court the U.S. through the legal visa pro- children reside.” last spring and temporarily blocked the gram, where their first interaction with “Guestworkers don’t report abuse new 2012 rules from taking effect. the federal government is an interview because they are afraid that they will Then last July Congress stripped at an American Embassy, is because lose everything and be deported if they Department of Labor funds to imple- they cannot get decent-paying work at come forward,” Hemant Khuttan, a ment the rules. Two Democratic sena- home. The minimum wage in Mexico, 26-year-old from India, told the tors, Maryland’s Barbara Mikulski and for example, where most H-2B workers Guestworker Alliance. “They have Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, led that are from, is $5 a day or less. huge debts to get the visa. If they go effort. “The vast majority of H-2B guest- back, they might have to work their These industries and their congres- workers are basically good people who whole life to pay off these debts.” sional patrons want to “maintain the are in the United States to work and Serman Morales, a 35-year-old from H-2B program as a source of cheap, save money to improve the lives of Bolivia, said, “Yes, we ought to report unregulated labor,” the SPLC said. It their families at home,” wrote David our problems to the U.S. government, noted that under the federal laws that Seminara, an ex-U.S. Foreign Service but the fear of losing everything is remain in effect, the non-farmworker officer who opposes the H-2B program greater than our rights.” visa holders—unlike agricultural work- because he believes Americans would “The focus on retaliation is really ers with H-2A visas—are barred from take these jobs if employers paid living critical,” said Rosenbaum. “They face seeking help from government legal aid wages. “An American in a lower-wage retaliation from recruiters and employ- offices, and have no minimum wage hourly job knows that his income puts ers. You can be blacklisted from ever guarantees. “Employers, in a series of him in the low end of the socio-eco- coming back. You can be jailed and lawsuits, have asserted that the DOL nomic status spectrum; whereas the deported. You can have your family (Department of Labor) has no author- wages many H-2B workers earn puts threatened in Mexico.” ity ‘to regulate employers’ use of the them near the top of the wage-earning H-2B program at all,” SPLC said. spectrum in their home countries, and Institutional exploitation they can return home as conquering Capitalism has always had bosses But what especially worries guest- heroes, highly valued in their extended and owners who exploit workers. But worker advocates now is that Congress families and wider communities, and the H-2B program, which brought is being lobbied by business interests to often prized as prime marriage candi- 83,152 foreigners to the U.S. in 2011, expand the H-2B program as part of dates.” invites lies and abuse from the start of any immigration reform. Seminara’s contention may well be the visa application process. On one “You have many businesses saying true, but the thousands of dollars many hand, there is an endless supply of for- that an expansion of guestworker pro- H-2B workers have to borrow at home eign workers willing to leave their grams is a big deal—we don’t know at rapacious interest rates to cover their homes to try to earn more money for what that will mean,” said Jennifer costs of coming here—to recruiters, themselves or families. And on the Rosenbaum, legal director of New for paperwork, for travel—puts almost other hand, there are many American Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial unbearable pressure on them not to businesses that don’t want to hire Justice. “Will it mean a raising of the report employer abuses. American citizens because they would cap with the number of H-2B visas? have to pay them higher wages. We know that is what businesses want. Most eyebrow-raising, according to The federal government has many That’s what makes this very important the SPLC report, is that job seekers also visa programs to help American busi- to think about.” have to put up collateral, such as the deed to their homes. nesses. The best-known is one that

20 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 brings in software engineers and com- His list of H2-B visa applicants includ- ary for welding in India. “The guest- puter scientists to the technology field. ed high-end hotels, such as the Four workers were housed on Signal’s work There also have been farmworker visa Seasons in Jackson Hole, the Biltmore site in guarded labor camps, housed in programs since the 1940s, which led to in Asheville, North Carolina, the Ritz cramped 24-by-36 foot trailers, each the farmworker rights movement of Carlton in New Orleans, and Nantucket holding 24 men who shared two toilets. the 1960s led by Cesar Chavez. Island Resorts. Signal deducted $1,050 per month The H-2B program is at the bottom The businesses seeking “temporary from each worker’s paycheck for room of the guestworker spectrum. It was workers” must certify to the and board, further heightening the designed to help non-farm businesses Department of Labor that they cannot workers’ stress over whether they could find temporary workers for jobs that find Americans for these jobs. Seminara afford to service their debts. Worse yet, could not be filled locally. To apply, the said that many do that by placing ads Signal eventually announced that it businesses have to certify to the in low-circulation publications where would not apply for the permanent Department of Labor that they cannot Americans looking for work won’t see residency visas the workers had been fill the jobs with citizens. They must them. Many businesses seeking hun- promised.” then clear a bureaucratic process where dreds of H-2B guestworkers were in The nightmare at Signal did not end they are given permission to bring in a regions with double-digit unemploy- there, SPLC said. Some workers spoke certain number of workers. Workers ment rates at the height of the reces- up and demanded better treatment. are supposed to be given contracts sion, his report noted. The company retaliated by pulling four specifying the work and paid prevailing The workers are supposed to be of the most outspoken Indians out of wages, but sponsors can also charge paid the local prevailing wage and line before work with the intention of workers for housing and other work- housed—although they can be charged setting an example by deporting them. related costs. for housing. What often ends up hap- Federal immigration officers told The Department of Labor reported pening is a job is promised on a con- Signal how to do this, SPLC said. in 2011, its most recent statistics, that tract, but upon arrival that job does “Signal’s goal was to make an example the fields seeking the most H-2B visas not exist. Instead, a lower-wage job is of these workers so that guestworkers were industrial and commercial offered or sometimes the guestworker understood they were not to make groundskeepers, forest workers, land- has to wait weeks for it to start. In the trouble,” SPLC said. “The plan was scape laborers, housekeepers and meantime, they are charged above- disrupted only when one of the round- cleaners, amusement park workers, market rates for housing and other ed-up workers attempted suicide, and landscape gardeners and specialists, costs, such as work supplies. If they the police responded to the ensuing animal caretakers, production helpers languish with no work and their visas uproar.” and meat trimmers. The top ten states expire, they can be charged more than But the Signal case was not unique. with the most H-2B visa workers were $1,000 by sponsors and job brokers for Moises Moreira Santos was a welder Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Maryland, an extension. There also have been sit- from Brazil who came on a H-2B visa Virginia, Colorado, New York, uations where they were not paid at all to work for another Mississippi firm, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, or were not paid for overtime. These Five Star Contractors LLC. “When I Massachusetts and Mississippi. variables collectively create a vicious arrived, I was shocked. We were forced The businesses that seek H2-B cycle where guestworkers will almost to live in storage containers on a con- workers usually are not mom-and-pop never pay off their debt. crete lot—and were charged $75 a operations trying to hire seasonal One of the most egregious examples week for it. And there was no work,” he employees, because those businesses concerned a Mississippi shipbuilding told the Guestworkers Alliance. “We usually cannot afford to hire lawyers company, Signal International. The learned that Five Star was a job con- and recruiters, Seminara said. His company saw a bonanza after tractor that rented workers out to ship- scathing 2010 report for the Center for Hurricane Katrina and hired job bro- yards in the area. I asked when would I Immigration Studies said, “most of the kers in Mississippi and Mumbai, India, start working, and the company said it businesses filing H-2B petitions for to provide 590 Indian welders. The would be soon. Every week they say, foreign workers are ‘body shops’ that Mumbai firm “collected between ‘You will start work soon,’ but we have no actual ‘seasonal or temporary’ $11,000 and $18,000, and sometimes never did. What could we do? We just need for labor.” Instead, they are medi- more, from each person recruited to waited. Before I came to the United um-size or bigger businesses that want work for Signal,” SPLC reported. These States, I had to borrow about $7,000 labor for less than they’d pay Americans. fees are equal to two to three year’s sal- from a loan office to pay all of the recruitment and travel costs. As time

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 21 passed, my debt grew to almost stakes are much greater than the appall- from enacting new H-2B rules for $10,000.” ing conditions faced by many foreign- employers, guestworker advocates say Another example concerned the ers in the underbelly of the U.S. econo- their best hope for reforming the sys- Arkansas-based company, Candy my. The way employees are treated at tem and minimizing future abuses Brand. SPLC reported that recruiters the bottom of the economic ladder might lie in reminding Congress that in Mexico had taken their workers’ affects citizens and non-citizens alike. the 13th Amendment that ended slav- passports and would not give them This month’s strike by foreign stu- ery also included a ban on “involuntary back unless they paid an additional dents working at McDonalds over pay, servitude.” $1,000. Once in Arkansas, “their U.S. job conditions and housing under- Moreover, landmark U.S. Supreme employer failed to reimburse the work- scores how many American businesses Court rulings, such as 1944’s Pollack v. ers for their travel and visa expenses build up their balance sheets by treat- Williams, held, “The undoubted aim of and did not pay them overtime or the ing employees poorly. Last year, for- the Thirteenth Amendment, as imple- applicable wage in accordance with the eign exchange students in a State mented by the Anti-peonage Act, was law.” Department exchange program walked not merely to end slavery, but to main- In some of these cases, lawsuits off the job at a Hershey’s chocolate tain a system of completely free and brought by SPLC and other civil rights plant in Pennsylvania for much the voluntary labor throughout the United groups won legal settlements exceeding same reasons. They were paid less than States.” $1 million. But in the Candy Brand half of what was previously earned by “Is there a 13th Amendment prob- case, the company changed its name; Hershey’s unionized employees for the lem?” asked Rosenbaum, legal director the Department of Labor continued to same work. of New Orleans Workers’ Center for certify the company’s visa requests, The Obama administration’s immi- Racial Justice. “What kind of immigra- and “SLPC clients who still work at the gration reform blueprint issued last tion reform do we need for captive farm report that the company contin- year is mostly a pro-business proposal, workers?” ues to violate wage and hours laws.” although it briefly mentions increasing Steven Rosenfeld covers democracy guestworker “protections” and increas- More at stake than guestworkers issues for AlterNet and is the author of ing “enforcement.” While Obama’s Count My Vote: A Citizen’s Guide to The guestworker advocates say the Labor Department has been stopped Voting (AlterNet Books, 2008). —AlterNet.org, March 18, 2013 http://www.alternet.org/ immigration/21st-century-version-slavery-widespread- america?akid=10215.229473.qhTMzi& rd=1&src=newsletter812563&t=4

22 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 GMOs Driving Monarch Butterfly Populations to the Brink By Lauren McCauley

“The report of the dwindling “The conservation of the Monarch Monarch butterfly winter residence in butterfly is a shared responsibility Mexico is ominous,” said leading ento- between Mexico, the United States and mologist Lincoln Brower. Canada,” said Vidal. “By protecting the According to Chip Taylor, director reserves and having practically elimi- of the conservation group Monarch nated large-scale illegal logging, Mexico Watch at the University of Kansas, the has done its part. It is now necessary decline was “hastened” by North for the United States and Canada to do America’s ongoing drought and their part and protect the butterflies’ record-breaking heat. habitat in their territories.” However, the more “alarming” Like bees, butterflies provide essen- source of decline, according to Taylor tial pollinating functions for entire and Omar Vidal, head of World Wildlife ecosystems.” The fruits, nuts, seeds Fund (WWF) in Mexico, is the “explo- and foliage that everything else feeds sive increase” in the use of herbicide- on,” said Taylor. “If we pull the mon- tolerant genetically modified soybean archs out of the system, we’re really and corn crops across America’s farm- pulling the rug out from under a whole land which, the New York Times reports, lot of other species.” has “enabled farmers to wipe out the According to Nature World News, The migratory population of the milkweed,” on which monarch larvae the Monarch butterflies begin life as an monarch butterfly has reached an feed almost exclusively. egg that hatch into larvae (which feed “ominous” low, researchers in Mexico “The American Midwest’s corn belt almost exclusively on the milkweed announced Wednesday. is a critical feeding ground for mon- plant). These larvae become caterpil- Scientists are attributing the decline archs, which once found a ready source lars and in the fourth stage they become of this essential pollinating population of milkweed growing between the rows butterflies. Only Monarchs born to the ongoing drought and the “explo- of millions of acres of soybean and between late summer and early fall sive” increase in the use of genetically corn,” they continue. However, as make the migration. Even though it modified crops in the American corn farmers have planted over 120 million takes about four generations of the belt. acres of crops resistant to the milk- Monarchs to make the incredible jour- weed-killing herbicide glyphosate, the ney, each butterfly knows the way and Released by the Mexican govern- at times, these butterflies have been ment along with the World Wildlife monarchs’ essential food supply is all but destroyed. found to come back to the same tree Fund (WWF), a recent survey found a from where their great grandparents 59 percent decrease in the area occu- “That habitat is virtually gone. had begun the journey. pied by monarch colonies wintering in We’ve lost well over 120 million acres, the forests of central Mexico, the Los and probably closer to 150 million “This is one of the world’s great Angeles Times reports. acres,” Mr. Taylor said. migrations,” said Chip Taylor. “It would be a shame to lose it.” Because of the difficulty in counting Previously, environmental groups butterflies, scientists rely on measure- cited logging in Mexico’s forests, the ments of the area that butterflies occu- butterfly’s winter habitat, as the primary —Common Dreams, March 14, 2013 py to estimate their numbers; one hect- threat to the population. Since the area are may contain as many as 50 million was declared a nature reserve in 2000, http://www.commondreams.org/ butterflies. that is now considered a lesser threat. headline/2013/03/14-3

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 23 Down Is a Dangerous Direction How the 40-Year “Long Recession” Led to the Great Recession By Barbara Garson

If you had to date the Great staffed it with workers whose average And what did he think was next? Recession, you might say it started in age was 24. GM’s management hoped “Maybe we’ll go live on the land,” he September 2008 when Lehman that such healthy, inexperienced work- told me. If that didn’t pan out, he said Brothers vaporized over a weekend and ers could handle 101 cars-an-hour that he’d look for a job someplace less a massive mortgage-based Ponzi without balking the way more estab- regimented, someplace where he’d get scheme began to go down. By 2008, lished autoworkers might. What GM to do something “worthwhile.” To however, the majority of American got instead of balkiness was a series of Duane, worthwhile work didn’t neces- workers had already endured a 40-year slowdowns and snafus that manage- sarily mean launching a space shuttle decline in wages, security, and hope—a ment labeled systematic “sabotage” or curing cancer. It meant getting to Long Recession of their own. until they realized that the word hurt see what he’d actually accomplished— In the 1960s, I met a young man car sales. like those repairs on our mimeo about to be discharged from the Army I visited Lordstown the week before machine back at the coffee house— and then, by happenstance, caught up a strike vote was to be taken, amid instead of performing repetitive snaps, with him again in each of the next two national speculation about whether a twists, and squirts on cars that moved decades. Though he died two months generation of “hippy autoworkers” past him every 36 seconds. before the Lehman Brothers collapse, could “humanize the assembly line” When Duane and his friends talked those brief encounters taught me how and so change forever the way America about quitting well-paying jobs, they the Long Recession led directly to our worked. On a guided tour of the plant, weren’t just blowing off steam. In those Great Recession. I was surprised to spot Duane shooting years, there was enough work around In the late 1960s, I was working at radios into cars with an air gun. He that if a friend moved to Atlanta or an antiwar coffee house near an army recognized me and slipped me a note there was a band you liked in Cincinnati, base from which soldiers shipped out with his phone number. you could hitchhike there and find a to Vietnam. One gangly young man, I called and, later that evening at his job in a day or two that would cover recently back from “the Nam,” was home, he offered me a quick summary your rent and food. particularly handy and would fix our of life since his discharge: “Remember, That, of course, made it harder to record player or make our old mimeo- you guys gave me a giant banana split run a business. GM echoed many other graph machine run more smoothly. He the day I ETSed (got out as scheduled.) U.S. employers in its complaints about rarely spoke about the war, except to Well, it’s been downhill since then. I absenteeism and high turnover among say that his company had stayed stoned came back to Cleveland, stayed with young workers. In retrospect, this was the whole time. “Our motto,” he once my dad who was unemployed. Man, probably the moment when many U.S. told me, “was ‘let’s not and say we was that ever a downer. But I figured manufacturers began looking around did.’” Duane had no intention of things would pick up if I got wheels, so to see just what could be done about becoming a professional Vietnam vet I got a car. But it turned out the car their labor problem. But neither Duane like John Kerry when discharged. His wasn’t human and that was a problem. nor I had any premonition of the out- plan was to return home to Cleveland So I figured, what I need is a girl. But it sourcing and offshoring that would and make up for time missed in the turned out the girl was human and that start the Great Recession decades early civilian counterculture of that era. was a problem. So I wound up working for so many working families. For us, it I often sat with him during my at GM to pay off the car and the girl.” was still a time when jobs abounded breaks, enjoying his warmth and his And he introduced me to his preg- and Americans talked not about find- self-aware sense of humor. But thou- nant wife, of whom he seemed much ing work, but “humanizing” it. sands of GIs passed through the coffee fonder than his story made it sound. In the mid-1980s, I spoke at a uni- house and, to be honest, I didn’t really The young couple had no complaints versity in Michigan and once again notice when he left. about the pay at GM. Still, Duane spotted Duane—this time in the audi- In the early 1970s, General Motors planned to move on after his wife had ence. After the talk, we chatted and I set up the fastest auto assembly line in the baby. “I’m staying so we can use asked him to come out with the profes- the world in Lordstown, Ohio, and the hospital plan.” sors who’d sponsored my lecture, but

24 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 he had to collect his children from He’d moved there a few years earlier to I thought back to the G.I. coffee school and drop them off with the work in a shop that, his son told me, house and Duane’s quips about his babysitter in time to get to his late had something to do with industrial hapless army unit. Yes, were he around, afternoon shift. His wife, he told me, lasers (“keeping ahead of it” to the he might indeed have made a joke would pick them up when her day shift end). about a hapless American worker ended. The funeral was scheduled for a trudging steadily up an incline, who, “Complicated logistics!” I said. weekend and because of Duane’s hand- like his mortgaged house, somehow wound up underwater anyway, and he “It’s a tighter maneuver than my iwork, there was plenty of room for out-of-town guests, so his son assured probably would have made it come out company in Nam ever pulled off,” he funny, too—sort of. quipped. me. In his Arizona home, “Dad built these beautiful built-in sleeping spac- This is not to say that Duane led In the brief moments we had, Duane es.” His sisters, he mentioned, were either a deprived or a worthless life. filled me in on his work life. He hadn’t toying with the idea of moving to the His estate might have fallen victim to gone back to the land, but he no longer house because they couldn’t imagine a the economic meltdown of 2008, but worked in the auto industry either. stranger fully appreciating their father’s he himself had worked steadily at “Too many lay-offs” was his summary work. They were even exploring the increasingly skilled and perhaps even of the intervening years. In order to employment situation out there. One “worthwhile” jobs. He had raised three “keep ahead of it,” he’d upgraded and was then a medical receptionist, the children who still admired their father. become a skilled machinist. He had, in other a delivery truck driver. And he seems to have retained his self- fact, continued to upgrade his skills to aware but not self-deprecating humor the point where, as he explained, “I to the end. program the machines that program the other machinists.” Then he ...the average worker’s On the other hand, here was a work- shrugged as if to say: What’re you productivity rose 25 ingman, part of a two-income family, gonna do? who had kept ahead of off-shoring, times more than his or outsourcing, and automation by regu- At that time, computers were just her pay. larly retraining himself. He worked being introduced into machine shops hard for four decades, yet died with no and had the effect of taking planning savings, negative equity in his house, away from the operators at their Two months later, the economy and credit-card debt. benches and centralizing a lot of the crashed. It wasn’t exactly the moment Despite his growing set of skills, thinking about production in a man- to give up steady jobs. By then, the agement office or planning depart- Duane’s income seems not to have Arizona real-estate bubble had fully risen significantly over his lifetime. He ment. Duane understood perfectly well burst, leaving the house, with all their that he was “keeping ahead of it” by was, it seems, always close to the edge. father’s beautiful handiwork, “under- Of course, I can hardly claim to have using his own skills to de-skill others, water.” Even if they could sell it at a hence that apologetic shrug. known him well. Perhaps he squan- reasonable post-crash price, they’d still dered his money on secret vices, but His wife’s job was being similarly owe the bank more than $200,000. the likelihood that his income simply automated. She was a data processor at As his inheritance, all Duane had stagnated over four decades certainly an insurance company and regularly left was that house, a $15,000 death fit a national pattern. came home with a headache from star- benefit, and $6,000 in credit-card debt. ing into the era’s immobile, blinking Between 1971 and 2007, real hourly His children had no way to keep paying wages in the U.S. rose by only four per- CRT screens. They had little choice, the mortgage, and so, on the advice of though. By then, two incomes were cent. (That’s not four percent a year, a lawyer, they mailed the keys to the but four percent over 36 years!) During needed to maintain anything like a bank and walked away. middle-class home. those same decades, productivity Of this situation, his son said, “Dad essentially doubled, increasing by 99 In the summer of 2008, the phone would have made some joke. ‘When I percent. In other words, the average rang and a man’s voice began to explain was alive I once stopped you from run- worker’s productivity rose 25 times to me that he and his sisters were con- ning away from home, but I taught you more than his or her pay. tacting people whose names they had to walk away from a home after I was found in their father’s address book to This was, of course, a bonanza for dead.’ Something like that. Only he’d corporations and for the richest let them know that he had passed away. make it come out funny.” Duane had died suddenly in Arizona. Americans. In 1976, the top one per-

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 25 cent of U.S. families held 19 percent of First, they loaned for big-ticket they weren’t aware that the risks were the country’s wealth. By 2000, they items: cars, homes, college educations; there, I mean I spoke to them. It’s not held 40 percent of it. In those same then, through credit-cards, for every- that the people were dumb. They knew years, 58 percent of every dollar of day household expenses. As we came precisely what was going on. The vast income growth went to the top one to realize after the meltdown of 2008, majority of them thought that they percent. the ultimate Ponzi scheme of the era knew when to get out.” There was, however, one small would involve bundling and reselling In fact, creative financial spinning problem: we Americans sell to one mortgage loans made to people who had kept this unbalanced vehicle another more than 70 percent of what couldn’t afford houses in the first upright for a remarkably long time. we produce. If the majority of American place. Nonetheless, like any other Ponzi workers were producing more without The answer offered to those who scheme it eventually collapsed, and earning more, who was going to buy all had ever less money to spend was: take that’s when Duane’s long recession the stuff? out more loans. The folly of lending turned into the world’s Great Recession. CEOs and financiers were desperate money to people with stagnant or Barbara Garson is the author of a to answer that question, for during declining wages may seem obvious series of books describing American those years of high productivity and now, but like many houses of cards it working lives at historical turning points, low wages, immense profits and must have looked solid enough to including All the Livelong Day (1975), “returns” kept accumulating in bro- some back then. Still, let’s not underes- The Electronic Sweatshop (1988), and kerage accounts and banks. But a bank timate our major financiers. On a Money Makes the World Go Around can’t keep its money in the bank. CNBC program, former Federal (2001). Her new book, just published, is Under the pressure of those swelling Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan Down the Up Escalator: How the 99 piles of capital, the answer they offered was asked why no one had seen the percent Live in the Great Recession to worker-consumers like Duane was: mortgage crisis coming and told the (Doubleday). bankers, “You know what? This is instead of paying you enough to buy —TomDispatch.com, April 9, 2013 what you produce, we’ll lend you the going to end badly.” money. Greenspan answered: “It’s not that http://www.tomdispatch.com/ post/175685/tomgram%3A_barbara_ garson%2C_going_underwater_in_the_ long_recession/#more

26 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 It Can Happen Here The Confiscation Scheme Planned for U.S. and UK Depositors By Ellen Brown

Confiscating the customer deposits sell the stock to someone else, but the event of the failure of an insurer. Confiscating the customer deposits in when and at what price? Most people …” The only mention of “insured Cyprus banks, it seems, was not a one- keep a deposit account so they can deposits” is in connection with existing off, desperate idea of a few Eurozone have ready cash to pay the bills. UK legislation, which the FDIC-BOE “troika” officials scrambling to salvage The 15-page FDIC-BOE document directive goes on to say is inadequate, their balance sheets. A joint paper by is called “Resolving Globally Active, implying that it needs to be modified the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Systemically Important, Financial or overridden. Corporation and the Bank of England Institutions.” It begins by explaining An imminent risk dated December 10, 2012, shows that that the 2008 banking crisis has made it If our IOUs are converted to bank these plans have been long in the mak- clear that some other way besides tax- stock, they will no longer be subject to ing; that they originated with the G20 payer bailouts is needed to maintain Financial Stability Board in Basel, insurance protection but will be “at “financial stability.” Evidently antici- Switzerland and the result will be to risk” and vulnerable to being wiped pating that the next financial collapse deliver clear title to the banks of depos- out, just as the Lehman Brothers share- will be on a grander scale than either itor funds. holders were in 2008. That this dire the taxpayers or Congress is willing to scenario could actually materialize was New Zealand has a similar directive, underwrite, the authors state: underscored by Yves Smith in a March indicating that this isn’t just an emer- “An efficient path for returning 19th post titled “When You Weren’t gency measure for troubled Eurozone the sound operations of the G-SIFI Looking, Democrat Bank Stooges countries. New Zealand’s Voxy report- to the private sector would be pro- Launch Bills to Permit Bailouts, ed on March 19th: vided by exchanging or converting a Deregulate Derivatives.” She writes: “The National Government [is] sufficient amount of the unsecured pushing a Cyprus-style solution to debt from the original creditors of “In the U.S., depositors have actually been put in a worse position bank failure in New Zealand which the failed company (meaning the than Cyprus deposit-holders, at least will see small depositors lose some depositors) into equity (or stock.) In if they are at the big banks that play of their savings to fund big bank the U.S., the new equity would in the derivatives casino. The regula- bailouts… become capital in one or more newly tors have turned a blind eye as banks formed operating entities. In the “Open Bank Resolution (OBR) is use their depositaries to fund deriva- U.K., the same approach could be Finance Minister Bill English’s tives exposures. And as bad as that is, used, or the equity could be used to favored option dealing with a major the depositors, unlike their Cypriot recapitalize the failing financial com- bank failure. If a bank fails under confreres, aren’t even senior credi- pany itself—thus, the highest layer of OBR, all depositors will have their tors. Remember Lehman? When the surviving bailed-in creditors would savings reduced overnight to fund investment bank failed, unsecured become the owners of the resolved the bank’s bail out.” creditors (and remember, depositors firm. In either country, the new are unsecured creditors) got eight Can they do that? equity holders would take on the cents on the dollar. One big reason Although few depositors realize it, corresponding risk of being share- was that derivatives counterparties legally, the bank owns the depositor’s holders in a financial institution.” require collateral for any exposures, funds as soon as they are put in the No exception is indicated for meaning they are secured creditors. bank. Our money becomes the bank’s, “insured deposits” in the U.S., mean- The 2005 bankruptcy reforms made and we become unsecured creditors ing those under $250,000, the deposits derivatives counterparties senior to holding IOUs or promises to pay. But we thought were protected by FDIC unsecured lenders.” until now the bank has been obligated insurance. This can hardly be an over- One might wonder why the posting to pay the money back on demand in sight, since it is the FDIC that is issuing of collateral by a derivative counter- the form of cash. Under the FDIC-BOE the directive. The FDIC is an insurance party, at some percentage of full expo- plan, our IOUs will be converted into company funded by premiums paid by sure, makes the creditor “secured,” “bank equity.” The bank will get the private banks. The directive is called a while the depositor who puts up 100 money and we will get stock in the “resolution process,” defined elsewhere cents on the dollar is “unsecured.” But bank. With any luck we may be able to as a plan that “would be triggered in moving on—Smith writes:

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 27 “Lehman had only two itty-bitty move paves the way for another ten off by commentators as “deserved,” banking subsidiaries, and to my TARP-style shakedown of taxpayers, because much of the money in Cypriot knowledge, was not gathering retail this time to save depositors.” accounts belongs to foreign oligarchs, deposits. But as readers may recall, Perhaps, but Congress has already tax dodgers and money launderers. But Bank of America moved most of its been burned and is liable to balk a sec- if that template is applied in the U.S., it derivatives from its Merrill Lynch ond time. Section 716 of the Dodd- will be a tax on the poor and middle operation [to] its depositary in late class. Wealthy Americans don’t keep 2011.” Frank Act specifically prohibits public support for speculative derivatives most of their money in bank accounts. Its “depositary” is the arm of the activities. And in the Eurozone, while They keep it in the stock market, in real bank that takes deposits; and at B of A, the European Stability Mechanism estate, in over-the-counter derivatives, that means lots and lots of deposits. committed Eurozone countries to bail in gold and silver, and so forth. The deposits are now subject to being out failed banks, they are apparently Are you safe, then, if your money is wiped out by a major derivatives loss. having second thoughts there as well. in gold and silver? Apparently not—if How bad could that be? Smith quotes On March 25th, Dutch Finance it’s stored in a safety deposit box in the Bloomberg: Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who bank. Homeland Security has report- “…Bank of America’s holding com- played a leading role in imposing the edly told banks that it has authority to pany…held almost $75 trillion of deposit confiscation plan on Cyprus, seize the contents of safety deposit derivatives at the end of June. … told reporters that it would be the tem- boxes without a warrant when it’s a “That compares with JPMorgan’s plate for any future bank bailouts, and matter of “national security,” which a deposit-taking entity, JPMorgan Chase that “the aim is for the ESM never to major bank crisis no doubt will be. have to be used.” Bank NA, which contained 99 percent The Swedish Alternative: of the New York-based firm’s $79 tril- That explains the need for the FDIC- Nationalize the Banks lion of notional derivatives, the OCC BOE resolution. If the anticipated Another alternative was considered data show.” enabling legislation is passed, the FDIC but rejected by President Obama in will no longer need to protect depositor Seventy-five trillion and $79 trillion 2009: nationalize mega-banks that fail. funds; it can just confiscate them. in derivatives! These two mega-banks In a February 2009 article titled “Are alone hold more in notional deriva- Worse than a tax Uninsured Bank Depositors in tives each than the entire global GDP An FDIC confiscation of deposits to Danger?” Felix Salmon discussed a (at $70 trillion). The “notional value” newsletter by Asia-based investment of derivatives is not the same as cash at recapitalize the banks is far different from a simple tax on taxpayers to pay strategist Christopher Wood, in which risk, but according to a cross-post on Wood wrote: Smith’s site: government expenses. The government’s debt is at least arguably the “It is…amazing that Obama does By at least one estimate, in 2010 people’s debt, since the government is not understand the political appeal there was a total of $12 trillion in cash there to provide services for the people. of the nationalization option. …[D] tied up (at risk) in derivatives. … But when the banks get into trouble espite this latest setback nationalization of the banks is coming sooner Twelve trillion is close to the U.S. with their derivative schemes, they are or later because the realities of the GDP. Smith goes on: not serving depositors, who are not situation will demand it. The result “…Remember the effect of the getting a cut of the profits. Taking will be shareholders wiped out and 2005 bankruptcy law revisions: depositor funds is simply theft. bondholders forced to take debt- derivatives counterparties are first in What should be done is to raise for-equity swaps, if not hopefully line, they get to grab assets first and FDIC insurance premiums and make depositors.” leave everyone else to scramble for the banks pay to keep their depositors On whether depositors could indeed crumbs. …Lehman failed over a whole, but premiums are already high; weekend after JP Morgan grabbed be forced to become equity holders, collateral. and the FDIC, like other government Salmon commented: regulatory agencies, is subject to regu- “It’s worth remembering that “But it’s even worse than that. latory capture. Deposit insurance has During the savings and loan crisis, depositors are unsecured creditors failed, and so has the private banking the FDIC did not have enough in of any bank; usually, indeed, they’re deposit insurance receipts to pay for system that has depended on it for the by far the largest class of unsecured the Resolution Trust Corporation trust that makes banking work. creditors.” wind-down vehicle. It had to get The Cyprus haircut on depositors President Obama acknowledged more funding from Congress. This was called a “wealth tax” and was writ- that bank nationalization had worked

28 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 in Sweden, and that the course pursued Staring Armageddon In The Face by the U.S. Fed had not worked in Japan, which wound up instead in a But Hiding It With Official Lies “lost decade.” But Obama opted for By Paul Craig Roberts the Japanese approach because, according to Ed Harrison, “Americans will According to the Bureau of Labor official U6 measure which counts some not tolerate nationalization.” Statistics (BLS), the U.S. economy cre- discouraged workers shows an unem- But that was four years ago. When ated 236,000 new jobs in February. If ployment rate of 14.3 percent. Americans realize that the alternative is you believe that, I have a bridge in Statistician John Williams’ measure, to have their ready cash transformed Brooklyn that I’ll let you have at a good which counts all discouraged workers into “bank stock” of questionable mar- price. (people who have ceased looking for a ketability, moving failed mega-banks Where are these alleged jobs? The job), is 23 percent. into the public sector may start to have BLS says 48,000 were created in con- In other words, the real rate of more appeal. struction. That is possible, considering unemployment is two to three times Ellen Brown is an attorney and presi- that revenue-starved real estate devel- the reported rate. dent of the Public Banking Institute. In opers are misreading the housing situ- Nutting believes that the U3 unem- Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, ation. ployment rate has become too politi- she shows how a private banking oligar- Then there are 23,700 new jobs in cized to have any meaning. He suggests chy has usurped the power to create retail trade, which is hard to believe using instead the work force participa- money from the people themselves. Her considering the absence of consumer tion rate. This rate is falling substan- websites are http://WebofDebt.com, income growth and the empty parking tially, reflecting the discouragement http://EllenBrown.com, and http:// lots at shopping malls. that occurs from inability to find jobs. PublicBankingInstitute.org. The real puzzle is 20,800 jobs in John Williams (shadowstats.com) —GlobalResearch.org, March 29, motion picture and sound-recording says that distortions in seasonal factor 2013 industries. This is the first time in the adjustments overstate monthly payroll http://www.globalresearch.ca/it-can- years that I have been following the employment by about 100,000 jobs. happen-here-the-bank-confiscation- jobs reports that there has been enough The jobs data that is not seasonally scheme-for-us-and-uk-deposi- employment for me to even notice this adjusted shows about 1.5 million fewer tors/5328954 category. jobs in the economy. The BLS lists 10,900 jobs in account- In a recent communication, statisti- ing and bookkeeping, which, as it is cian John Williams reports that the approaching income tax time, is prob- rigged official annual rate of consumer ably correct; 21,000 jobs in temporary inflation (CPI) of 1.6 percent is in fact, help and business support services; as measured by the official U.S. gov- 39,000 jobs in health care and social ernment methodology of 1990, 9.2 per- assistance; and 18,800 jobs in the old cent. In other words, the rate of infla- standby—waitresses and bartenders. tion is 5.75 times greater than the That leaves about 50,000 jobs sprin- reported rate. If Williams is correct, the kled around the various categories, but interest rate on bonds is extremely not in numbers large enough to notice. negative. The presstitute media attributed the Over the years the official measure drop in the headline unemployment of inflation has been altered in two rate (U3) to 7.7 percent from 7.9 per- ways. One is the introduction of substi- cent to the happy jobs report. But Rex tution for what formerly was a con- Nutting at Market Watch says that the stant weighted basket of goods. In the unemployment rate fell because former measure, if a price of an item in 130,000 unemployed people who have the basket (index) rose, the CPI rose by been unable to find a job and became the weight of that item in the basket. discouraged were dropped out of the In the substitution-based measure, U3 measure of unemployment. The if a price of an item in the basket goes

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 29 up, the item is removed from the bas- population was masked by a rise in It is important to the Federal ket, and a cheaper item is put in its consumer debt. Americans borrowed Reserve’s low interest rate policy to place. For example, if the price of New to spend, and this kept the economy suppress the bullion price. If the prices York strip steak rises, the new CPI will going until the point was reached that of gold and silver continue to rise rela- substitute the price of a cheaper cut. consumers had more debt than they tive to the U.S. dollar, the Fed cannot In this new measure, inflation is could service. keep the prices of bonds high and held down by measuring not a fixed John Williams’ report of real aver- interest rates low. If the dollar is widely standard of living but a declining stan- age weekly earnings shows that perceived to be declining in value in dard of living. Americans are taking home less pur- relation to gold, the price of dollar- denominated assets will also decline, The other adjustment used to restrain chasing power than they did in the 1960s and 1970s. including bonds. If the dollar loses the measure of inflation is to re-classify value, the Fed loses control over inter- many price rises as “quality improve- est rates, and the U.S. financial bubble ments.” Price rises declared to be quality pops, with hell to pay. improvements do not translate into a In other words, higher measure of inflation. In other To forestall Armageddon, the Fed words, if a product rises in price, the the real rate of and its dependent banks cap the price price increase or some portion of it can of gold. be assigned to improved quality, not to unemployment is The Fed’s fix is temporary, and as a rise in component or energy costs. As the Fed continues to create ever more the incentive is to hold down the infla- two to three times dollars, the price of gold will eventually tion measure in order to save money for escape the Fed’s control as will interest the government on Social Security cost- the reported rate. rates and inflation. of-living-adjustments, quality improve- The Fed has produced a perfect ments are over-estimated. storm that could consume the U.S. and Consumers have to pay the higher Reflecting the dollar’s loss of pur- perhaps the entire Western world. chasing power, the price of gold and prices, and as incomes, except for the Dr. Roberts was Assistant Secretary of one percent, are not growing, higher silver in dollars has risen dramatically during the Bush and Obama regimes. the U.S. Treasury for Economic Policy in product prices, regardless of whether the Reagan Administration. He was they are or are not quality improve- For the last year or two the Federal associate editor and columnist with the ments, mean a lower standard of living Reserve and its dependent banks have Wall Street Journal, columnist for for the 99 percent. operated to cap the price of gold at Business Week and the Scripps Howard The understated new measure of around $1,750. They do this by selling News Service. He is a contributing edi- 1 inflation allows the government to naked shorts in the paper speculative tor to Gerald Celente’s Trends Journal. show real GDP growth and thus the gold market. He has had numerous university end of the December 2007 recession, There are two gold markets. One is appointments. His latest book is, The and it allows the government to show a market for physical possession by Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and in the latest report real retail sales again individuals and central banks. The ris- Economic Dissolution of the West. matching the pre-recession level. ing demand in the physical bullion —Paul Craig Roberts, March 10, However, when measured correctly, as market points to a rising price for gold. 2013 by statistician John Williams, the true The other market is the speculative http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/ picture of retail sales shows a steep paper market in which financial insti- decline from 2007 through 2009 and tutions bet on the future gold price. By bottom bouncing since. placing large amounts of shorts, this The reason real retail sales cannot market can be used to suppress price 1 The illegal practice of short selling recover is that real average weekly rises in the physical market. The shares that have not been affirmatively deter- earnings continues its downward path. Federal Reserve, which can print mined to exist. Earlier in this new century, the lack of money without limit, can cover any http://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/naked- income growth for the bulk of the U.S. losses on its agents’ paper contracts. shorting.asp#axzz2NL5cj6Up

30 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3

International Attacks on the National Health Service UK workers can defeat Thatcher’s successors By Graham Durham The death of Mrs. Thatcher, cele- journeys to so-called centers of excel- “loss lead” by cherry-picking profitable brated with street parties in Glasgow, lence. A 25,000-strong march in south NHS services leaving the publicly fund- Liverpool, London and northern London to defend the local Lewisham ed NHS to fund the most expensive Ireland, reminds workers in Britain hospital has been the largest (see www. treatments. Here NHS campaigners are that, despite her success in brutally SaveLewishamHospital) and such was being faced with some Tory GPs who defeating the National Union of the strength of feeling that the local are seeking to develop private provider Mineworkers’ historic strike of 1984/85 soccer club, Millwall FC, moved a game companies to maximize their earnings. and in fighting the colonial war in the date to allow supporters to attend the The existence of a private cohort of Falkland Islands, she never dared to march. This campaign has been doctors seeking to exploit the health attack the National Health Service, matched across London and elsewhere market goes back to the founding of the probably the most popular socialized by other hospital campaigns. In several NHS in 1949 when doctors refused, healthcare system in the world. cases plans for closures have been halt- until bribed, to join the service. However the coalition government ed or are under review. With popular opinion on our side of Thatcher’s Tory successor, David The second attack comes through and many doctors horrified at their col- Cameron, and his coalition allies, the the attempt by the Tory government to leagues’ greed, NHS workers and Liberal Democrats, have launched a force privatization on the NHS com- patients must unite local campaigns two-pronged attack aimed at disman- missioning groups of local community against privatization and austerity-led tling the NHS and succeeding where doctors (known as GPs—General closures. The fight to defend the NHS is Thatcher did not dare to try. The first Practitioners.) Using legislation, the occurring in every community and the assault is an attempt to close and/or government is seeking to impose a May 18 Save our NHS demonstration rationalize several major hospitals to requirement that all commissioning in London will symbolize the determi- achieve cuts demanded by the austerity GPs must ensure NHS services are nation to defeat the Tory attack again. program seeking to blame workers for offered to competitive tender, thus the financial crisis. allowing private health providers to —April 9, 2013 In northern England the attempt to close the specialist children’s heart unit in Leeds ended in farce. Initially the move was halted by a legal action by outraged parents but, having lost the case, the government got the NHS Director to close the unit a day later claiming initial medical data showed clinical practice was less successful at Leeds. Within a week government was forced by campaigners to change course again, and the Leeds unit re- opened on April 7. In this case and others the Tory government has tried to hide the financial reasons for these closures behind a screen of alleged best clinical practice and trying to use some Tory supporting doctors to justify hospital closures. Everywhere community campaigns have been established to defend local hospitals and prevent patients and their friends and relatives facing long

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 31 Tsipras Speaks in London By Georgios Diakogeorgiou

The leader of Syriza (the coalition “austerity is not the means to over- The first priority of a Syriza govern- of the radical left in Greece), Alexis come the crisis but the goal of those ment is to abolish all the measures that Tsipras, visited London. On March 14, who impose it and those who put it in reduce wages and pensions and gradu- 2013 he spoke at the London School of action.” According to Alexis Tsipras, ally restore the minimum wage to pre- Economics and Political Science at an the Greek and foreign troika seek to Memorandum levels and to “renegoti- event of the Hellenic Observatory have cheap labor, which is achieved by ate” the Greek loans with the foreign titled “Greece’s way out of the crisis” blackmailing people with large debt lenders. week. On March 15, he met with a created by their governments. He Secondly, the Syriza government member of Labor’s shadow cabinet expressed the view that if there was no will renegotiate the state loans with the and the Trade Union Congress and crisis they would have invented it in Greek and foreign lenders. He also concluded his visit to London with a order to proceed with their plans. emphasized the importance of solidar- public lecture at the Friends Meeting The leader of the Greek opposition ity that workers around the world must House. This event was organized by strongly criticized the governments of show towards each other and towards a the Syriza branch of London and southern Europe by saying that so far government of the Left. Lastly, he criti- attracted over 500 people that packed there has not been one of them to say cized the policy of the government say- the venue. Comrade Tsipras started no to the austerity policies, but they ing that Samaras’ agenda has helped to his speech by giving a grim description accepted the absurd measures imposed strengthen the power of neo-Nazis of the current situation of the Greek on them. He also criticized the banking because, according to him, “Samaras’s economy and society. system, saying that it does not serve the party has some hidden extreme-right “The Greek austerity drives the interests of citizens, but of capital, and supporters.” economy downwards. This is not an emphasized that the goal is to put In the question and answer session estimate is a given fact,” said Tsipras, banks “in public and social control,” that followed, the questions focused while stating he was convinced that when Syriza will be in government. around the issue of socialism under a left government and the rise of the neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn. Rob Sewell, editor of the Socialist Appeal, started the session by mentioning that during his visit in Greece back in 1974 as a member of the Labor Youth he saw the thirst of people for social change and how Andreas Papandreou cap- tured their hearts and minds with the promise of socialism. After Papandreou’s win in the 1981 elections, instead of pressing with socialist policies, he tried just to manage the capitalist system with the well-known results, which is something Syriza must learn from. Alan Woods, editor of In Defense of Marxism and founder of the Hands off Venezuela Campaign, pointed out that the late President Chavez was immediately confronted with the opposition of the bankers, landlords and capitalists when he tried to act on behalf of the workers and poor people. “I agree with

32 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 your demands to improve living stan- ratus, which also includes paramilitary 1/3 consumers-workers (trade dards, but there is one problem: you and neo-Nazi groups. A left govern- unions, etc.) and 1/3 representa- cannot realize these objectives under ment which doesn’t have control over tives of the government. Creation capitalism. The only way forward is to the economy will fail in any attempt to of a Pan-Hellenic Nationalization fight for the abolition of capitalism and reverse the current situation in Greece. and Planning Council of the the establishment of socialism.” Comrade Tsipras doesn’t seem to economy with the participation of There were a lot of people who understand that if he doesn’t press for- the Pan-Hellenic Labor Audit demanded a clearer vision from com- ward with a socialist program, the only Committee of the working peo- rade Tsipras and put the question of way of staying in power is by capitula- ple’s organizations (trade unions, socialism to him. His answer was that tion to the Troika. Any move to abolish professional associations, etc.) nobody can move towards Socialism the Memoranda without nationaliza- and representatives of the govern- with decrees and laws, but only with tion and workers’ control of the banks ment, which will establish a firm the active support of the majority of and the big corporations will result in basis for the socialization of all the people. He recognized that from the collapse of his government. major companies in the industry. the first day, a Syriza government is Tsipras’s speech shows us the urgency 6. Nationalization of large landed going to be faced by a difficult period. of a clearly defined socialist program, properties and incentives for the The threat of reaction from the ruling something that our comrades in Syriza voluntary consolidation of small- class will be overcome with the help of are fighting for. holders into cooperatives under the Greek people. Our comrades of the Initiative for a state control. Tsipras is trying to calm the nerves Communist Tendency of Syriza are 7. Implement in cooperation with of the troika by visiting the USA, putting forward a clearly defined ten- the government and Pan-Hellen- Germany and talking to a forum of the point Socialist program for the party: ic Labor Audit Committee a proj- Karamanlis Foundation. On Friday, he 1. Debt cancellation and immediate ect to ensure a job for every said that he will postpone the socialist abolition of the Memoranda and unemployed person, through a measures until the majority of the any measures imposed by them. program of public infrastructure Greek people would support them. projects and nationalization and This was a really vague statement! 2. Heavy taxes on big business and the reduction of working hours as the big wealth. Comrade Tsipras promises to “rene- much as it is required in order to gotiate” the loans with the troika. The 3. Establishment of workers’ con- share out all available jobs problem with this is that if the EU-IMF trol in companies by elected com- amongst all the workers. troika renegotiates the loans with him, mittees of workers, which in turn, 8. Steeply progressive taxation of this would send a clear message to the will elect a Nationwide Labor capital and wealth, direct cost sav- rest of the Southern Europeans that if Audit Committee. ings from the “freezing” of mili- they elect left governments, they can 4. Nationalization of the banking tary spending, the expropriation too get a more favorable treatment system and creation of a single of church property, and above all, concerning their loans. This is not state bank, with its managing body the nationalization program will going to happen. composed of a 1/3 of employees in provide the necessary revenue for Comrade Tsipras promises to bring banks, 1/3 of representatives of an immediate increase in salaries, the level of the minimum wages and trade unions and 1/3 of represen- pensions and allowances within pensions up to the pre-crisis levels, a tatives of the government. the context of a decent standard level which was under the poverty line 5. Nationalization and integration of living and the introduction of to begin with. This is hardly something into single entities within each an automatic increase of wage and that will excite the workers! Moreover, industry of all enterprises in which pensions in line with any increase he doesn’t tell us where he will find the state holds even one share of in the cost of living. Adequate these funds, since he won’t nationalize the large firms that are closing, funding of Health, Education, the banks and the big corporations. the companies of transport (peo- Welfare, Social Security, Culture and Sports. A left government which takes any ple or goods), water, energy, tele- serious measures in favor of the work- communications, mineral wealth, 9. Eradication of the bureaucratic ing class will face wholesale economic infrastructure and construction, and repressive structures of the sabotage from the capitalists and prov- with their management consisting existing bourgeois government ocations from the capitalist state appa- of 1/3 employees of the company, and the redesign of the state on a

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 33 socialist basis with the right to Bulgarians Take to the Streets elect and recall all senior government officials and dignitaries By Kristen Ghodsee who will be paid the same salary as a skilled worker; the exclusion In the last two weeks [of February,] of a pizza joint. Where did all this of special repressive forces from Bulgaria has seen tens-of-thousands of money come from? Much of it came labor disputes, putting the secu- its citizens out on the streets. The from the fire sale of Bulgarian state rity forces and the army under sparks that lit the flame of dissent were assets that began in the late 1990s. the democratic control and man- inflated winter electricity bills, but the Bulgarians believe that their politi- agement of the mass organiza- anger and frustration in Bulgaria has cal elites, together with unscrupulous tions of the workers and the been growing for a long time. Electricity foreign “investors,” have spent the last youth; the election of judges by bills are a symptom. Crony capitalism 23 years dismantling Bulgaria’s state the people and the reform of law is the disease. socialist economy for the sole purpose in accordance with the interests Bulgaria has the lowest average wage of enriching themselves. of working people. For an open in the European Union, at about $500 discussion by the working people The last time Bulgaria saw protest- a month. There is also a large elderly and society of the earliest possible ers in the street like this was 1997 when population. Most Bulgarian families adoption of a Constitution that the Bulgarian economy was in free fall are not only struggling to meet their enshrines the social ownership of after a period of devastating hyperin- own expenses, but are supporting par- the means of production and rev- flation. There was a socialist govern- ents whose pensions are miserably low. olutionary changes in state power. ment in power at the time, the heirs of In the winter months, ordinary the old, Bulgarian Communist Party. 10. The faithful implementation Bulgarians have often had to choose These socialists had been slow to priva- of this program obviously entails among heat, medicine and food since tize state-owned enterprises. Experts departure from all reactionary, they were only able to afford two out of in the US and the European Union imperialist military alliances like three. This winter, electricity bills blamed Bulgaria’s economic woes NATO, a conflict with the capi- alone exceeded the monthly amount of squarely on the government’s refusal talist European Union and its many pensions. to embrace the shock therapy of rapid institutions and, inevitably, with- Yet if you go to the suburbs of Sofia, market liberalization. drawal from it. The example of a neighborhoods like Simeonovo, revolutionary Greece, and an Tens of thousands jangled their Bankya, and Dragalevtsi, you will see open class appeal to the Europe- keys in front of parliament in 1997, opulent mansions all built after 1989. an workers for a common strug- mocking the sound of a tolling bell. When I was in Bulgaria in the summer gle against capitalism in Europe, The socialists were forced to resign and of 2011, I saw a 1.5 million euro Bugatti for the establishment of the Unit- a new pro-Western, center-right gov- Veyron with Sofia plates idling outside ed Socialist States of Europe will disarm imperialism. It would shield the country from external threats and will provide very soon a safe and equitable international position by opening the prospect of pan-European and global victory of socialism. —In Defense of Marxism, March 19, 2013 http://www.marxist.com/tsipras- speaks-in-london.htm

34 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 ernment was swept into power. This European Union and jeopardize Nobody wants a return to the gulag, government embarked on a hasty pro- Bulgaria’s position within the but the knee-jerk fear of communism gram of privatization that promised to Community. It will also hurt the has become an excuse for a system in bring growth and prosperity to prospects of future foreign investment. which all but a few rival clans of oli- Bulgaria. Hopes were high. Faced with continued protests and garchs and their entourages are worse I spent a lot of time in Bulgaria in growing popular demands for nation- off. the late 1990s. Thugs were everywhere. alization, the Prime Minister, Boiko But if Bulgaria is truly a democracy, In almost every nice restaurant I visit- Borisov, hastily resigned and called for shouldn’t citizens have a say in how ed, there were thick-necked former early elections. Although the Socialist their utilities are supplied? What is the wrestlers with handguns shoved into Party has hinted at nationalization, point of democracy if the people have the backs of their pants, bodyguards of Bulgarians are skeptical that any elect- no power to affect the government the new superrich. Rapid economic ed government will be able to stand up policies that impact their lives? liberalization created economic to the European Union and deflect the The European Union should allow growth, but this wealth was concen- claims that Bulgaria is heading back the Bulgarian people to decide their trated in the hands of a new domestic down a path toward totalitarianism. own future. If voters support national- pack of oligarchs. Western investors Predictably, these calls for nationalization of utility companies or demand had no problem doing business with ization have been met with a chorus of other economic changes through the these robber barons, people who did condemnation by political and eco- ballot box, these demands must be not innovate or produce, but who nomic elites who fear that nationaliza- respected. Otherwise, people will con- bribed and stole their way to wealth. tion is the first step in a return to the tinue to lose faith in the democratic Government regulators were happy to gulag. Once again the specter of com- process. Instead, they will make their sell off state assets at reduced prices as munism is used as a cover for the demands, with raised fists, in the long as they were given their generous wholesale pillaging of consumers. streets. slice of the spoils. Even though the government has Kristen Ghodsee is contributing edi- Since 1997, Bulgarians have seen fallen, Bulgarians are still out in the tor of the Soyuz column in Anthropology four different governments come and streets calling for an end to all of the News. go. They have become members of political parties tainted by corruption. NATO and joined the European Union. The frustration is as much with the —Anthropology News, February 25, Yet nothing has changed. Today, most failed promise of democracy and free 2013 blame the system. They ask: what was markets as it is with electricity bills. For the point of breaking up a state-owned more than two decades, Bulgarians have http://www.anthropology-news.org/ electricity monopoly if you are going to been told that things are on their way to index.php/2013/02/25/bulgarians-take- replace it with a foreign-owned elec- getting better. They are tired of waiting. to-the-streets/ tricity monopoly? A monopoly by any other name still stinks. Protestors have been calling for nationalization, hoping that their bills will go down if there are fewer middle- men passing the costs of their luxury sedans onto the end user. Nationalization of electricity distribution will certainly fall afoul of the

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 35 Slovenia Hit by ‘Zombie Uprising’ By Brigita Gracner

The central European nation of The protests spread throughout the nized “Protestivals” with a cultural Slovenia is being shaken by the first country during November. On program in protest against government huge uprising since it became an inde- December 21, the first “All Slovenian cuts in the funding of culture. pendent country in 1991. The protests People’s Uprising” took place in the The movement is very diverse and are directed against all political elites, capital, Ljubljana. This was followed by consists of many social groups and ini- austerity measures, and the capitalist another on January 11. tiatives: there are students and lectur- system as a whole. One of the most important reasons ers, trade unions, precarious workers, Since November, there have been 42 the protests spread to other cities was a pensioners, anarchists, ecologists, protests in all major Slovenian cities, report by the anti-corruption commis- socialists, and others, all demanding with more than 110,000 participants sion that accused Prime Minister Janez deep social changes. altogether. The protests are mostly Jansa and leader of the largest opposi- Among the new groups the most peaceful and decentralized, but a few tion party, Zoran Jankovic, of corrup- prominent are the General Assembly of hundred people have been arrested and tion. the All-Slovenian People’s Uprising, many injured. Neither could explain the source of the Committee for Social Justice and The protests started in November in some of their income in recent years. Solidarity, the Coordination Maribor as a response to corrupt Jansa is also suspected of being involved Committee of Slovenian Culture, the actions of Maribor Mayor Franc in a corruption scandal involving the Committee for Direct Democracy, the Kangler in a dispute over the place- supply of Finnish armored vehicles. Movement of the Responsible, and ment of new traffic enforcement cam- On February 8, two rallies took Today is a New Day. eras. The cameras were cited by the place in Ljubljana. The pro-govern- There are also groups and parties Municipality of Maribor, Slovenia’s ment “Assembly for the Republic” that were active before the protest second-largest local authority, as a organized a protest in support of Jansa, wave, such as the Federation for public-private partnership with a at which about 5000 people gathered. Anarchist Organization, the Workers Slovenian firm. In the afternoon, however, more than and Punks’ University, the student The project was believed to be cor- 20,000 people took part, in the same association Iskra, the Invisible Workers rupt and lacking transparency after place, in the third All-Slovenian of the World, The Association of Free Kangler had allowed a private compa- People’s Uprising to protest against the Trade Unions of Slovenia, the Pirate ny to set up cameras all over the city ruling political elite. Party, and the Party for Sustainable and collect money from speeding tick- This was the biggest anti-govern- Development. ets instead of directing it to the city ment gathering since the protests Among these groups, the Workers budget. began. and Punks’ University has been promi- The protests started with small nent: it is a collective of students and demonstrations in front of Maribor’s Protest organization activists who organize an annual series of city hall in October, and escalated on From the outset, the protests were public lectures and regularly intervene in November 21 into the first big protest. organized with the help of social net- the social struggles with their theoretical The protesters demanded Kangler’s works—mostly through Facebook. analyses and political statements. resignation, chanting, “He’s finished!” Later, a coordination committee was in the Slovenian Styrian dialect (“Gotof formed, but did not act as an organiz- Austerity and severe recession je!”). er. None of the protests had been Although the protests started as a reported to the police in advance, as is response to local problems, the pro- This would become the most popu- legally required. testers soon started demanding the lar slogan for all the protests. Kangler resignation of all political and eco- was accused of corruption by the offi- Apart from All-Slovenian People’s nomic elites regardless of their political cial Commission for the Prevention of Uprisings, the Coordination affiliations. Corruption of the Republic of Slovenia Committee of Culture of Slovenia, and eventually resigned at the end of which combines the organizations of But the protesters are also targeting last year. Slovenian cultural workers, also orga- the austerity measures, and some the

36 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 capitalist system as a whole. Slovenia is nition of former officials and the pre- occupied the platform in front of the experiencing the second-sharpest drop sumed “uncles” to a label for any Slovenian stock exchange for a few in GDP of any European Union mem- opponent to the austerity measures. months as a sign of protest against the ber as a result of the economic crisis. Moreover, at the protest of the pro- worldwide financial crisis. Jansa and Slovenian President Borut government Assembly for the Republic, The government had fallen a few Pahor have meticulously followed the a speech by Jansa recorded in Brussels months before, and the public looked demands of the International Monetary was broadcast in which the prime min- to the 15O protesters to produce an Fund (IMF) and the Organization for ister drew an analogy between the alternative. Economic Cooperation and methods of his opponents and those of However, it failed in the end to offer Development (OECD). They have Nazis at the beginning of the Holocaust. any concrete solutions, and at the same imposed harsh reforms, which cost Jansa called the protesters “left fascists.” time refused any kind of institutional- many jobs and social rights, leaving Regardless of Jansa’s abuse of his- ization in more formal political struc- people (especially the young) with no torical events and misuse of terms, it is tures. Hence, although 15O gained hope for a secure future. the first time in 25 years that some of great support from the public at the The government has already the media and groups taking part in start, it was overshadowed by elections imposed a reform that raises the retire- the movement have spoken of social- held in December 2011. ment age, and wants to reform the ism in a positive way. Despite the new government, the labor market with the intention of Jansa’s attempts to criminalize and political elite continued austerity mea- reducing protections against layoffs. discredit the movement are logical, sures, with the only party that opposed Public sector wage cuts are also being since his two junior coalition partners the neoliberal reforms in its program planned. left the government because of the cor- completely defeated in the elections. Moreover, the Constitutional Court ruption scandals. This deprived Jansa As there will probably be early elec- found a potential referendum on a law of a majority and may bring about tions this year, it will be essential to setting up a so-called “bad bank” and a early elections. consider new forms of organization. sovereign holding company to be On February 22, the pensioners’ Although the movement seems stron- unconstitutional. In effect, the Court party quit the government, reducing ger than the one in 2011, there lies a banned a popular vote on the matter. Jansa’s coalition to just 36 of 90 parlia- heavy task in front of it. The government also proposed a mentary seats. The opposition is now It appears that some parts of the constitutional amendment that would trying to agree on a new prime minis- movement will attempt to form par- reduce the chances of submitting a ter, but no official candidate has been ties, but since the movement consists request for a referendum and reduce proposed so far. of many groups with different posi- the potential to resort to this instru- Despite the fact that the situation tions, it will be essential for the socialist ment of direct democracy. will probably lead to a provisional gov- left to argue for its positions within this The official response ernment, or to early elections, which process. would postpone some reforms, the The government, particularly This will give Slovenia the chance to protests in Slovenia will continue. Jansa’s leading party, and their media prevent a forming of a government supporters failed in criminalizing the The fourth All-Slovenian People’s that would continue with the planned movement by describing the protesters Uprising took place on March 9 in reforms. as “communist zombies” led by “the Ljubljana. Reprinted from Counter Fire. Brigita uncles in the background.” Challenges Gracner is from the Workers’ and Punks’ University, Ljubljana. This evoked creative reactions at the In a way, the situation is reminis- second uprising, at which many of the cent of the one in 2011, when the so- — greenleft.org, March 13, 2013 protesters wore zombie masks. called 15 October movement (15O) During the protests, however, the organized similar protests as a response http://www.greenleft.org.au/ word “communist” grew from a defi- to austerity measures. The movement node/53603

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 37 Israel’s Segregated Buses By Ofra Yeshua-Lyth

Note: The following report is from That way they can’t go anywhere until “You’re not allowed to be on February 28, 2013. Although it was they get permission. Nearly thirty Highway 5.” At long last: official confir- reported that Israel would begin segre- workers, ages 30-50, obediently file mation that there are apartheid high- gating bus service in the West Bank out. The soldier/officer roars: “Udrub!” ways in Israel, despite all the denials. starting March 4, the practice has been (Move!) And then: “Sit on your butts! “You’re not allowed to use public in effect for much longer. Yeshua-Lyth On your butts!” They are then marched transportation at all.” explained in an email: “the practice of to the terminal fence and made to banning Palestinians from public buses stand along it in a line, then to sit on First Sergeant Zecharia provided the has been in evidence for months. News of the cold ground and wait. The soldiers following crucial information to one of plans for “Palestinian only” buses were check the green IDs (Arabic: hawwiye) the older Palestinians: It’s better to in the Israeli press already in November. and demand to see their “tasrih” (work travel in the special vans and not in It seems that the coercing and harass- permits). A lucky few get their IDs Israeli buses. Palestinians claim that ment have the purpose of “educating” back and board another bus—com- there has been an unwritten commer- Palestinians about the way to choose plaining only about having to pay twice cial alliance between some in the secu- public transport. The announcement for the same trip. But our forces imme- rity forces and the Bedouins who oper- yesterday coincided with my Thursday diately block this channel: one by one ate the vans, which cost five times as report by coincidence, or perhaps it was the workers are told to leave the termi- much as the buses for short trips. For a rushed following the considerable uproar nal and walk to the Azoun-Atme trip of a few minutes, each one of them this report has managed to create. I have checkpoint, 2.5 kilometres from the pays one or two hour’s wages. been listening to blatant lies on Israeli Shomron Gate junction. By now it’s I should note that the First Sergeant radio about the new buses being a “help- cold; the sun has set. Most of them got answered my questions as the law ful measure” for the workers all day yes- up at three in the morning for the trip requires when I asked his name and terday. The fact remains that public to work. Their homes are only a few rank, but he immediately declared that transport is a system based on a grid kilometers from nearby Ariel. All they my questions were “causing agitation” serving people who should be able to ask is to be allowed to ride the bus for and that “pretty soon” I too would find choose their own routes. If you live in another two or three stops. They paid myself spending a few hours in the London you do not wish to be allowed on for the trip. And by the way, a “tasrih” nearby police station. buses from Paddington to Oxford only. costs 8,000 shekels. You have to work On the way back, via the Ayalon March 1, 2013. I arrived at 4:00 hard to cover that sum before you earn Highway, my heart goes out to the P.M. at the bus terminal (near what is your first shekel. thousands of Israelis who are delayed called the “Shomron Gate Junction.”) The soldiers nabbed four workers on the way home in Thursday evening Until five o’clock it looked like nothing who had dared to work without a “tas- traffic jams. was going to happen. Blessed bore- rih.” The short one venomously says, Questions and thoughts: dom. Travellers get on and get off, “They can spend some time in the How many hundreds of Palestinians including some who look like Yoav fortress.” Then the next consign- have gone through this permanent Palestinians. A military vehicle behind ment arrives, about another 25 work- institutionalized harassment this eve- the bus honked with pointless violence ers. The armed and heroic little guy is ning, at the end of a workweek during and suddenly activated a siren, surely soon shoving them with both hands. which they cleaned, built, plastered that was nothing more than the simple The procedure is repeated: “Udrub,” and paved our Homeland? boorishness of the soldiers who are the on your butts, hawiyye, tasrih. Now lords of the land. move it to Azoun-Atme. Within half- What is the idea behind this harassment? How is it that workers represent At five o’clock sharp the action an-hour about eighty men have been no “security risk” in Tel Aviv and begins: a policeman, First Sergeant subjected to this humiliation by a few Rishon LeZion from morning to eve- Shai Zecharia, portentously boards Bus armed soldiers and one policeman. ning, but their presence on a bus on 286, which is stopped at the station. They all responded with restraint and the way home is a matter that requires Soldiers order all the Palestinians to get dismay, at most asking the obvious the armed intervention of the soldiers off. Right away they collect their ID questions and now and then getting of the “Israel Defense Force?” cards upon their exit from the bus. enlightening replies, such as:

38 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3

Incarceration Nation Should not those who are constantly Free All Irish Republican Political Prisoners warning us that the Third Intifada will break out any moment have an interest By Graham Durham in obedient and industrious workers being allowed to get home in peace? An important anti-imperialist polit- an alleged offence at the Derry Easter (Incidentally, I have heard this observa- ical rally in London heard from Rising commemoration in 2011 when tion from the workers, who may be Diarmuid Dubhglais of Republican she held a piece of paper from which a poor but are by no means stupid.) Sinn Fein. commemoration was read. Marion was And furthermore: when a woman is Diarmuid pointed out that none of arrested and has been held in solitary told to “sit in the back” of a bus full of the remaining political prisoners would confinement. She is suffering from ill Haredim1, Israeli society responds with be incarcerated if it were not for the health arising from the 167 days force- anger and revulsion and we demand ongoing partition of Ireland, which has feeding she endured in 1973/74 whilst that the instigators of this obscurantist continued after the Good Friday agree- campaigning to be imprisoned in discrimination be stopped. But ment. Ireland and not England. Palestinian workers are forbidden to Diarmuid drew attention to specific Diarmuid drew attention to the travel in “our” buses—even in the cases including: plight of Republican POWs who should back, and standing. And that is quite all have been granted political status—as right legally—unless something is very, Martin Corey who served 19 years they were after the deaths of Bobby very wrong with the law. of a life sentence for taking part in the Sands and nine other hunger strikers in armed struggle against British occupa- How fitting it is this evening to exco- 1981. However, following the release of tion. Released in 2002, Martin was re- riate the unknown judge who beat his the last Provisional Sinn Fein prisoner, arrested in April 2010 and told his unfortunate children, and the judicial Gerry Adams and the PSF leadership “license” was revoked. There were no system that did not deal with him abandoned remaining Republican new allegations of any crimes and the severely. Because, as everybody knows, prisoners. decision was made by the British gov- civilization, progress, human rights, the ernment. The Republican POWs demand: rights of the child and equality before • An end to brutal and degrad- the law are our guiding principles. In July 2010 a judge ruled that the lack of evidence made the continued ing strip-searching This post originally appeared on incarceration a breach of Martin’s • Free association Facebook. It has been translated from human rights and ordered his release. Hebrew by Mark Marshall • An end to controlled move- As Martin sat awaiting release he was ment —Mondoweiss, March 5, 2013 told the British Secretary of State had • A right to education http://mondoweiss.net/2013/03/ ordered his continued internment. allowed-transportation-segregated.html Now 62, Martin is awaiting a further At the end of the meeting, which Supreme Court hearing having spent a also heard contributions of support further three years in Maghaberry from the Frontline Socialist Party of Sri Prison without any additional charges. Lanka, The Counihan–Sanchez 1 The most conservative form of Orthodox Marion Price who is seriously ill Housing campaign and the Labor Judaism and continues to be held as a political Representation Committee, Michael http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haredi_Judaism prisoner. For refusing to accept the Holden, Chair of the Irish Republican status of a criminal, Marion is held in Prisoners Support Group, stated that solitary confinement in Hydebank the continued brutal treatment and prison. Undergoing medical treatment arbitrary arrests by the British govern- Marion is handcuffed to a hospital bed ment could not occur without the col- and accompanied by prison guards laboration of Sinn Fein leaders, Gerry during treatment. Adams and Martin McGuinness. Marion Price had her license Contact the IRSPG on Facebook invoked and was returned to prison for —April 18, 2013

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 39 A Visit with Lynne Stewart By Carole Seligman

are issues that will have broad effects collaborate, and therefore critical fol- on others. This certainly is true. All the low-up and treatment management are issues in Lynne’s case go to the basic not being adequately done. This is par- democratic rights to have legal repre- ticularly serious given Lynne’s condi- sentation when charged with a crime. tion and this is why Lynne needs to be (You can read the certiorari petition returned to New York where she can on the website: www.lynnestewart.org) receive treatment that is overseen by Lynne also reviewed her medical sit- doctors who can collaborate and coor- uation. For the first time I learned that dinate with each other. she now has stage 4 lung cancer (which Soon we will all be asked to partici- is what the breast cancer has metasta- pate in a campaign to win compassion- sized into). She had just had a port ate release for our dear sister. (See peti- inserted into her chest when I saw her. tion in this issue.) She has already com- She was sore and she was taking care pleted more than the original sentence,

Lynne Stewart not to hug too hard. Tuesday, she start- before it was lengthened to ten years! ed the chemo therapy, where the drugs I’m making this report short, but I had the honor of visiting with are administered to her through the personally, I was the lucky recipient of Lynne Stewart, in Federal Medical port. This is instead of through an IV. many stories of Lynne’s legal career, Center (federal prison), Carswell in Lynne explained that she is getting her school librarian experiences, her Fort Worth, Texas over the weekend of treatment, and she thinks highly of the family history, Ralph and Lynne’s par- February 22-24. oncologist who is treating her. What is ticipation in the community control of Lynne explained her petition to the very, very wrong about the treatment of schools in Harlem, N.Y. actions, her U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari, serious medical issues at Carswell is the opinions about all kinds of issues, sup- which is not an appeal, but an attempt lack of any kind of collaboration port of political prisoners, support for to convince the Supremes that the between the outside doctors with each her sister-inmates at Carswell, and issues raised in the extension of Lynne’s other and the prison medical staff. They more. Lynne was very pleased to get sentence from 28 months to ten years are not in touch with each other, do not word of the beautiful message about her that Mumia Abu-Jamal recorded at Prison Radio, February 22. (This is also posted on the Lynne Stewart website.) She is very pleased with the river of letters and cards she gets; too many for her to respond to. Please keep them coming. They make a real difference in her treatment. Write to Lynne Stewart at: Lynne Stewart #53504-054 Unit 2N, Federal Medical Center, Carswell P.O. Box 27137 Fort Worth, TX 76127

Write to Lynne Stewart Defense Committee at: Lynne Stewart Defense Committee 1070 Dean Street Brooklyn, New York 11216 For further information: 718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759

40 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 The Persecution of Lynne Stewart By Chris Hedges

Lynne Stewart, in the vindictive and ating a grave threat to her life, she sits ted in our name in the Muslim world, hysterical world of the war on terror, is in a prison cell at the Federal Medical but to defend those who do. And the one of its martyrs. A 73-year-old law- Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, near total collapse of our judicial sys- yer who spent her life defending the where she is serving a 10-year sentence. tem, wrecked in the name of national poor, the marginalized and the Stewart’s family is pleading with the security and “the war on terror,” is despised, including blind cleric Sheik state for “compassionate release” and encapsulated in the saga of this coura- Omar Abdel Rahman, she fell afoul of numerous international human rights geous attorney—now disbarred the state apparatus because she dared campaigners, including Archbishop because of her conviction. to demand justice rather than acqui- Desmond Tutu, have signed a petition “I hope that my imprisonment esce to state sponsored witch hunts. calling for her to be freed on medical sends the wake up call that the govern- And now, with stage 4 cancer that has grounds. It is not only a crime in the ment is prepared to imprison lawyers metastasized, spreading to her lymph U.S. to be poor, to be a Muslim, to who do not conduct legal representa- nodes, shoulder, bones and lungs, cre- openly condemn the crimes commit- tion in a manner the government has ordained,” she told me when I reached her through email in prison. “My Warden Recommends Compassionate career of 30-plus years has always been client centered. My clients and I decid- Release for Lynne Stewart ed on the best legal course, without the A message to supporters from Lynne Stewart interference of the government. Ethics April 28, 2014, Carswell Federal Medical Center require that the defense lawyer DEFEND, get the client off. We have no obligation to obey [the] ‘rules’ gov- A worldwide embrace to all of the thousands of People who helped me! ernment lays down. As my hero said, we are motivated by great feelings of love and compassion and I am fortunate to be the beneficiary, this time around. “I believe that since 9/11 the government has pursued Muslims with an To savor this victory, you all should know that the Carswell Prison ever heavier hand,” she wrote, all mes- authorities kept telling me “It can’t be done. You don’t qualify. Why both- sages to her and from her being vetted er? Wait till you are closer to death!” To all of them I replied that I have by prison authorities. “However, cases been fighting battles like this all my life and I would never quit. Then I had such as the Sheikh’s in 1995 amply this white blood cell setback, making me super-vulnerable and was quaran- demonstrate that Muslims had been tined for a week. I was released on Friday to learn that indeed “the children targeted even earlier as the new had shouted” and the walls “Did come a-tumblin’ down.” I must say that I ENEMY—always suspect, always was in a state of bliss. Not just to win but to accomplish it in the time hon- guilty. After 9/11, we discovered that ored method—we will organize the People and you dare not ignore us! the government prosecutors were I owe an enormous debt to so many. This is the one we had to win where ordered to try and get Osama Bin the medical decision was made that compassionate release was warranted. Laden into EVERY Muslim prosecu- That cannot be trifled with BUT... we who have been out here struggling tion inducing in American Juries a from the fifties onward know that the Government is masterful at Pavlovian response. Is it as bad as Co-optation at snatching victory and making it defeat. Please do not think lynching and the Scottsboro Boys and that my struggle is won. We have this fabulous win but we still have the DC the Pursuit of Black Panthers? Not as National Bureau of Prisons (if there ever was a time to hold Obama’s feet of yet, but getting close and of course to the fire, this is it) and then their forwarding of the case to the Judge in the incipient racism that that colors— New York for a final decision (Yes, the same one that increased my original pun?—every action in the U.S. is ever sentence from 28 months to ten years!) So please, please, please do not let present in these prosecutions.” us rest on our laurels. Until my feet are planted like the tree that grows in Stewart, as a young librarian in Brooklyn, and I am among my family, friends, and comrades and plunged Harlem, got an early taste of the insidi- back into the struggle once more, we must continue. Fight On! ous forms of overt and covert racism

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 41 that work to keep most people of color Stewart’s 2005 trial was a Punch- and the 2001 World Trade Center impoverished and trapped in their and-Judy show. The state demanded an attacks were not relevant to the case. internal colonies or our prison com- outrageous 30-year prison sentence. It Stewart was sentenced to 28 months. plex. She went on to get her law degree showed the jurors lurid videos of The Obama administration appealed and begin battling in the courts on Osama bin Laden and images of the the ruling. The appeals court ruled that behalf of those around her for whom 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center the sentence was too light. Koeltl gave justice was usually denied. By 1995, towers, and spun a fantastic web of her ten years. She has served three. along with former Attorney General Islamic, terrorist intrigue. To those of Her family’s appeal for a “compas- Ramsey Clark and Abdeen Jabara, she us who covered groups such as al-Qai- sionate release“ must defy the odds. was the lead trial counsel for the sheik, da and the armed Islamic groups in Human Rights Watch and Families who was convicted in September of Egypt—I was based in Cairo at the time Against Mandatory Minimums that year. He received life in prison (FAMM) noted in a 2012 report, “The plus 65 years, a sentence Stewart called “I fear we are headed Answer is No: Too Little Compassionate “outlandish.” The cleric, in poor Release in U.S. Federal Prisons,” that the health, is serving a life sentence in the into a period of ever Federal Bureau of Prisons rarely even medical wing of the Butner Federal increasing cruelty to bothers to submit compassionate release Correctional Complex in North requests to the courts. Since 1992, the Carolina. Stewart continued to see the those who can least bureau has averaged two dozen motions sheik in jail after the sentence. Three stand it,” she wrote. “As a year to the courts for compassionate years later the government severely corporate agendas release. The bureau does not provide curtailed his ability to communicate figures for the number of prisoners who with the outside world, even through become national agen- seek compassionate release. his lawyers, under special administra- das there is a profound tive measures or SAMs. “No messy side effects—vomiting, disrespect for all those diarrhea—thank goodness,” Stewart In 2000, during a visit with the wrote to me about her cancer care. “I sheik, he asked Stewart to release a who are not able to even have one more treatment and then they statement from him to the press. The get to the starting line. have used all the poison it’s safe to use. I Clinton administration did not prose- We do not love the chil- am bald but the hardest for me to endure, cute her for the press release, but the who has always relied on her memory Bush administration in April 2002, the dren except when they and quick wit, is the chemo brain that mood of the country altered by the are massacred—the slows and sometimes stops me. attacks of 9/11, decided to go after her. Attorney General John Ashcroft came daily mental, emotional “I am up at 4:30 [A.M.] and wait till the ‘Count’ is over and have a shower to New York in April 2002 to announce deaths in the public that the Justice Department had indict- etc.,” she noted of her daily routine. “I ed Stewart, a paralegal and the inter- schools are ignored. get dressed and take a short rest (feet preter on grounds of materially aiding up) until breakfast at 6:00 A.M. I am in a terrorist organization. That night he a room with six other women—the went on “Late Show with David as the Middle East bureau chief for The unusual mix of inmates and I rely on Letterman” to tell the nation of the New York Times—the government sce- them to help me with just about every- indictment and the Bush administra- narios were utterly devoid of fact or thing—getting to the clinics, picking up tion’s vaunted “war on terror.” credibility. The government prosecu- meds, filling my ice bucket, helping tors, for example, blamed numerous with my laundry, etc. At 9:00 A.M. “Rev up the military industrial com- terrorist attacks, including the killing of every day, they laughingly say, I go to plex,” Stewart wrote when I asked her 62 people in 1997 in Luxor, Egypt, on the ‘office.’ That means email or the law what purpose the “war on terror” the sheik, although he publicly library where I correspond and meet served. “Keep the populace terrorized denounced the attack and had no con- with women who need my help. I go so that they look to Big Brother nection with the radical Islamic group back up by 10:30 A.M. and take a short Government for protection. Cannon in Egypt that carried it out. And even nap till lunch. Meals here are meager Fodder for the ‘throwaways’ in our Manhattan District Judge John Koeltl and not well prepared. Of course, I have society—young, poor, uneducated, instructed the jury more than 750 times favorites—the hamburgers (beef THIN persons of color.” that the photos of Osama bin Laden patty) served every Wednesday in every

42 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 federal prison for lunch. Some of the deaths in the public schools are ignored. never ever been able to get to the start- women count their time in terms of We are now a nation of Us and Them. ing line much less run the race, because how many hamburger days they have I would HOPE that the people would of color, physical condition, gender, left! We are served cut up iceberg lettuce recognize what is happening and make mental impairment,” she said. “We go with a little red cabbage and carrots a move. After all, who in the fifties forth to preserve the air and land and with meals and I have used my commis- could have predicted the uprisings of water and sky and all the beasts that sary purchases to concoct some more the sixties? There must be a distaste crawl and fly. We go forth to safeguard exotic dressings than those offered here. and willful opposition to what is hap- the right to speak and write, to join; to “After lunch I go back to bed for a pening and a push to take it back— learn, to rest safe at home, to be secure, longer nap and then up for mail call— local movements scaring the HELL out fed, healthy, sheltered, loved and loving, lots of letters, newspapers, magazines, of the Haves.” to be at peace with ones identity.” etc.” she wrote, “a time of the day I In a 2003 speech at a National From prison Stewart wrote to me in sometimes shed a few tears at the love Lawyers Guild convention in closing, “I have been fortunate to live a and intensity of those who have written Minneapolis, Stewart eloquently laid charmed life—parents who loved me to state their support. Then supper and out her mission as an advocate, and without qualification (yes, we fought back to bed and reading—pure plea- more important as a mother and a about Vietnam and my African sure—much fiction (mysteries, member of the human race. American husband but I never doubt- Scottish, etc. and authors I love “For we have formidable enemies ed that they would always be there for Morrison, Sarmargo). [There is] some not unlike those in the tales of ancient me). I had children when I was young conversing with my roommates and days,” she told the gathering. “There is enough to grow with them. Today they then after the 9:00 P.M. count I am off a consummate evil that unleashes its are the backbone of my support and to sleep. I have a hospital bed that is dogs of war on the helpless; an enemy love. I came to politics in the early six- next to large windows—no bars. I can motivated only by insatiable greed— ties and was part of a vibrant move- see the Trinity River, barely. Trees. the Miller’s daughter made to spin ment that tried to empower local con- This view of nature is responsible for gold—the fisherman’s wife: Midas, all trol of public schools to make the ulti- keeping me alive in the real sense. with no thought of consequences. In mate changes for children and break “I hoped that there would be com- this enemy there is no love of the land the back of racism in minority common cause among the women here or the creatures that live there, no munities. My partner/husband Ralph because we are all confronted by totally compassion for the people. This enemy Poynter was always—60 years and arbitrary authority every minute of will destroy the air we breathe and the counting—in my corner and when at a every day,” she went on. “Prison is a water we drink as long as the dollars less than opportune moment I perverse place of selfishness and some- keep filling up their money boxes. announced my desire to go to law school, he made sure it happened. I times generosity but not much unity. “We now resume our everyday lives There are a few and we recognize each had a fabulous legal career in a fabu- but we have been charged once again, lous city—championing the political other but by and large the harsh reali- with, and for, our quests, and like ties of people’s origins and the system rights of the comrades of the ’60s and Hippolyta and her Amazons; like David ’70s and also representing many who have ruined most of us. It is particu- going forth to meet Goliath, like Beowulf larly horrendous to realize the number had no hope of a lawyer who would the dragon slayer, like Queen Zenobia, fight for them against the system. I of children that the prison system rips who made war on the Romans, like Sir from their mothers’ arms, thus creat- have enjoyed good friends, loved cook- Galahad seeking the holy grail,” she said. ing, had poetry and theater for a joy. I ing yet another generation to feed the “And modern heroes, dare I mention? beast of prison industrial complex. could go on and on BUT all of this Ho and Mao and Lenin, Fidel and good fortune has always meant only “I fear we are headed into a period Nelson Mandela and John Brown, Che one thing to me—that I have to fight, of ever increasing cruelty to those who Guevara who reminds us ‘At the risk of struggle to make sure EVERYONE can can least stand it,” she wrote. “As cor- seeming ridiculous, let me say that the have a life like mine. That belief is what porate agendas become national agen- true revolutionary is guided by a great will always sustain me.” das there is a profound disrespect for feeling of love.’ Our quests like theirs are all those who are not able to even get to to shake the very foundations of the —Truthdig, April 21, 2013 the starting line. We do not love the continents. We go out to stop police http://www.truthdig.com/report/ children except when they are massa- brutality—to rescue the imprisoned— item/the_persecution_of_lynne_stew- cred—the daily mental, emotional to change the rules for those who have art_20130421/

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 43 “It is devastating, totally unbelievable. Is this in a democracy, the only superpower? I am sad. I will sign. Praying God’s blessings on your efforts.”PETITION Desmond Tutu TO FREE LYNNE STEWART:

“Lynne Stewart should be outa jail!”SAVE HER LIFE — RELEASE HER NOW! Lynne Stewart has devoted her life to the oppressed — a constant advocate for the countless many deprived in the United States of their freedom and their rights. Unjustly charged and convicted for the “crime” of providing her client with a fearless defense, the prosecution of Lynne Stewart is an assault upon the basic freedoms of us all. After years of post-conviction freedom, her bail was revoked arbitrarily and her imprisonment ordered, precluding surgery she had scheduled in a major

© PAUL CHAN © PAUL New York hospital. The sinister meaning of the relentless persecution of Lynne Stewart is unmistakably clear. Given her age and precarious health, the ten-year sentence she is serving is a virtual death sentence. Since her imprisonment in the Federal Prison in Carswell, Texas her urgent need for surgery was delayed 18 months — so long, that the operating physician pronounced the condition as “the worst he had seen.” Now, breast cancer, which had been in remission prior to her imprisonment, has reached Stage Four. It has appeared in her lymph nodes, on her shoulder, in her bones and her lungs. Her daughter, a physician, has sounded the alarm: “Under the best of circumstances, Lynne would be in a battle of the most serious consequences with dangerous odds. With cancer and cancer treatment, the complications can be as debilitating and as dangerous as the cancer itself.” In her current setting, where trips to physicians involve attempting to walk with 10 pounds of shackles on her wrists and ankles, with connecting chains, Lynne Stewart has lacked ready access to physicians and specialists under conditions compatible with medical success. It can take weeks to see a medical provider in prison conditions. It can take weeks to report physical changes and learn the results of treatment; and when held in the hospital, Lynne has been shackled wrist and ankle to the bed. This medieval “shackling” has little to do with any appropriate prison control. She is obviously not an escape risk. We demand abolition of this practice for all prisoners, let alone those facing surgery and the urgent necessity of care and recovery.

It amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation MALDONADO © ROSE of human rights. Please turn Lynne Stewart and her husband Ralph Poynter M www.lynnestewart.org

44 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 There is immediate remedy available for Lynne Stewart. Under the 1984 Sentencing Act, after a prisoner request, the Bureau of Prisons can file a motion with the Court to reduce sentences “for extraordinary and compelling reasons.” Life threatening illness is foremost among these and Lynne Stewart meets every rational and humane criterion for compassionate release. To misconstrue the gravamen of this compassionate release by conditioning such upon being at death’s door — released, if at all, solely to die — is a cruel mockery converting a prison sentence, wholly undeserved, into a death sentence. The New York Times, in an editorial (2/12), has

© PRISON RADIO excoriated the Bureau of Prisons for their restrictive crippling of this program. In a 20-year period, the Bureau released a scant 492 persons — an average of 24 a year out of a population that exceeds 220,000. We cry out against the bureaucratic murder of Lynne Stewart. We demand Lynne Stewart’s immediate release to receive urgent medical care in a supportive environment indispensable to the prospect of her survival and call upon the Bureau of Prisons to act immediately. If Lynne’s original sentence of 28 months had not been unreasonably, punitively increased to 10 years, she would be home now — where her medical care would be by her choice and where those who love her best would care for her. Her isolation from this loving care would end. Prevent this cruelty to Lynne Stewart whose lifelong commitment to justice is now a struggle for her life. Free Lynne Stewart Now! Ralph Poynter and Family

To FMC Carswell Warden Joe Keffer and Bureau of Prisons Director Charles E. Samuels, Jr.: I support Lynne Stewart’s application for compassionate release and urge you to file the appropriate motion with the Court.

NAME (BOTH PRINT & SIGN)

CITY STATE EMAIL OR ADDRESS

Sign online at: www.change.org/petitions/petition-to-free-lynne-stewart-save-her-life-release-her-now-2 or The mailing address to make a donation and to return your signed petition is: Lynne Stewart Organization 1070 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216 [email protected] To send Lynne a letter, write: www.lynnestewart.org Lynne Stewart #53504-054 Federal Medical Center, Carswell PO Box 27137, Ft. Worth, TX 76127 Distributed by Prison Radio, www.prisonradio.org

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 45 Bradley Manning is Off Limits at San Francisco Gay Pride Parade But Corporate Sleaze is Embraced By Glenn Greenwald News reports April 26, 2013 indi- tions serving as the event’s sponsors Another beloved SF Pride sponsor, cated that Bradley Manning, widely who are welcomed with open arms. Wells Fargo, is also being “sued by the known to be gay, had been selected to The list includes AT&T and Verizon, U.S. for hundreds-of-millions of dol- be one of the Grand Marshals of the the telecom giants that enabled the lars in damages over claims the bank annual San Francisco gay pride parade, illegal warrantless eavesdropping on made reckless mortgage loans that named by the LGBT Pride Celebration U.S. citizens by the Bush administra- caused losses for a federal insurance Committee. When the predictable tion and its NSA (National Security program when they defaulted.” Last backlash instantly ensued, the president Agency), only to get retroactively year, Wells Fargo was fined $3.1 mil- of the Board of San Francisco Pride, immunized from Congress and thus lion by a federal judge for engaging in Lisa L Williams, quickly capitulated, shielded from all criminal and civil conduct that court called “highly rep- issuing a cowardly, imperious state- liability (including a lawsuit brought in rehensible” relating to its persecution ment that has to be read to be believed. San Francisco against those corpora- of a struggling homeowner. In 2011, Williams proclaimed that “Manning tions by their customers who were the bank was fined by the U.S. govern- will not be a grand marshal in this illegally spied on). Last month, AT&T ment “for allegedly pushing borrowers year’s San Francisco Pride celebration” was fined by OSHA for failing to pro- with good credit into expensive mort- and termed his selection “a mistake.” tect one of its employees who was gages and falsifying loan applications.” She blamed it all on a “staff person” attacked, was found by the FCC Also in Good Standing with the SF who prematurely made the announce- (Federal Communications Center) last Pride board: Clear Channel, the media ment based on a preliminary vote, and year to have overcharged customers by outlet owned by Bain Capital that she assures us all that the culprit “has secretly switching them to plans they broadcasts the radio programs of Rush been disciplined.” She then accuses didn’t want, and is now being sued by Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Manning of “actions which placed in the U.S. government for “allegedly Beck; a pension fund is suing this SF harms way the lives of our men and bill[ing] the government improperly Pride sponsor for making cheap, women in uniform,” a substance-free for services designed for the deaf and below-market loans to its struggling falsehood originally spread by top U.S. hard-of-hearing who place calls by typ- parent company. The healthcare giant military officials which has since been ing messages over the web.” Kaiser Permanente, another proud SF decisively and extensively debunked, The list of SF Pride sponsors also Pride sponsor, is currently under inves- even by some government officials includes Bank of America, now being tigation by California officials for (indeed, it’s the U.S. government itself, sued for $1 billion by the U.S. govern- alleged massive privacy violations in not Manning, that is guilty of “actions ment for allegedly engaging in a sys- the form of recklessly disclosing which placed in harms way the lives of tematic scheme of mortgage fraud 300,000 patient records. our men and women in uniform.”) which the U.S. Attorney called “spec- So apparently, the very high-minded And then, in my favorite part of her tacularly brazen in scope.” Just last ethical standards of Lisa L Williams and statement, Williams decreed to all month, the same SF Pride sponsor the SF Pride Board apply only to young organization members that “even the received a record fine for ignoring a and powerless Army Privates who hint of support” for Manning’s court order and instead trying to col- engage in an act of conscience against action—even the hint—“will not be lect mortgage payments from bankrupt the U.S. war machine, but instantly tolerated by the leadership of San homeowners to which it was not enti- disappear for large corporations and Francisco Pride.” Will not be tolerated! tled. Earlier this month, SF-Pride- banks that hand over cash. What we I originally had no intention of writ- sponsoring Bank of America paid $2.4 really see here is how the largest and ing about this episode, but the more I billion to settle shareholder allegations most corrupt corporations own not just discovered about it, the more revealing that Bank executives “failed to disclose the government but also the culture. it became. So let’s just consider a few of information about losses at Merrill Even at the San Francisco Gay Pride the points raised by all of this. Lynch and bonuses paid to Merrill Parade, once an iconic symbol of cul- Lynch employees before the brokerage First, while even a hint of support tural dissent and disregard for stifling was acquired by Bank of America in pieties, nothing can happen that might for Manning will not be tolerated, January 2009 for $18.5 billion.” there is a long roster of large corpora- offend AT&T and the Bank of America.

46 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 The minute something even a bit devi- also works for various Democratic pol- Manning in detention or its danger- ant takes place (as defined by standards iticians. It was President Obama, of ously radical prosecution of him for imposed by America’s political and course, who so notoriously decreed “aiding the enemy.” I have no doubt corporate class,) even the SF Gay Pride Bradley Manning guilty in public that the people who did all of that Parade must scamper, capitulate, apol- before his trial by military officers serv- would be showered with gratitude by ogize, and take an oath of fealty to their ing under Obama even began, and Parade officials if they attended. In so orthodoxies (we adore the military, the whose administration was found by the many liberal precincts in the Age of state, and your laws). And, as usual, the UN’s top torture investigator to have Obama—even now including the SF largest corporate factions are complete- abused him and is now so harshly Gay Pride parade—the federal govern- ly exempt from the strictures and stan- prosecuting him. It’s anything but sur- ment, its military, and its federal pros- dards applied to the marginalized and prising that a person who was a loyal ecutors are to be revered and celebrat- powerless. Thus, while Bradley Obama campaign aide finds Bradley ed but not criticized; only those who Manning is persona non grata at SF Manning anathema while adoring big oppose them are villains. Pride, illegal eavesdropping telecoms, corporations and banks (which funded Third, when I wrote several weeks scheming banks, and hedge-fund purv- the Obama campaign and who, in the ago about the remarkable shift in pub- eryors of the nation’s worst right-wing case of telecoms, Obama voted to lic opinion on gay equality, I noted that agitprop are more than welcome. immunize). this development is less significant Second, the authoritarian, state- than it seems because the cause of gay and-military-revering mentality per- equality poses no real threat to elite vading Williams’ statement is striking. What we see here factions or to how political and eco- It isn’t just the imperious decree that nomic power in the U.S. are distribut- “even a hint of support” for Manning is how even many of the ed. If anything, it bolsters those power “will not be tolerated,” though that is most liberal precincts in structures because it completely and certainly creepy. Nor is it the weird harmlessly assimilates a previously announcement that the wrongdoer America are now the excluded group into existing institu- “has been disciplined.” Even worse is tions and thus incentivizes them to the mindless embrace of the baseless leading spokespeople accommodate those institutions and claims of U.S. military officials (that adopt their mindset. This event illus- Manning “placed in harms way the for and loyalists to state trates exactly what I meant. lives of our men and women in uni- While some of the nation’s most form”) along with the supremely power as a result corrupt corporations are welcome to authoritarian view that any actions of their loyalty to fly their flag over the parade, consider barred by the state are, ipso facto, igno- what Manning—for whom “even a ble and wrong. Conduct can be illegal President Obama. hint of support will not be tolerated”— and yet still be noble and commend- actually did. His leak revealed all sorts able: see, for instance, Daniel Ellsberg, of corruption, deceit and illegality on or most of the leaders of the civil rights the part of the world’s most powerful movement in the U.S. Indeed, acts of What we see here is how even many corporations. They led to numerous civil disobedience and conscience by of the most liberal precincts in America journalism awards for WikiLeaks. Even people who risk their own interests to are now the leading spokespeople for Bill Keller, the former Executive Editor battle injustices are often the most and loyalists to state power as a result of the New York Times who is a harsh commendable acts. Equating illegal of their loyalty to President Obama. WikiLeaks critic, credited those leaks behavior with ignominious behavior is Thus do we have the President of the with helping to spark the Arab Spring, the defining mentality of an authori- San Francisco Gay Pride Parade sound- the greatest democratic revolution the tarian—and is particularly notable ing exactly like the Chairman of the world has seen in decades. Multiple coming from what was once viewed as Joints Chief, or Sarah Palin, or gay media accounts describe how the cables a bastion of liberal dissent. war-loving neocons, in depicting any documenting atrocities committed by But the more one learns about the meaningful opposition to the National U.S. troops in Iraq prevented the parties involved here, the less surpris- Security State as the supreme sin. I’d be Malaki government from allowing U.S. ing it becomes. According to her biog- willing to bet large amounts of money troops to stay beyond the agreed-to raphy, Williams “organized satellite that Williams has never condemned deadline: i.e., helped end the Iraq war offices for the Obama campaign” and the Obama administration’s abuse of by thwarting Obama’s attempts to pro-

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 47 long it. For all of that, Manning was as Williams put it, “even the hint of American politics and its political and selected by Guardian readers as the support” for Manning “will not be tol- military institutions. Yet another edgy, 2012 Person of the Year, while former erated,” and those who deviate from interesting, creative, independent event Army Lt. Dan Choi said yesterday: this decree will be “disciplined.” has been degraded and neutered into a “As we move forward as a coun- Even the SF Gay Pride Parade is now meek and subservient ritual that must try, we need truth in order to gain owned by and beholden to the nation’s pay homage to the nation’s most pow- justice, you can’t have justice with- largest corporations, subject to their erful entities and at all costs avoid out the whole truth . . . So what dictates. Those who run the event are offending them in any way. Manning did as a gay American, as a functionaries of, loyalists to, the It’s hardly surprising that someone gay soldier, he stood for integrity, I nation’s most powerful political offi- who so boldly and courageously oppos- am proud of him.” cials. That’s how this parade was so es the U.S. war machine is demonized But none of those vital benefits mat- seamlessly transformed from ortho- and scorned this way. Daniel Ellsberg ter to authoritarians. That’s because doxy-challenging, individualistic and was subjected to the same attacks authoritarians, by definition, believe in creative cultural icon into yet another before he was transformed many years the overarching Goodness of institu- pile of obedient apparatchiks that spout later into a liberal hero (though Ellsberg tions of power, and believe the only bad banal slogans doled out by the state had the good fortune to be persecuted acts come from those who challenge or while viciously scorning those who by a Republican rather than Democratic subvert that power. Bad acts aren’t challenge them. Yes, there will undoubt- President and thus, even back then, committed by the National Security edly still be exotically-dressed drag had some substantial support; come to State or Surveillance State; they are only queens, lesbian motorcycle clubs, and think of it, Ellsberg lives in San committed by those who oppose them. groups proudly defined by their unusu- Francisco: would expressions of sup- If a person’s actions threaten power al sexual proclivities participating in port for him be tolerated?) But the fact factions or are deemed prohibited by the parade, but they’ll be marching that such lock-step, heel-clicking, mili- them, then Good Authoritarians will under a Bank of America banner and tary-mimicking behavior is now com- reflexively view the person as evil and behind flag-waving fans of the National ing from the SF Gay Pride Parade of all will be eager to publicly disassociate Security State, the U.S. President, and places is indeed noteworthy: it reflects themselves from such individuals. Or, the political party that dominates just how pervasive this authoritarian rot has become. Glenn Greenwald is a columnist on civil liberties and US national security issues for the Guardian. —The Guardian, April 27, 2013 http://www.guardian.co.uk/com- mentisfree/2013/apr/27/bradley-manning-sf-gay-pride

48 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 The Shame of America’s Gulag By Chris Hedges

If, as Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, “The guards in riot gear would sud- disorientation combines extreme sen- “the degree of civilization in a society denly wake you up at 1:00 A.M., force sory overload with extreme sensory can be judged by entering its prisons” you to strip and make you grab all your deprivation. Prolonged isolation is fol- then we are a nation of barbarians. things and move you to another cell lowed by intense interrogation. Our vast network of federal and state just to harass you,” he said when we Extreme heat is followed by extreme prisons, with some 2.3 million inmates, spoke in Newark. “They had attack cold. Glaring light is followed by total rivals the gulags of totalitarian states. dogs with them that were trained to go darkness. Loud and sustained noise is Once you disappear behind prison for your genitals. You spent 24 hours followed by silence. “The fusion of walls you become prey. Rape. Torture. alone one day in your cell and 22 the these two techniques, sensory disorien- Beatings. Prolonged isolation. Sensory next. If you do not have a strong sense tation and self-inflicted pain, creates a deprivation. Racial profiling. Chain of purpose you don’t survive psycho- synergy of physical and psychological gangs. Forced labor. Rancid food. logically. Isolation is designed to defeat trauma whose sum is a hammer-blow Children imprisoned as adults. prisoners mentally, and I saw a lot of to the existential platforms of personal Prisoners forced to take medications prisoners defeated.” identity,” McCoy wrote. to induce lethargy. Inadequate heating Lutalo’s letter was Kerness’ first After hearing from Lutalo, Kerness and ventilation. Poor health care. indication that the U.S. prison system became a fierce advocate for him and Draconian sentences for nonviolent was creating something new—special other prisoners held in isolation units. crimes. Endemic violence. detention facilities that under interna- She published through her office a sur- Bonnie Kerness and Ojore Lutalo, tional law are a form of torture. He vivor’s manual for those held in isola- both of whom I met in Newark, New wrote to her: “How does one go about tion as well as a booklet titled Torture Jersey, a few days ago at the office of articulating desperation to another in United States Prisons. And she began American Friends Service Committee who is not desperate? How does one go to collect the stories of prisoners held Prison Watch, have fought longer and about articulating the psychological in isolation. harder than perhaps any others in the stress of knowing that people are wait- “My food trays have been sprayed country against the expanding abuse of ing for me to self-destruct?” with mace or cleaning agents, … prisoners, especially the use of solitary The techniques of sensory depriva- human feces and urine put into them confinement. Lutalo, once a member tion and prolonged isolation were pio- by guards who deliver trays to my of the Black Liberation Army, an off- neered by the Central Intelligence breakfast, lunch, and dinner…,” a pris- shoot of the Black Panthers, first wrote Agency to break prisoners during the oner in isolation in the Wabash Valley Kerness in 1986 while he was a prison- Cold War. Alfred McCoy, the author of Correctional Facility at Carlisle, er at Trenton State Prison, now called A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, Indiana, was quoted as saying in New Jersey State Prison. He described From the Cold War to the War on Torture in United States Prisons. “I have to her the bleak and degrading world of Terror, wrote in his book that “inter- witnessed sane men of character solitary confinement, the world of the rogators had found that mere physical become self-mutilators, suffer para- prisoners like him held in the so-called pain, no matter how extreme, often noia, panic attacks, hostile fantasies management control unit, which he produced heightened resistance.” So about revenge. One prisoner would called “a prison within a prison.” the intelligence agency turned to the swallow packs of AA batteries, and Before being released in 2009, Lutalo more effective mechanisms of “sensory stick a pencil in his penis. They would was in the management control unit disorientation” and “self-inflicted cut on themselves to gain contact with for 22 of the 28 years he served for the pain,” McCoy noted. (One example of staff nurses or just to draw attention to second of two convictions—the first causing self-inflicted pain is to force a themselves. These men made slinging for a bank robbery and the second for prisoner to stand without moving or to human feces ‘body waste’ daily like it a gun battle with a drug dealer. He kept hold some other stressful bodily posi- was a recognized sport. Some would his sanity, he told me, by following a tion for a long period.) The combina- eat it or rub it all over themselves as if strict regime of exercising in his tiny tion, government psychologists argued, it was body lotion. ... Prisoncrats use a cell, writing, meditating and tearing up would cause victims to feel responsible form of restraint, a bed crafted to strap newspapers to make collages that por- for their own suffering and accelerate men in four point Velcro straps. Both trayed his prison conditions. psychological disintegration. Sensory hands to the wrist and both feet to the

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 49 ankles and secured. Prisoners have Administrative segregation punish- system have never physically harmed been kept like this for 3-6 hours at a ment units were formed to isolate pris- another person but that “just about all time. Most times they would remove oners said to be psychologically trou- of these people have been harmed all their clothes. The Special bled. All were established in open vio- themselves.” And not only does the Confinement Unit used [water hoses] lation of the United Nations criminal justice sweep up the poor and on these men also. ... When prisons Convention Against Torture, the people of color, but slavery within the become overcrowded, prisoncrats will U.N.’s International Covenant on Civil prison system is permitted by the 13th do forced double bunking. Over- and Political Rights, and the Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, crowding issues present an assortment International Convention on the which reads: “Neither slavery nor of problems many of which results in Elimination of All Forms of Racial involuntary servitude, except as pun- violence. ... Prisoncrats will purposely Discrimination. Kerness calls it “the ishment for crime whereof the party house a ‘sex offender’ in a cell with war at home.” And she says it is only shall have been duly convicted, shall prisoners with sole intentions of hav- the latest variation of the long assault exist within the United States. …” ing him beaten up or even killed.” on the poor, especially people of color. This, Kerness said, “is at the core In 1913 Eastern State Penitentiary, “There are no former Jim Crow sys- how the labor of slaves was trans- in Philadelphia, discontinued its isola- tems,” Kerness said. “The transition formed into what people in prison call tion cages. Prisoners within the U.S. from slavery to Black Codes to convict neo-slavery.” Neo-slavery is an integral prison system would not be held in leasing to the Jim Crow laws to the part of the prison industrial complex, isolation again in large numbers until wars on poverty, veterans, youth and in which hundreds-of-thousands of the the turmoil of the 1960s and the rise of political activism in the 1960s has been nation’s prisoners, primarily people of the anti-war and civil rights move- a seamless evolution of political and color, are forced to work at involuntary ments along with the emergence of social incapacitation of poor people of labor for a dollar or less an hour. “If radical groups such as the Black color. The sophisticated fascism of the you call the New Jersey Bureau of Panthers. Trenton State Prison estab- practices of stop and frisk, charging Tourism you are most likely talking to lished a management control unit, or people in inner cities with ‘wandering,’ a prisoner at the Edna Mahan isolation unit, in 1975 for political pris- driving and walking while black, ZIP Correctional Institution for Women oners, mostly Black radicals such as code racism—these and many other de who is earning 23 cents an hour who Lutalo whom the state wanted to segre- facto practices all serve to keep our has no ability to negotiate working gate from the wider prison population. prisons full. In a system where 60 per- hours or working conditions,” she said. Those held in the isolation unit were cent of those who are imprisoned are The bodies of poor, unemployed rarely there because they had violated people of color, where students of color youths are worth little on the streets prison rules; they were there because of face harsher punishments in school but become valuable commodities their revolutionary beliefs—beliefs the than their white peers, where 58 per- once they are behind bars. prison authorities feared might reso- cent of African [American] youth … nate with other prisoners. In 1983 the are sent to adult prisons, where women “People have said to me that the federal prison in Marion, Illinois, insti- of color are 69 percent more likely to criminal justice system doesn’t work,” tuted a permanent lockdown, creating, be imprisoned and where offenders of Kerness said. “I’ve come to believe in essence, a prison-wide “control color receive longer sentences, the con- exactly the opposite—that it works unit.” By 1994 the Federal Bureau of cept of colorblindness doesn’t exist. perfectly, just as slavery did, as a matter Prisons, using the Marion model, built The racism around me is palpable.” of economic and political policy. How its maximum-security prison in is it that a 15-year-old in Newark who “The 1960s, when the last of the Jim the country labels worthless to the Florence, Colorado. The use of pro- Crow laws were reversed, this whole longed isolation and sensory depriva- economy, who has no hope of getting a new set of practices accepted by law job or affording college, can suddenly tion exploded. “Special housing units” enforcement was designed to continue were formed for the mentally ill. generate 20,000 to 30,000 dollars a year to feed the money-generating prison once trapped in the criminal justice “Security threat group management system, which has neo-slavery at its units” were formed for those accused system? The expansion of prisons, core,” she said. “Until we deeply recog- parole, probation, the court and police of gang activity. “Communications nize that the system’s bottom line is management units” were formed to systems has resulted in an enormous social control and creating a business bureaucracy which has been a boon to isolate Muslims labeled as terrorists. from bodies of color and the poor, Voluntary and involuntary protective everyone from architects to food ven- nothing can change.” She noted that dors—all with one thing in common, a custody units were formed. more than half of those in the prison

50 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 paycheck earned by keeping human Kerness has long been a crusader. In oned radicals in the 1960s including beings in cages. The criminalization of 1961 at the age of 19 she left New York members of the Black Panthers, the poverty is a lucrative business, and we to work for a decade in Tennessee in Black Liberation Army, the Puerto have replaced the social safety net with the civil rights struggle, including a Rican independence movement and a dragnet.” year at Tennessee’s Highlander the American Indian Movement, along Prisons are at once hugely expen- Research and Education Center, where with environmentalists, anti-imperial- sive—the country has spent some $300 Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. ists and civil rights activists. It is now billion on them since 1980—and, as trained. By the 1970s she was involved used extensively against Islamic mili- Kerness pointed out, hugely profitable. in housing campaigns for the poor in tants, jailhouse lawyers and political Prisons function in the same way the New Jersey. She kept running into prisoners. Many of those political pris- military-industrial complex functions. families that included incarcerated oners were part of radical Black under- The money is public and the profits are members. This led her to found Prison ground movements in the 1960s that private. “Privatization in the prison Watch. advocated violence. A few, such as industrial complex includes compa- The letters that pour into her office Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu- nies, which run prisons for profit while are disturbing. Female prisoners rou- Jamal, are well known, but most have at the same time gleaning profits from tinely complain of being sexually little public visibility—among them forced labor,” she said. “In the state of abused by guards. One prisoner wrote Sundiata Acoli, Mutulu Shakur, Imam New Jersey, food and medical services to her office: “That was not part of my Jamil Al-Amin (known as H. Rap are provided by corporations, which sentence to perform oral sex with offi- Brown when in the 1960s he was the have a profit motive. One recent explo- cers.” Other prisoners write on behalf chairman of the Student Nonviolent sion of private industry is the partner- of the mentally ill who have been left to Coordinating Committee), Jalil ing of Corrections Corporation of deteriorate in the prison system. One Bottom, Sekou Odinga, Abdul Majid, America with the federal government California prisoner told of a mentally Tom Manning and Bill Dunne. to detain close to one million undocu- ill man spreading feces over himself Those within the system who mented people. Using public monies to and the guards then dumping him into attempt to resist the abuse and mis- enrich private citizens is the history of a scalding bath that took skin off 30 treatment are dealt with severely. capitalism at its most exploitive.” percent of his body. Prisoners in the overcrowded Southern Those released from prison are woe- Kerness said the letters she receives Ohio Correctional Facility, a maxi- fully unprepared for re-entry. They from prisoners collectively present a mum-security prison in Lucasville, carry with them the years of trauma litany of “inhumane conditions includ- Ohio, staged a revolt in 1993 after years they endured. They often suffer from ing cold, filth, callous medical care, of routine beatings, degrading rituals the endemic health problems that extended isolation often lasting years, of public humiliation and the alleged come with long incarceration, includ- use of devices of torture, harassment, murders of prisoners by guards. The ing hepatitis C, tuberculosis and HIV. brutality and racism.” Prisoners send some 450 prisoners, who were able to They often do not have access to medi- her drawings of “four- and five-point unite antagonistic prison factions cations upon release to treat their restraints, restraint hoods, restraint including the Aryan Brotherhood and physical and mental illnesses. Finding belts, restraint beds, stun grenades, the Black Gangster Disciples, held out work is difficult. They feel alienated stun guns, stun belts, spit hoods, teth- for 11 days. It was one of the longest and are often estranged from friends ers, and waist and leg chains.” But the prison rebellions in U.S. history. Nine and family. More than 60 percent end worst torment, prisoners tell her, is the prisoners and a guard were killed by up back in prison. psychological pain caused by “no touch the prisoners during the revolt. The state responded with characteristic “How do you teach someone to rid torture” that included “humiliation, sleep deprivation, sensory disorienta- fury. It singled out some 40 prisoners themselves of degradation?” Kerness and eventually shipped them to Ohio asked. “How long does it take to teach tion, extreme light or dark, extreme cold or heat” and “extended solitary State Penitentiary (OSP), a supermax people to feel safe, a sense of empower- facility outside Youngstown that was ment in a world where they often come confinement.” These techniques, she said, are consciously designed to carry constructed in 1998. There prisoners home emotionally and physically dam- are held in solitary confinement 23 aged and unemployable? There are out “a systematic attack on all human stimuli.” hours a day in 7-by-11-foot cells. many reasons that ex-prisoners do not Prisoners at OSP almost never see the make it—paramount among them is The use of sensory deprivation was sun or have human contact. Those that they are not supposed to succeed.” applied by the government to impris- charged with participating in the upris-

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 51 ing have, in some cases, been held in Oregon Prisoners Driven to Suicide these punitive conditions at OSP or other facilities since the 1993 revolt. Torture in Solitary Confinement Units Five prisoners—Bomani Shakur, By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Jason Robb, George Skatzes and Namir Abdul confronted only twice by mental health Mateen—involved in the uprising were staff who indifferently left his cell when charged with murder. They are being he wasn’t responsive to their half- held in isolation on death row. hearted attempts to talk. Kerness says the for-profit prison Only after I verbally protested the companies have created an entrepre- blatant apathy of mental health and neurial class like that of the Southern medical staff to his condition, which slaveholders, one “dependent on the was obviously due to their collaborat- poor, and on bodies of color as a ing in his mental torture, was a nurse source for income,” and she describes brought to the cell to physically exam- federal and state departments of cor- ine him. Whereupon his blood pres- rections as “a state of mind.” This state sure was found extremely low and both of mind, she said in the interview, “led the nurse and accompanying guard to Abu Ghraib, Bagram and expressed that his mouth and skin showed obvious symptoms of severe Guantanamo and what is going on in Introduction U.S. prisons right this moment.” dehydration. In addition to not eating, I am not one prone to fits of temper. he’d also apparently not been drinking As long as profit remains an incen- But a few days ago I almost lost it. My water for several days although he was tive to incarcerate human beings and outrage was prompted by witnessing supposedly in a “monitored” cell. our corporate state abounds in surplus, the steady deterioration of another The nurse had him immediately redundant labor, there is little chance prisoner, resulting from particularly taken out of the unit, likely to the that the prison system will be reformed. acute mental torture inflicted in medical department since he didn’t It is making our corporate overlords Oregon’s Disciplinary Segregation return. The next day I was moved to wealthy. Our prisons serve the engine Units (DSU), which duplicate almost another unit as well. That was on of corporate capitalism, transferring exactly conditions of torture practiced November 14th. state money to private corporations. at Philadelphia’s Eastern State These corporations will continue to Penitentiary, that were outlawed by the A high tide of suicide stymie rational prison reform because 1 U.S. Supreme Court in the 1800s. I never learned his full name. The the system, however inhumane and The prisoner, who’d been housed in guards and other officials called him unjust, feeds corporate bank accounts. a suicide precaution cell next to me in only “Acosta” (presumably his last At its bottom the problem is not race— the DSU of Oregon’s Snake River name). In the DSU where we were con- although race plays a huge part in Correctional Institution (SRCI), went fined together, there are six suicide incarceration rates—nor is it finally into an immediate depressed state precaution cells. I was housed next to poverty; it is the predatory nature of upon being put into the DSU. Initially, one of them. corporate capitalism itself. And until he talked a little. Then abruptly with- we slay the beast of corporate capital- These precaution cells have in-cell drew. He stopped eating, to which the ism, until we wrest power back from video cameras and prisoners confined guards were unanimously indifferent. corporations, until we build social to them are generally given only a blue Several taunted him, “if you don’t eat it institutions and a system of gover- nylon smock-like garment to wear, a I will.” He then stuffed toilet paper and nance designed not to profit the few nylon blanket, and a mattress. the cell’s mattress into the cracks but foster the common good, our pris- Throughout my DSU assignment at around the edges of the door, appar- on industry and the horror it perpetu- SRCI these cells were always occupied ently to seal off all outside sound and ates will only expand. and a constantly changing rotation of “barricade” himself in. prisoners were kept on watch as a —trugthdig.com, March 17, 2013 He blacked out the camera in the result of suicide attempts and ide- http://www.truthdig.com/report/ cell, and began talking to himself. He ations. In 22 years of imprisonment, I item/the_shame_of_americas_ sat catatonic in the corner of the cell have never seen such a consistently gulag_20130317/ and naked for days on end. He was high and continuous series of suicide

52 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 cases, which I immediately recognized cal torture) as a behavior modification placed on level one for a month, which to result from the extreme sensory technique, with the assistance of men- is even more restrictive and extreme in deprivation of DSU housing. tal health staff whose professional role sensory deprivation than DSU hous- and concern are supposed to be main- ing. And for every infraction he then Compelling idle minds taining prisoners in healthy mental receives, his level one assignment is Prior to my Oregon Department of states, not aiding in inflicting mental extended. Such conditions often put Corrections (ODOC) assignment in pain and injury on them. This is no dif- prisoners struggling to maintain their February 2012, I’d spent 17 years in ferent from the doctors and nurses sanity in a catch-22, where coping solitary confinement, enduring various who aided the gruesome medical prompts resisting their torturing con- extremes of sensory deprivation. experiments and tortures of concentra- finement, and that very resistance During that time I witnessed numer- tion camp prisoners in Nazi Germany. prompts infractions which intensify ous prisoners deteriorate mentally 4 Indeed, I was moved from the DSU and prolong that confinement. under the conditions of solitary. But in with the suicide precaution cells, when On the level one IMU status, the most cases, it took months to years I spoke out in protest to and against prisoner may have only one novel per because there was a limited amount of one of the DSU staff, D. Jennings, as week, and cannot even come out of the access to in-cell property and one could she indifferently left Acosta’s cell, ask- cell for fresh air inside the walled-in use the telephone periodically. ing why she was condoning his and all enclosure, with only a small patch of However, in Oregon’s DSU no per- our mental torture under DSU condi- the sky visible, that passes for an exer- sonal property is allowed, beyond a tions, referring to the high frequency of cise yard. pen, writing paper, and, if one can suicide attempts in the unit, and citing afford it and has anyone to regularly Then, too, as a Security Threat numerous studies of psychiatric and correspond with, a few mailing enve- Management (STM) lieutenant, torture experts on sensory deprivation lopes. One cannot use the telephone to Schultz, here at SRCI, boasted in my and its being a known form of psycho- communicate with loved ones at all. presence on September 18, 2012, he logical torture and one of the most One can’t have personal books even. personally imposes indefinite statuses hurtful and damaging forms at that. Not even law books. on select IMU prisoners where they are Her response was to walk away with left in completely empty cells all day, In DSU a prisoner may only receive guards laughing. She then gave me a given bedding and linen from 10:00 up to three novels from a small rolling scornful stare as she left the unit. P.M. to 6:00 A.M. daily, and are allowed book cart kept in the unit, many of I’ve learned from ODOC prisoners, writing supplies for no more than four which are missing bindings and pages. officials and ODOC’s own publicly hours per day. He actually admitted to Such reading per se does little to stimu- accessible policies—the Oregon me this was torture and violated the late the mind and denies one the Administrative Rules (OARs)3—that prisoners’ constitutional rights, but opportunity and right to select his own ODOC officials very deliberately use proclaimed himself immune from all subjects and fields of research and psychological torture as a behavior liability (i.e. above the law), because study.2 The three novels may only be modification technique, which is one ODOC policy empowered him to do exchanged from the cart once per week. reason the DSU is designed as it is. pretty much as he pleases to prisoners DSU prisoners are heard frequently Those found in violation of minor or as an STM official.5 complaining that having nothing else major prison rules are invariably sen- I, in turn, sent Schultz a written to do, they complete novels in two to tenced to months of mental torture in request that same day pointing out that three days, and are otherwise left com- DSU: typically four to six months at a he was not in fact immune for violating pletely idle and “bored out of their time, which amounts to prolonged tor- the law because he believes his policy- minds.” Meantime the deterioration ture as a deterrent to rules violations. making superiors gave him authority to sets in: the constant cell-pacing or cata- Worse still is the ODOC’s Intensive do so. I then pointed out the sort of tonic states, incessantly talking to one- Management Unit (IMU) where I am character he and his colleagues are, who self, depression, irrational searches for now confined. A housing status that lasts presume to punish others by imprison- stimulation, and of course, self mutila- from seven months to indefinitely, dur- ment for breaking laws, when they in tion and suicide attempts. ing which a prisoner must pass through fact have no respect for the very same Torture by design four levels—which requires that he laws themselves—and the highest law of And ODOC officials know what reveal his every thought to his torturers. the land that they are under oath to they’re doing. They consciously use Those housed in IMU who receive uphold at that, namely the U.S. acute sensory deprivation (psychologi- rules infractions are automatically Constitution. And although ODOC rules

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 53 required that Schultz respond to my lently insane; others still, committed “EEG studies going back to the nine- request within seven days, he never suicide; while those who stood the teen-sixties have shown diffuse slowing replied.6 Yet, he sees to prisoners being ordeal were not reformed, and in most of brain waves in prisoners after a week tortured for them violating ODOC rules. cases did not recover sufficient mental or more of solitary confinement. In One prisoner who’s been confined activity to be of subsequent service to 1992, fifty-seven prisoners of war, 7 in the ODOC for some time— the community.” released after an average of six months in detention camps in the former Damascus Menefee—informed me of Unite to fight prison torture an ODOC scandal a few years back, Yugoslavia, were examined using EEG- Today, as the world joins U.S. pris- where it was exposed in the media that like-tests. The recordings revealed brain oners in protest against ongoing soli- several DSU and IMU prisoners had abnormalities months afterward: the tary confinement in prisons across the committed suicide, but were not dis- most severe were found in prisoners country—from the United Nations covered by officials for hours, because who had endured either head trauma denouncing the practice of torture8 to guards weren’t tending their posts and sufficient to render them unconscious mass demonstrations in support of refused to make required security or, yes, solitary confinement: without hunger striking prisoners protesting rounds in the housing units. As a sustained social interaction, the human solitary9—the ODOC has managed result, the ODOC installed electronic brain may become as impaired as one somehow to remain under the radar, 13 devices in the DSUs and IMU that that has incurred a traumatic injury.” where the most intense sensory depri- monitor and record the guards’ rounds As said, these hypocrites running vation is being inflicted on prisoners, in the units. What was also exposed the DOC are fully aware of what they’re and prisoners are literally dying to during this scandal was that the condi- doing. They know they’re engaged in escape it.10 tions of the DSUs and IMU were caus- torture of prisoners as lawless as if they ing an extremely high incidence of And it’s known torture; of the same were water boarding and electrocuting suicides and suicide attempts in the sort inflicted in U.S. torture research us. That they pretend to have a moral ODOC. However, nothing was done to labs like at Guantanamo Bay, where authority to punish others for breaking change these conditions that still exist, U.S. military personnel in collabora- laws they don’t respect themselves is and, as I have observed, continue to tion with psychiatrists and psycholo- what fueled my outrage, as I watched drive prisoners at an extraordinary rate gists, inflicted, studied and refined others around me retreat into insanity, into suicidal ideations and actions. various methods and effects of psycho- mentally deteriorate and literally resort logical torture on detainees (especially to self-destruction in efforts to stop History repeats itself sensory deprivation), which came out their suffering. As pointed out, the DSU and IMU in the U.S. military torture scandals of Here on the inside, the hypocrisy of conditions replicate abuses outlawed 2004 and led to ongoing mass protests those in power is blatant. Because we over a century ago at the Eastern State to close down Guantanamo. Professor “in here” so long disconnected from Penitentiary, where solitary confine- Alfred McCoy also wrote an extensive those “out there” are powerless in the ment was first tried as a method of historical study and exposure of U.S. face of our armed captors, our tortur- “reforming” criminals, but only proved military and CIA involvement in refin- ers feel little need to sugar coat reality to drive them insane. ing techniques of mental torture for and hide their true face as they do with decades.11 Whereas DSU and IMU level one the outside masses. prisoners are locked in solitary cells Experts in the field know very well Here in Oregon the public seems with only novels, at Eastern State they that sensory deprivation causes suffer- oblivious to the abuses carried out in were confined in solitary with only a ing and injury at least as extensive and their names within its prisons; abuses bible to read, where they were expected often more severe than physical torture that also unbeknownst to them they to ponder and make penance (hence and injury. As psychiatrist and torture stand to suffer from, because these tor- the name “Penitentiary”) for their expert Dr. Albert Biderman observed: tured souls around me will be returned wrongs. The actual effects of such con- “The effect of isolation on the brain back to those communities from finement, as the Supreme Court found, function of the prisoner is much like whence they left. So for the sake of all were quite different: that which occurs if he is beaten, concerned, it’s in these communities’ “A considerable number of prison- starved or deprived of sleep.”12 interests to end this prison torture and ers fell, after even a short confinement, Furthermore, studies find that sensory hold those responsible to account. into a semi-fatuous condition, from deprivation inflicted in solitary con- Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win! which it was next to impossible to finement even briefly actually causes arouse them, and others became vio- physical brain damage. All Power to the People

54 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 Kevin “Rashid” Johnson Lorenzo Johnson—An Innocent Man Freed from #19370490 Prison, Only to Be Re-incarcerated! Snake River Correctional Institution 777 Stanton Blvd. In the course of little more than a Lorenzo Johnson was arrested and Ontario, OR 97914 year, Lorenzo Johnson, an innocent charged with being an accomplice to the man falsely convicted of murder who murder of a Harrisburg man, Taraja won his freedom last January after 16 Williams, in 1996, some three months 1 In re Medley, 134 U.S. 160 (1890). years in prison, has suffered two night- after the murder outside a bar. Johnson 2 As the courts have held: “Freedom of speech is not merely freedom to speak; it is often free- marish turns of events. Four months was charged after turning down a plea dom to read. . . Forbid a person to read and you after Johnson’s release from prison, the of 5-10 years and refusing to finger an shut him out of the marketplace of ideas and U.S. Supreme Court summarily acquaintance, Corey Walker, for the opinions that it is the free-speech clause to pro- reversed the 3rd Circuit Court of murder and a drug dealing charge. tect.” King v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 415 F. Appeals, which had overturned his There was no eyewitness to the murder 3d 634, 638 (2005). conviction on the grounds of insuffi- and no ballistics evidence tying him to 3 All of the ODOC’s Oregon Administrative cient evidence. Johnson voluntarily the shooting. The photographs of the Rules can be read at: www.arcweb.sos.state.or.us. The OARs relevant to this article are OAR 291- returned to prison to continue his legal scene show that the shooting could not 011 (Disciplinary Segregation), OAR 291-055 fight. Then on April 17, 2013 the very have happened as the prosecution said. (Intensive Management Unit), and OAR 291- same judges of the 3rd Circuit Court of Johnson also had alibi witnesses—he 069 (Security Threat Management). Appeals who had previously freed him was in New York City at the time of the 4 On this phenomenon see, Dr. Atul formally vacated their ruling and shooting. At the trial, the main prosecu- Gawadne; “Hellhole: the United States holds refused to even hear his motion for a tion witness testified that Johnson was thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture? The New Yorker, hearing on additional grounds that his present in the bar during arguments March 30, 2009. conviction was obtained by police mis- between his co-defendant and the 5 See OAR on STM, op cit. note 3. conduct in violation of due process. deceased. But initially she told detec- 6 Per OAR 291-109-1020 (4) ODOC staff are Lorenzo Johnson now faces starting tives she knew nothing about the shoot- to reply to prisoners’ written requests (“Kytes”) over with his legal fight for his inno- ing and hadn’t seen Johnson. The bar within seven days. cence and freedom. owner and bouncer testified that 7 See, op cit. note 1 on page 168. 8 On October 18, 2011 UN torture expert, Juan Méndez, denounced U.S. solitary confinement practices as torture and called on all countries to ban its practice except in extremely exceptional circumstances and for as short a time as possible. See “UN News: Solitary Con- finement Should be Banned in Most Cases, UN Expert Says,” October 18, 2011. 9 On July 1 and September 29, 2011 six thousand and 12,000 prisoners respectively in Cali- fornia prisons went on hunger strikes lasting three weeks both times, protesting, among other things, long-term solitary confinement in Security Housing Units. Mass support for these hunger strikes spanned the country. 10 A prisoner confined next to me, as I write this, witnessed two suicides occurring during or about May and July 2012 at Oregon State Correctional Institutions, Segregation Units, in Salem Oregon. This witness being Zachary Dickson. 11 Alfred McCoy, A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror, (New York: Henry Holt, 2006). 12 Albert Biderman, et al, The Manipula- tion of Human Behavior (New York, 1961) p. 29. 13 Op cit. note 4.

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 55 Johnson was not in the bar that night. petition for certiorari (review) to the release on my Brady violation Another prosecution witness said on U.S. Supreme Court. This was statisti- claim—the suppression of material the witness stand that he had been cally and legally unlikely. The district evidence favorable to the defense— threatened by the police to say he saw court judge who had initially denied that had merit. Not only did they Johnson on the street near the shooting. his petition held a bond hearing since deny my appeal, they would not retrial was barred given a dismissal on even grant me a hearing to hear my Johnson challenged his conviction claim. The same court that restored grounds of insufficient evidence. on several grounds. One was that the my faith in justice, destroyed it. Johnson’s family and friends as well as evidence, even as presented by the “How can the Appeals Court prosecution, did not make out a case four PA corrections officers testified on his behalf. Over the objection of the PA vacate a life sentence and deem it that he was an accomplice in, or in unconstitutional then turn around Attorney General he was released on agreement with, the murder of the and won’t even hear my appeal? I deceased. In his direct appeal to the January 18, 2012. am the same person the 3rd Circuit Pennsylvania Superior Court, one He reunited with his family—moth- Court released due to insufficient judge dissented stating, “I believe there er, brother, sister, children. He had a evidence and barred a retrial. is no direct evidence, nor can any be new wife, a job as a construction work- “I’m one of MANY wrongful inferred, linking defendant Johnson to er and was active fighting for the release convictions. Whenever someone is the death of Taraja William nor any of others who were wrongly convicted. wrongfully convicted of a crime, it agreement with defendant Walker Johnson thought the agony of life affects the falsely accused, victims, which resulted in William’s death.” imprisonment without parole—slow families, taxpayers, and society as a whole. Lorenzo Johnson continued to fight death row—was over. his frame-up conviction and filed a However, the state’s petition for “My family, friends and job are state post-conviction relief petition review was accepted by Supreme Court still waiting on me and I will take over where I left off. At the end of and a federal petition for a writ of Judge Scalia although it was filed late by the day I’m still a son, father, broth- habeas corpus reasserting the fact that the PA Attorney General. In a unani- er and uncle. I will continue to speak there was no legal evidence against him mous decision, on May 29, 2012, the out against wrongful convictions. and that his conviction was the result United States Supreme Court summarily One second is too long for an inno- of police coercion or favors to wit- reversed the Third Circuit Court of cent person to spend in prison.” nesses. In particular, the prosecution Appeals’ grant of habeas corpus relief. For more information: www. swore that a witness against Johnson Lorenzo Johnson was forced to return to FreeLorenzoJohnson.org had not been given any deals to say prison on June 14, 2012 with only a few Johnson was present during an argu- days’ notice. On April 17, 2013 the 3rd Lorenzo Johnson’s family encour- ment between co-defendant Walker Circuit Court of Appeals denied a new ages everyone outraged by this injus- and the deceased. Just days after hearing on the basis of his claims of tice to write or call the PA Attorney Johnson’s conviction, witness Victoria police and prosecutorial misconduct in General and Demand: Free Lorenzo Doubs was sentenced on an unrelated obtaining witness testimony against him. Johnson, Now! robbery charge and the prosecution Lorenzo Johnson issued the follow- — April 23, 2013 put on the record her cooperation in ing statement: testifying against Johnson. On the “After spending 16-and-a-half Kathleen G. Kane, Attorney General prosecution’s recommendation she years in prison for a crime I’m inno- Office of the Attorney General, 16th Floor was immediately released from prison. cent of, the 3rd Circuit Court of Strawberry Square In October 2011, Johnson’s convic- Appeals granted my release and Harrisburg, PA 17120 tion was overturned by the federal restored my broken faith that justice Phone: 717-787-3391 Third Circuit Court of Appeals, agree- for the innocent does exist. The U.S. Fax: 717-787-5211 ing that the evidence used to convict Supreme Court failed justice four him was insufficient. That was a deci- months later by reversing the 3rd Write to: sion that Lorenzo Johnson was legally Circuit decision and reinstating my Lorenzo Johnson DF1036 life sentence. Once again my fate innocent and could not be retried. The SCI Mahanoy rested in the hands of the judges 301 Morea Road PA state Attorney General was left with from the 3rd Circuit Court of Frackville, PA 17932 only one possible challenge to the rul- Appeals. For ten months I hoped ing of the federal appeals court—a this panel of judges would grant my

56 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 Innocent! Lorenzo Johnson interviews Jeffrey Deskovic

In 2012 I was released from prison Lorenzo Johnson: How long did it In our battle against wrongful con- (only to be subsequently re-incarcerat- take to find someone to believe in you victions, we have four prongs: ed). During my 4-1/2 months of freedom and your innocence to help you fight 1. Raising public awareness—this I became best friends with a fellow exon- for your freedom? involves doing lectures across the eree, Jeffrey Deskovic, who I was in touch Jeffrey Deskovic: My appeals were country, TV and radio interviews, with while I was in prison. I conducted exhausted in 2001, and almost nobody press conferences, sometimes this interview with Jeffrey through the was answering my letters seeking assis- marches, and posting wrongful mail. —Lorenzo Johnson tance until 2005, when investigator conviction articles; Lorenzo Johnson: What were you in Claudia Whitman answered a letter 2. Seeking legislative changes—try- prison for, and how much time did you that I actually wrote to a book author. ing to get wrongful conviction do? She encouraged me to write to The prevention legislation passed; Innocence Project again, and she lob- Jeffrey Deskovic: I was wrongfully 3. Exonerating the innocent—when bied the organization to take my case. imprisoned for 16 years, despite a nega- deciding which cases to work on, tive DNA test, from age 17-33, wrong- Once the further testing was complet- we ask ourselves two questions: fully imprisoned for murder and rape. ed, I was released the next day. does the applicant have at least a My wrongful conviction was based Lorenzo Johnson: What was your colorable claim of innocence upon a coerced, false confession, reaction when you found out that your based on something objective, extracted from me over more than nightmare was over and you were and whether we see a path for- seven hours, featuring a threat, false finally going home? ward that we can go down which promise, withholding of food, all while can theoretically lead us to being attached to a polygraph machine Jeffrey Deskovic: When Nina uncover previously unknown evi- in a small room with a mountain of a Morrison, my lawyer, told me that the dence of innocence so we can polygraph technician towering over DNA matched the real perpetrator and make an actual innocence claim me, getting more and more ferocious as that I would be going home the next in court. We don’t limit ourselves each hour passed; basically the third- day, I went into a type of mental paral- to DNA cases only like most degree, all of this happening in a differ- ysis and couldn’t accept it for three organizations in the field do; we ent county than I live in, having been hours. Then, once she told me she also take on non-DNA cases. driven there by the police. By the offi- needed my clothing and shoe sizes so Currently we can only handle cers’ own testimony, by the end of the other people from The Innocence non-DNA cases in New York, interrogation, I was on the floor, crying Project could go shopping for me, and New Jersey, and Connecticut, uncontrollably in a fetal position. Other that there was other prep work to be while we handle DNA cases factors include prosecutorial miscon- done with the media, then it seemed nationwide. duct, fraud by the medical examiner, real. Then I started worrying that and an inept public defender. something would happen between the 4. Re-integration—helping those rest of the day and the next day and the Lorenzo Johnson: When was the who have been freed put their DA would change her mind. I was so evidence discovered that proved your lives back together again. used to the state doing what they always innocence, and how long did it take to Lorenzo Johnson: You have assem- get you out of prison? did—oppose me and win. bled a nice core of good people in Jeffrey Deskovic: In September Lorenzo Johnson: You have offi- Richard Blassberg, Rita Dave, Millie 2006, I finally was able to get more cially committed your life to helping Gutierrez, and an investigator. How sophisticated DNA testing via the DNA the wrongfully convicted by opening does it feel to oversee your own Databank, which not only reaffirmed your own foundation, can you please Foundation? my innocence, but also identified the let us know how your Foundation Jeffrey Deskovic: Surreal. It’s hard actual perpetrator, who, left free while functions? to believe that I have people working I served time for his crime, struck Jeffrey Deskovic: We only work on for me. Yet, there’s a lot of responsibil- again, killing another victim three- cases of actual innocence in which the ity. It’s primarily my job to raise funds and-a-half years later. I was released defendant is not involved in any way, by building a donor base of common the next day. shape or fashion in the crime. people. Politics aside, the President

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 57 raised $100 million dollars mostly on involving me, Lorenzo Johnson. Not Jeffrey Deskovic: The injustice in donations of $10 to $100, which shows only are you my friend but your your case is clear: the finding by the that if we all do a little, we can accom- Foundation also co-represents me? federal judge that there was legally plish a lot. We also need to land big insufficient evidence is tantamount to a donors, as well as build the visibility of not-guilty verdict. You should not, the Foundation. I finally was able to get therefore, be in prison. It’s crazy that the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Lorenzo Johnson: Has your more sophisticated DNA Foundation been involved in any cases DAs certiorari and reinstated the con- yet? testing via the DNA viction all at the same time, without allowing your lawyers to fully brief the Jeffrey Deskovic: Yes, we just played Databank, which not issue. Had you lost at the Third Circuit a role in helping William Lopez undo only reaffirmed my and petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court his wrongful conviction after he had for certiorari, no doubt you would have been wrongfully imprisoned for twen- innocence, but also been denied, as defendants are rou- ty-three-and-a-half years. We current- identified the actual tinely denied everyday despite often ly have 12 cases that are under active perpetrator, who, left having the facts and the law on one’s investigation. free while I served time side. The patent unfairness of every- Lorenzo Johnson: What are your thing is so blatant even Stevie Wonder general observations about the massive for his crime, struck could see it. Having to accompany you scale of wrongfully convicted people in again, killing another back to prison was one of the most the U.S. prison system? victim three-and-a-half traumatic events I have ever had to par- Jeffrey Deskovic: That although ticipate in. I still have a hard time deal- this can happen to anyone, wrongful years later. I was ing with it mentally and emotionally. convictions disproportionately affect released the next day. Lorenzo Johnson: Is there a way that minorities. people can help you help the innocent? Lorenzo Johnson: What is your If so, what is your contact information’? opinion about the shocking injustice Jeffrey Deskovic: I need supporters to back my advocacy work with the power of the people. I am asking all those who are concerned with wrongful convictions and are willing to do something about it to text the word “Deskovic” to 50555. [SMS subscription service. Up to 4msg/mo. Msg&Data Rates May Apply. Text STOP to Deskovic to STOP. Full terms: mGive.com/E Privacy Policy: mGive.org/P] By doing so, they will be opting to get text-message alerts about where I am speaking next, upcoming radio and television interviews, wrongful conviction events, rallies, marches, other grassroots activities, as well as other advocacy initiatives I and the Foundation are engaging in. To contact the Foundation: The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice 133 W 72nd Street NY, NY 10023 Jeffrey Deskovic and Lorenzo Johnson Email address: JeffreyDeskovicFoundation@ gmail.com

58 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 Mumia is Innocent! Free Mumia Now! Solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal—Sign Now Life imprisonment is an outrage! Free Mumia Now! For almost three decades he was held in solitary confinement under the threat of execution, until the courts finally ruled his death sentence was illegal. In December 2011, the Philadelphia DA Seth Williams, backed by the Fraternal Order of Police, and Edward Rendell, former Pennsylvania Governor, Philadelphia Mayor and the DA who prosecuted Mumia, conceded defeat in trying to legally lynch him for the shooting death of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Now, after a secret proceeding with no notice to Mumia, Mumia is sentenced to “slow death row,” life imprisonment without parole. Mumia’s trial was a political and racist frame-up Mumia was targeted by the FBI and Philadelphia police as a spokesman for the Black Panther Party; hated by the police and the notorious police commissioner and then mayor Frank Rizzo for exposing the murderous treatment of the MOVE organization. Mumia is an award winning journalist and a supporter of the MOVE organization. He continues to be the outspoken, truth-telling “voice of the voiceless.” The state wants to silence and entomb for life this man who is known as a “long distance revolutionary.” The notorious trial judge, Albert Sabo, was a self-proclaimed racist and openly biased against Mumia Sabo proclaimed months before the trial, “I’m going to help fry the n-----.” All elements of due process—the right to a fair trial—were violated. Every part of the prosecution’s case—witness testimony, Mumia’s supposed confession and ballistics—is a lie. Witnesses to Mumia’s innocence, Veronica Jones and William Singletary were coerced from telling the truth at Mumia’s trial The state and federal courts have refused to consider the mountains of evidence showing that Mumia’s guilt was fabricated and Mumia’s innocence was suppressed. The evidence of Mumia’s innocence includes: the sworn statements of Mumia’s brother, William Cook, that a passenger in his car, Ken Freeman, participated in the shooting and ran away; that a drivers license belonging to someone other than Cook or Mumia was found in Faulkner’s hand; and the confession of Arnold Beverly that he—not Mumia—shot and killed police officer Faulkner. Photographs from the crime scene prove the police fabricated the ballistics and the entire case against Mumia. Mumia had nothing to do with the shooting. His sworn statement of innocence was not allowed into the court record. Inspector Alfonzo Giordano, one of the highest-ranking Philadelphia police officers, was the architect of the frame-up He was the sidekick of Frank Rizzo and raided the Black Panther Party offices in 1968 and was in charge of the year- long blockade and 1978 assault on MOVE in their Powelton Village house. Giordano was also a corrupt cop and a target of FBI/Department of Justice investigation into police racketeering at the time police officer Faulkner was killed. He falsified witness identification, ballistics and a confession. The Department of Justice and then DA Edward Rendell covered this up during Mumia’s trial to convict Mumia for a crime he did not commit. Mumia should have never spent one day in jail Mumia’s case exposes the race and class bias of he entire capitalist judicial system. The state demands his slow death in prison as retaliation to his defiant resistance to state repression and racial oppression. But Mumia has not been silenced. We stand with Mumia. Mumia’s freedom is part of our own struggle for justice and human liberation. We demand: Free Mumia Now! Release Mumia Immediately from the Hellhole of Prison! Sign now at: www.laboractionmumia.org, Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, P.O. Box 16222, Oakland, CA 94610, (510) 763-2347, labor donated, March 2013.

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 59 What’s a ‘Jailhouse Environmentalist?’ By Mumia Abu-Jamal

met and made deals with the South When a local reporter tried to belit- African SASOL Industry, and before tle him by referencing his criminal long, he announced plans for a major conviction, Arroyo simply went back coal-to-liquid gas project, literally right to work, and before long over 900 let- next door to the state prison in ters flooded the offices of the Township Mahanoy. Supervisors. By every measure, this was a done His activities even attracted the deal, for Rich, his family and colleagues attention and support of CELDEF, the contributed to federal, state and local Community Environmental Legal politicians who supported his plan Defense and Educational Fund, which without dissent, and he was even bi- crafted an ordinance for the Township partisan in this effort, gaining the barring any non-renewable energy praise and support of Democratic projects, which threatened the area’s Governor, Ed Rendell. health and safety. State permits were issued for the Even prison guards, through their $800 million plant, and state subsidies union local, opposed the project, with Mumia Abu-Jamal cut the costs by hundreds-of-millions union secretary Timothy Teltow (a of bucks. prison guard and resident of nearby Most of us have heard of jailhouse But, Arroyo, a curious and inquisi- Shenandoah), telling reporters, “I just lawyers—guys and gals who battle in can’t see why this facility is being built court for themselves or others. tive man, having read about the proposed plant in local papers, felt uneasy. right next to a state penitentiary.” But I’d wager few of us have ever “What if this isn’t safe?” he won- Eventually, within a few years, the heard of a “jailhouse environmental- done deal was done. Over. Dead. ist.” Truth is I didn’t think such a thing dered. existed. He visited the prison library, asked An $800 million coal gasification plant, supported by powerful corpora- Well, it’s real; and his name is Bryant for the environmental impact statement, a study required by the tions (like Bechtel, and Texaco), and Arroyo, a bilingual Puerto Rican who politicians like the late senator Arlen has spent a third of his life in prison, at Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He read it—read it again—and Specter, and ex-senator Rick Santorum, SCI-Mahanoy in Southeastern had to submit. Pennsylvania. determined he would do everything in his power to stop it. But it began when one man, a prisoner Arroyo didn’t plan on such an But what could one man—a pris- no less, Bryant Arroyo, became a “jail- endeavor, as he is, already, a jailhouse house environmentalist” and said no. lawyer. But, like much in life, it was oner at that—do? forced on him. He talked to everybody he could, —Dread Times, February 17, 2013 In 1998 former Pennsylvania gangbangers, guards—everybody. http://dreadtimes.com/blogs/entry/ Governor Tom Ridge invited an area Under prison rules, petitions are for- What-s-a-Jailhouse-Environmentalist businessman to join him on a trek to bidden. So, he wrote a letter and made South Africa. He, John W. Rich, Jr., hundreds of copies to Mahanoy was a power plant operator and a Township Supervisors—each mailed by Write to Mumia at: major landowner in the Mahanoy one prisoner. Within weeks, the local Mumia Abu-Jamal AM-8335 Susquehanna County area, a distressed, Township Supervisors had received SCI-Mahanoy impoverished region where coalmines over 400 letters—and they appeared in 301 Morea Road have closed down decades ago. Rich a local paper looking disturbed. Frackville, PA 17932

60 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 The Last Day By Mumia Abu-Jamal

One day, one day relatively quite the worsening state of the national tutions that do not return those loyal- soon, the administration under Black community. ties. Colonial governments. Political President Barack Hussein Obama will Eight years will have passed, and by parties. The Army. State governments. come to an end, and enter the realm of every measure, Black life will have And yes, presidents—even Black ones. history. become more unsteady, more chal- Symbols are powerful things (and Eight years will have passed, true. lenging, more raucous—and more the essence of politics is symbol.) But But it will pass with a swiftness that is brutal. when they are empty of substance, they difficult to articulate. Some will say that the concerns of become hollow. Barack Obama, son of a Kenyan Black America shouldn’t be his, for he —PrisonRadio.org, February 10, goatherd and unsuccessful civil ser- is President of all America. 2013 vant, this most unlikely of candidates, But, before all others, Black will yield his place to another. Americans have been his most loyal And while history will have certainly constituency—of all constituencies, why Supreme Justice? been made, the stuff of books, muse- should those who are the most support- By Mumia Abu-Jamal ums and presidential trivia, another ive get the least of everything else? Did you hear the one about the kind of history, a quieter kind, will also What kind of political logic is that? Supreme Court Justice who got con- have been made. Moreover, what other constituency victed of a slew of felonies? The history of Black America, writ- would accept it? If not, I don’t blame you. ten more in song than on paper, will record not the best of times; but, far “I’m voting for you, man—but I It may sound like a joke, but I too often, the worst of times. don’t want nothing! No better schools! assure you, it isn’t. I want more police terrorism! I want Unemployment, dropout rates, And the reason it isn’t better known judges to spit on me more! I don’t is, well—it’s Pennsylvania. foreclosures, mass incarceration lev- want no jobs for nobody in the ’hood!?” els—each and all of these will show This is a state where a Supreme significant gains, and paradoxically, Africans in America have had a long Court justice, Joan Orie-Melvin, is and tortured history of loyalty to insti- convicted of half-a-dozen corruption charges, just several months after her sister, Jane Orie, a state senator, no less, got convicted of several crimes related to her sister’s election campaign to the state’s highest court. But, as I said, it’s Pennsylvania. Here, judges run for elections just as do other politicians, and they need to raise vast sums of money for media buys. Isn’t that a legalized recipe for corruption? That’s no joke. And guess what? In Pennsylvania (and elsewhere it seems) it’s not really news. Why not? Hmmmm…. —PrisonRadio.org, March 1, 2013

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 61 Vampire Holiday: The Passing of Chávez By Mumia Abu-Jamal

The death of Venezuelan President, Argentina’s president, Cristina that CITGO—a wholly owned subsid- Hugo Chávez has brought out the Kirchner also ordered three days of iary of Venezuela oil did so with malicious and carnal glee of the corpo- mourning to mark the passing of Chávez. Chávez’s blessings? rate press, who report breathlessly, not For millions of Latin Americans, Would an “anti-American” make only on his mortal passing, but an end Chávez brought dignity to them, by sure that over a million Americans are to the Bolivarian Revolution. refusing to play the puppet for El warm in winter, at reduced cost? They are the voices of their vampire, Norte—the U.S. Empire. Chávez was anti-imperialist, and he Wall Street bosses, who delight in owning He helped found ALBA, the opposed how the U.S. ran roughshod more of the earth, no matter how much International Latin American Bank, and over Latin American countries and misery they may cause for millions. became, in Fidel Castro’s retirement, a their independence, at will. In fact, Chávez was beloved by the son of his spirit who learned from his When he took to the rostrum of the vast majority of Venezuelans, poor, mentor, how to resist the Empire. UN and said, “The devil was here yes- Indian, and African, who saw in him According to virtually every newspa- terday,” and that the place “smelled of their rising in the world. per in America, Chávez was “anti- sulfur,” he was a global hit—except for Upon his death, seven nations American.” U.S. puppets. declared days of mourning in his hon- Why? Because he refused to bow, The “devil” was U.S. imperialism ored memory; Cuba, Chile, Uruguay, scrape and kiss the boots of Empire? still a dangerous drone-invading, bomb Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and Iran. dropping threat to millions worldwide. Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, Because he wanted the oil wealth of decreed three days of mourning, and the nation to be used for Venezuelans, Chávez, on the other hand, was called Chávez an inspiration of the instead of investors on Wall Street? loved and admired by millions, both in revolutionary transformation sweep- How many of us know that CITGO and out of Venezuela. ing through Latin America. provided low cost heating oil to over ¡Viva Hugo Chávez! one-and-a-half million Americans, and —PrisonRadio.org, March 8, 2013

BOOK REVIEW Control Unit Prisons A Microcosm of the Nation Book Review By Ron Jacobs

Out of Control: A Fifteen-Year Battle prisons along with a feature or two, the law and the subsequent days spent Against Control Unit Prisons, by Nancy some book reviews, some prisoner in jail here and there. Kurshan, A New Book from the poetry and art. I stopped working for The same cannot be said for Nancy Freedom Archives, http://freedo- the journal when the funding dried up. Kurshan and the people whose work marchives.org/Out_of_Control/ Before that work, I had never spent she so artfully chronicles in the recent- In the late 1990s and early part of much time working on prison-related ly released book Out of Control: A this century I worked as a researcher issues. Sure, I had attended forums and Fifteen Year Battle Against Control Unit and writer for the journal Southland rallies supporting various political Prisons. Kurshan, a lifelong political Prison News. This small journal usually prisoners and prisoner rights ever since activist, (among other things, she is ran about thirty pages and was sent out the uprising and massacre at Attica one of the founders of the Yippies) is to prisoners incarcerated primarily in prison in 1971, but my political work an ardent opponent of the U.S. prison the U.S. South. Edited by an inmate in usually did not involve prison issues. system, especially those prisons known Virginia, each issue contained a digest Perhaps this came from a distaste as control unit prisons. Her book tells of articles concerning prisoners and acquired through various brushes with of the genesis and growth of these units

62 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3 tion. This is not because Blacks and Wright, whose book Black Robes, White Latinos are more likely to be criminals. Justice was one of the first books to dis- It is because U.S. laws and the police that cuss in plain terms the role the U.S. enforce those laws target these demo- justice system plays in continuing the graphic groups. This fact alone lends racism of U.S. society, is the story of a credence to the argument made by the friendship between unsung warriors. activists in Out of Control that there is a Many of the procedures used in con- calculated plan to imprison Black and trol unit prisons began in the 1960s Latino men in the U.S. The history of when the United States government the U.S. is one that required control of started locking up leftist revolutionaries its Black population, even after slavery. and others as part of its COINTELPRO Indeed, even more so after slavery. program. This time period is also when Prisons are part of that plan. It is with leftists began to consciously focus on this as a fundamental part of that under- prisoner rights, in part because their standing that Kurshan tells her story of a leaders were being locked up. This movement—Movement to End the work helped them to understand that Marion Lockdown—built to oppose prisons are the final point of confronta- throughout the United States and of that calculation. tion between the state and those who the battle to oppose them. act against it. Indeed, this is precisely It is not a tale with a happy ending. why prisoner struggles for human rights According to the text’s introduction, ...prisons are not so are components of the greater struggle over 80,000 prisoners are currently much about fighting for those rights. locked away in control unit prisons in As pointed out before, there are the United States. What this means is crime as they are about now over 2,000,000 people incarcerat- that over 80,000 prisoners exist in a controlling segments of ed in the United States. Prison con- world controlled almost completely by struction and maintenance is often one prison architecture and the guards the population. of the larger elements of government those prisons employ. Living in cells budgets. This is despite the fact that smaller than many suburban bath- The reader is presented with detailed crime has consistently gone down in the past decade. These facts make it rooms, the walls are painted white, descriptions of the meetings, protests, clear that prisons are not so much lights are on most of the day, no win- legal campaigns, and other work the about fighting crime as they are about dows or even bars, hardly any exercise, Committee to End the Marion controlling segments of the popula- no reading materials and no visitors; Lockdown undertook over the fifteen that is the life of most prisoners in tion. As austerity takes a greater hold years of its existence. This group was on the U.S. economy, one can be cer- these units. Sometimes there are even composed of leftists, religious clergy further restrictions. Rarely are there tain that more working and poor men and laity, families of prisoners and and women will be sent to prison while fewer. These units are constantly other concerned humans. There are watched by prison video feeds and the real thieves run the country further small victories and many defeats, pri- into the ground. prisoners are often beaten at will by the marily because of the complete lack of Besides being a detailed and inspir- guards. If this doesn’t bother you, then regard for prisoners’ humanity dis- ing account of a group of human rights you probably shouldn’t bother reading played by the Bureau of Prisons, most activists, Nancy Kurshan’s Out of the rest of this review. politicians and other officials. There are Control is a useful resource for discuss- There are over 2,000,000 people also the small victories. After years of ing the realities of prison in the twenty- locked up in the United States. That is demanding a new water source be built first century United States. It is also the more than any other nation in the world. for the Marion prison, headway was tale of a particular part of the move- Furthermore, the rate of incarceration finally made. Occasionally, even a pris- ment opposed to that reality. in the United States is higher than that oner gets freed. Throughout, the narra- of any other nation. According to the tive is told with a warmth and human- —Counterpunch, Weekend Edition NAACP, African American and Latinos ity that exists in direct contrast to the March 15-17, 2013 comprised 58 percent of all prisoners in tales being told. Her description of the http://www.counterpunch. 2008, even though they make up approx- development of a friendship between org/2013/03/15/a-microcosm-of-the- imately one quarter of the U.S. popula- her family and the Reverend Bruce nation-control-unit-prisons/

Vol. 13, No. 3 Socialist Viewpoint 63 S o c i a l i s t V i e w p o i n t Where to find us: www.socialistviewpoint.org [email protected] (415) 824-8730

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The Socialist Viewpoint Publishing Association publish- Note to Readers: es Socialist Viewpoint in the interests of the working class. Socialist Viewpoint magazine has been edited and distrib- The editors take positions consistent with revolutionary uted by a group of revolutionaries who share a common Marxism. Within this context the editors will consider for publication articles, reviews or comments. The editors may political outlook stemming from the old Socialist Workers publish comments to accompany these articles. Photographs Party of James P. Cannon, and Socialist Action from 1984 and cartoons will be appreciated. through 1999. Socialist Viewpoint reprints articles circulated on the After being expelled from Socialist Action in 1999, we Internet when we deem them of interest to our readers. Such formed Socialist Workers Organization in an attempt to articles are reprinted exactly as they appeared in the original carry on the project of building a nucleus of a revolutionary source, without any editorial or stylistic changes by us. party true to the historic teachings and program of Marx, No limitation will be placed on the author(s) use of their Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. material in their subsequent work provided acknowledgment is made of its publication in Socialist Viewpoint. The What we have found is that our numbers are insufficient Socialist Viewpoint Publishing Association retains for itself for this crucial project of party building. This problem is rights to reprint articles as collections, educational bulletins, not ours alone; it is a problem flowing from the division and and similar uses. With the inclusion of an acknowledgment fragmentation that has plagued the revolutionary move- and a notice of the copyright ownership, permission is ment in capitalist America and the world since the 1980s. hereby given educators to duplicate essays for distribution gratis or for use in the classroom at cost. The author(s) What we intend to do is to continue to promote the idea retain all other rights. of building a revolutionary Marxist working class political Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of party through the pages of Socialist Viewpoint magazine. We Socialist Viewpoint. These views are expressed in editorials. continue to have an optimistic outlook about the revolutionary potential of the world working class to rule society Socialist Viewpoint is printed by members of Local 583, Allied Printing Trades Council, San Francisco, California. in its own name—socialism. We are optimistic that the working class, united across borders, and acting in its own class interests can solve the devastating crises of war, pov- Special Introductory Subscription Offer! erty, oppression, and environmental destruction that capi- One year of Socialist Viewpoint for $20.00, talism is responsible for. Bargain rate: $35.00 for two years; We expect that revolutionaries from many different (Regular rate: $30.00/International Rate: $50.00) organizations, traditions, and backgrounds will respond to Make your check payable to: Socialist Viewpoint, & mail to: the opportunities that will arise, as workers resist the attacks S o c i a l i s t V i e w p o i n t of the capitalist system and government, to build a new 60 29th Street, #429 revolutionary political party. Just as we join with others to San Francisco, CA 94110 build every response to war and oppression, we look for- Please include your name, address, city and zip code. ward to joining with others in the most important work of To help us know who our subscribers are, please tell us your occupation, union, school, building a new mass revolutionary socialist workers’ party or organization. as it becomes possible to do so.

64 Socialist Viewpoint Vol. 13, No. 3