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H The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. —Karl Marx H NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 VOL. 20 NO. 6

Cruelty of Capitalism - Page 4 Imperialist Attacks on Africa - Page 7 Year of the Plague: Danger of Fascism - Page 16 Free All Political Prisoners - Page 48 CEO Incomes Balloon As wages stagnate top CEOs now make 320 times more than typical worker By Jake Johnson

New research published Tuesday, “CEOs who volunteer to take salary between CEO compensation and typi- August 18, 2020, by the Economic Policy cuts aren’t giving up a lot given how cal worker pay: Institute shows that the top executives much of their pay comes from stock • Reinstating higher marginal at the largest corporations in the awards and options,” EPI said. income tax rates at the very United States now make 320 times Lawrence Mishel, a distinguished top of the income ladder; more than what their typical employ- fellow at EPI and co-author of the new • ees earn in wages and benefits. Setting corporate tax rates report, said in a statement that “while higher for firms that have EPI’s latest annual analysis of execu- wage growth for the majority of higher ratios of CEO-to- tive compensation finds that the CEOs Americans has remained relatively worker compensation; of the top 350 firms in the U.S. raked in stagnant for decades, CEO compensa- • an average of $21.3 million in 2019, a tion continues to balloon.” Capping compensation and tax anything over the cap; and 14 percent increase from 2018. The “This has fueled the spectacular 320-1 ratio of CEO-to-worker pay in income growth of the top 0.1 percent • Allowing greater use of “say 2019 is more than five times higher and 1.0 percent and the growth of on pay,” which allows a firm’s than the 61-1 ratio reported in 1989. income inequality overall,” said Mishel, shareholders to vote on top The think tank’s research comes who told the Washington Post that executives’ compensation. amid a global pandemic that is likely to CEO pay could rise again in 2020 Jori Kandra, research assistant at exacerbate the decades-long trend of despite the nationwide economic col- EPI and co-author of the new report, surging income and wealth inequality lapse caused by the Covid-19 crisis. said the “huge growth in CEO pay” in the U.S.—a trend that, according to “CEOs offering salary cuts during over the past four decades “is not a EPI, won’t be reversed by CEOs opting the coronavirus pandemic yield press reflection of the market for talent.” to take salary cuts during a public releases,” Mishel added, “but no real “We know this because CEO com- health crisis that has left tens of mil- progress toward reducing inequality pensation has grown more than three lions of Americans jobless. and raising workers’ wages.” times faster than the growth of earn- EPI’s new report shows that CEO As a substantive alternative to CEO ings for the top 0.1 percent of earners, compensation grew by 1,167 percent public relations stunts, EPI proposed which was 337 percent over the same from 1978 to 2019, “far outstripping” several policy changes that would sig- period,” said Kandra. “This means that the growth of the stock market. nificantly reduce the yawning gap CEO pay can be curbed to reduce the growing gap between the highest earners and everyone else with little, if any, impact on the output of the econo- my or firm performance.” —Common Dreams, August 18, 2020 https://www.common- dreams.org/news/2020/08/18/ wages-stagnate-and-execu- tive-pay-continues-balloon- report-shows-top-ceos-now- make?cd-

A demonstrator holds a “Tax the Rich” sign during a protest in New York on June 27, 2020.

2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 SocialistViewpoint November/December 2020, Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT www.socialistviewpoint.org CONTENTS email: [email protected] (415) 824-8730

U.S. and World Politics Socialists in Stamford Attacked ...... 42 CEO Incomes Balloon ...... 2 By Erwin Freed By Jake Johnson U.S. Military Police and “Heat Rays” ...... 43 Cruelty of Capitalism ...... 4 By Associated Press By Bonnie Weinstein Environment Imperialist Attacks on Africa ...... 7 The Ocean is Losing Its Breath ...... 44 By Chris Kinder By Ian Angus Revolutionary Program for Latin America Capitalism—“Not Humanity”—is Killing Wildlife . 47 and the U.S...... 12 By Anna Pigott By Partido Obrero (Argentina) Year of the Plague: Danger of Fascism ...... 16 Incarceration Nation By Chris Kinder Free All Political Prisoners ...... 48 By Glen Ford How the Pigs Abuse “Gang” Labels ...... 20 By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson Why the Police Reform Bill is Doomed to Fail . . .53 By Comrade Pitt Future Focused in Black August 2020 ...... 23 By Jalil Muntaqim COVID-19, Lockdown, and Mental Illness . . . . .54 By Shakaboona Rushing for a Vaccine ...... 26 By Marjorie Cohn Military Torture in Indiana Prisons ...... 55 By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson General Strike to Stop COVID-19 ...... 28 By Dr. Nayvin Gordon Psychological Impact of Solitary Confinement . . .57 By Bryant Arroyo A Very English Theft ...... 28 By Nick Hayes My COVID Prison ...... 58 BBy Christopher Dye Military Recruiters Don’t Belong in High Schools . 31 By Sidney Miralao History, Great Britain, and Julian Assange . . . . .60 By Clifford D. Conner Railroad Strike of 1877 and Modern Policing . . . 32 By Robert Ovetz Julian’s Run ...... 62 By Mumia Abu-Jamal Cops: Racists and Strike Breakers ...... 35 By William Lewis The “Populism” of Pandemics ...... 62 By Mumia Abu-Jamal Arming the Planet ...... 37 By Melvin Goodman Book Review Power of Labor Solidarity ...... 39 The Tragedy of American Science ...... 63 By Dave Zirin A Review by Nayvin Gordon, M.D. “Herd Immunity”—Deadly Anti-Science Policy . . 40 Letters to the Editors ...... 65 By Dr. Nayvin Gordon Jalil Muntaqim Released ...... 67 Denver Black Lives Matter Activists Arrested . . . 41 By Ed Pilkington By Left Voice

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Vol.Vol.Vol. 20, 20,3, No.No. 266 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 3

U.S. and World Politics U.S. AND WORLD POLITICS

Cruelty of Capitalism By Bonnie Weinstein

The human condition Das Kapital. The two co-authored The cess, The Dialectics of Nature, which he Friedrich Engels (November 28, Communist Manifesto in 1848 and in left unfinished but was compiled and 1820-August 5, 1895), a German phi- 1884. A year after Marx died, Engels published in the USSR in 1925. In chapter losopher, historian and political scien- published a very important little book, IX titled “The Part Played by Labor in the tist developed the ideas of scientific The Origin of the Family, Private Transition from Ape to Man” he wrote socialism together with Karl Marx Property and the State based on Marx’s about human interaction with nature: (May 5, 1818-March 14, 1883). The scientific research on people, their “Let us not, however, flatter our- two were lifelong friends. In fact, environment and the structure and selves overmuch on account of our Engels, born to a wealthy family who origins of human social organization human victories over nature. For owned a textile mill, gave financial and culture. each such victory nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it is true, support to Marx so that Marx was free Before his death Engels was working the first place brings about the results to do the necessary research to write on a book about scientific thought pro- we expected, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first. The people who, in Mesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor and elsewhere, destroyed the forest to obtain cultivable land, never dreamed that by removing along with the forests the collecting centers and reservoirs of moisture they were laying the basis for the present for- lorn state of those countries. . . Thus at every step we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature—but that we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst, and that all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and apply them correctly.”1 These words sum up the fundamen- tal relationship between our species and all life on earth. Marxism—social- ism—is a guide to living on the earth without destroying it—by creating an economic system of equality based upon production for the needs and wants of all instead of production for the private profit of the few. Socialism is a system that does not waste labor and resources on producing

4 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 things built to destroy life or self-destruct— “The Irwin County Detention ICE inspection reports show that the but on creating useful things of the highest Center in Ocilla, Ga., drew national center, which is operated by a private quality—and still be able to provide the attention this month after a nurse, prison company, Lasalle Corrections, necessities for a comfortable, bountiful, Dawn Wooten, filed a whistle-blow- refers more than 1,000 detainees a year enriching and creative life free to all. It is a er complaint claiming that detainees for outside medical care, far more than system that is a protector of the diversity of had told her they had had their uter- most other immigration detention cen- uses removed without their full ters of the same size.” life, not in competition with it. understanding or consent. Since Further, in an October 6, 2020 New then, both ICE and the hospital in War, poverty and racism—the York Times article by Amol S. Navathe Irwin County have released data that products of capitalism show that two full hysterectomies and Harald Schmidt titled, “Why a Racist and class-based police mur- have been performed on women Hospital Might Shun a Black Patient,” ders, mass incarceration, vast econom- detained at Irwin in the past three the authors noted: ic inequality, healthcare and educa- years. But firsthand accounts are “Research shows that doctors are tional inequality and the degradation now emerging from detainees…who more likely to choose procedures of our environment from wars and underwent other invasive gyneco- and treatments that are more profit- polluting industries are just a few logical procedures that they did not able for them, whether these are bet- examples of the cruelty of the capitalist fully understand and, in some cases, ter for patients or not. For example, may not have been medically neces- private profit system. cancer doctors frequently recom- sary. …The Times interviewed 16 mend higher-cost chemotherapy Capitalist production for private because they profit handsomely profit syphons wealth from the masses of from it. And hospitals do more of the the working class into the coffers of the Marxism—socialism—is kinds of surgeries that come with elite .01 percent of the worlds’ popula- a guide to living on the high profit margins, like hip and tion who are the owners of the means of knee replacements and heart valve production. They pay workers as little as earth without destroying procedures… in the 1990s, the New they can get away with, and sell the prod- it—by creating an York State Department of Health ucts workers produce at a cost signifi- began grading surgeons who per- economic system of formed coronary bypass surgery and cantly higher than the cost to produce making their report cards available them—making themselves a tidy profit. equality based upon to the general public. The aim was to Every decision made by business production for the needs make outcomes more transparent interests is designed to exploit workers and wants of all instead and to help surgeons improve. But to in order to increase their own rate of this day, the initiative makes it hard- profit and to do all they can to inhibit of production for the er for Black patients to get surgery. workers’ ability to unite and fight in private profit of the few. Why? Because statistically, outcomes their own common interests. are generally worse for Black patients because of larger issues of systemic Any and everything to make a buck women who were concerned about the racism. So, surgeons avoid them to gynecological care they received while at protect their scores. …since people The extent to which the capitalist the center, and conducted a detailed with worse living and working con- class carries out cruel injustices to review of the medical files of seven ditions are readmitted more fre- make a profit boggles the mind. women who were able to obtain their quently, hospitals that serve more In a September 29, 2020 New York records. All 16 were treated by Dr. worse-off racial and ethnic minori- Times article by Caitlin Dickerson, Seth Mahendra Amin, who practices gynecol- ties were more frequently penalized.” Freed Wessler and Miriam Jordan ogy in the nearby town of Douglas and These two examples illustrate how has been described by ICE officials as the titled, “Immigrants Say They Were the profit motive works to the financial Pressured into Unneeded Surgeries,” detention center’s ‘primary gynecolo- gist.’ …Independent doctors that pro- advantage of the capitalist class and to about unnecessary invasive gynecolog- vide treatment for ICE detainees are the outright detriment to the lives of ical procedures performed at the Irwin paid for the procedures they perform workers—including performing dan- County Detention Center in Ocilla, with Department of Homeland Security gerous, debilitating and unnecessary Georgia—a private Immigration and funds. Procedures like the ones that Dr. surgery and dangerous treatments on Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention Amin performed are normally billed at people just to make money—whether center for immigrant women: thousands-of-dollars-each. …Data from the patient is harmed or not.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 5 Competing for the basic The whole economic system of cap- Socialism—an economic system necessities of life italism is designed to keep the wealthy based upon production for human Under capitalism, everyone is in in power by keeping the working class needs and wants instead of profit— competition with each other. Even in competition with one another for changes the whole dynamic of human families will compete with each other the basic necessities of life. interaction both between each other for the last few grains of rice if there is Racism and bigotry serve the rule of and nature. not enough to go around. capital not the needs of humanity. Socialism is in the interests of every- We must compete for jobs, food, Every human being needs the same one. It eliminates competition for sur- housing, healthcare, quality education, things—healthy food, comfortable vival, and in its place, encourages because capitalism sees to it that there housing, good, quality education and cooperation and democratic planning is not enough to go around and that it healthcare. We need a clean and healthy to create the best possible conditions is expensive. environment in which all can thrive—a for the full development of each indi- society where the free development of vidual—to each based upon need and They lay waste to vast amounts of each is the condition for the free devel- want and from each based upon indi- resources through industrial carelessness, opment of all—a world of cooperation, vidual talents and skills. Socialism is and intentional wars. They profit most off careful planning and conservation, not necessarily a non-competitive, cooper- of the sale of weapons of mass destruction. plunder and war. ative system that benefits everyone and The U.S. war industry is the most the planet. What humanity is capable of profitable of all industries on the plan- Socialism is necessary—not only to In his book, The Revolution Betrayed et and it costs the capitalist owners of survive—but to flourish. these corporations little to nothing to published in 1937 Leon Trotsky wrote run it. And it serves three purposes— of socialism: to make lots of money for capitalists, to “The hypocrisy of prevailing exploit and control the world’s resourc- opinion develops everywhere and es, and to divide and thus control the always as the square, or cube, of the masses of workers of the world. social contradictions. Such approxi- 1 https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/ works/1883/don/ch09.htm The capitalists do not pay for the mately is the historic law of ideology translated into the language of manufacture of these weapons—work- mathematics. Socialism, if it is wor- 2 Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed, p. ers pay for this industry through taxa- thy of the name, means human rela- 155, Pathfinder, 1972 (Chapter VII, Family, Youth and Culture) tion that capitalists themselves, are able tions without greed, friendship to avoid by creating tax laws that ben- without envy and intrigue, love efit them at workers’ expense. without base calculation.”2

6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Imperialist Attacks on Africa And the genocide you never heard of By Chris Kinder

The Holocaust was born at the meet- Genocide in Libya began with Italy paved the way for Italy’s switch to the ing point of two traditions that marked The claims of Italy over the Libyan British-French-Russian Entente in the modern Western Civilization: the anti- portion of North Africa date back to middle of the Great War. It was the Semitic tradition, and the tradition of the 19th Century. In the first Congress only power ever to change sides in a genocide of colonial people. —Mahmood of Berlin (1878), France and Britain major inter-imperialist conflict. Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, claimed Tunisia and Cyprus respec- New York 2004 tively. Later, in a series of secret trea- Imperialist contest for colonies In January of 2020, a conference ties, these two powers supported Italy’s in Africa called by Angela Merkel of Germany claims on Libya, as a way to weaken By the early 1900s, the imperialist was held in Berlin to promote a cease that country’s connection to its Triple regimes of Europe were on a move to fire in the on-going civil war in Libya, Alliance with Germany and the Austro- prepare for what they knew was com- and an embargo on arms shipments to Hungarian Empire. These agreements ing, a war for imperialist domination the combatants. Germany, Russia, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) all signed on. But this was a big joke and they all knew it. On the very day that these “leaders” took their photo op at the conference, planes full of arms were heading to Libya from the UAE— backed by Russia and Egypt—to Khalifa Hifter’s forces in Benghazi, Libya. Turkey and Qatar were also deeply into arms shipments, including by sea, to the “UN recognized” govern- ment in Tripoli.1 Imperialist domination of Africa, and its oil wealth, is what is at the core of this. The overthrow, and murder, of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 is only the most recent event in this miserable saga today. This was done to protect U.S. and EU interests, and prevent Libya from using its oil proceeds to establish an African currency. The prosperous North African country was torn to pieces and divided up by gangs of Islamic extremists at the behest of European and U.S. imperialist powers. In order to fully understand this, we must examine Libyan history, includ- ing the virtually unknown genocide, from the beginning. It starts with Italy.

Libyan President Moammar Gaddafi (1942-2011). Portrait from Libya 50 Dinars 2008 Banknotes. (Shutterstock)

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 7 of the world. That meant the struggle coastal areas of Libya up to and during fighter for many years. Mukhtar was for colonies, largely for possessions in World War I. captured and publicly hanged in 1931 Africa. Italy—like Germany—only before a coerced crowd of witnesses. fully united as a country in 1870, was Fascists defeat the Italian He is still recognized in Libya today as behind on asserting its colonial ambi- working class a hero. tions in Africa compared to Britain and After the war, the Italian ruling class Italian tactics also included using France...that is, until its war with renewed their colonizing efforts, but to tanks, closing borders, and dropping Ottoman Turkey in 1911-12. little avail. Largely, this was due to the rebels to their deaths from airplanes. This short war—a prelude to both Russian Revolution. The Revolution of The fascists especially targeted civilians the Balkan Wars and World War I— 1917 inspired and created communist who provided food and other aid to the represented the beginning of the dis- parties throughout Europe, and 1919 resistance fighters. mantlement of the Turkish-controlled saw more rebellious movements throughout the world than any year The worst of this violent repression Ottoman Empire, which at the time among civilians occurred in the Eastern was still in control of North Africa.2 In before or since. Italy’s Communist Party was the biggest in Europe. region of Barqa, where the Sanusiyya it, Italy conducted a brutal massacre of movement had posed the biggest threat thousands of civilians in Tripoli, sys- Workers were rebelling in strike to Italian troops. The rebels had devel- tematically moving through neighbor- waves throughout Italy, and colonial oped a network of spies in Italian con- hoods with murders and destruction. ambitions were on the back burner. trolled cities, and they conducted hun- It has been called the 1911 Tripoli But the communist leadership failed to dreds of guerrilla raids. The fascists Massacre. One of many such atrocities mount a sufficient defense against engineered a forced march of 110,000 which accompanied European expan- Mussolini’s Black Shirts. These gangs civilian families over three months sion into Africa for many decades, this of fascist thugs broke up strikes in their from Barqa across desert lands to 16 slaughter included the burning alive of march across Italy, attacked commu- horrifying concentration camps in the 3 100 refugees sheltering in a Mosque. nists and unions, and soon brought desert of Sirte. There, most in six of Mussolini to power in 1922. Libyan resistance of colonization these camps were starved to death; by Once in power, the Italian fascists emerges 1934, only about one third of these moved to remake Italy, and that victims were still alive. Italy won that war, and came into included an aggressive colonial policy. Mussolini’s crimes in Africa control of Libya...sort of. Libyans of Mussolini declared that he was creating differing ethnic groups united to a “New Roman Empire” in North impressed the Nazis oppose Italian occupation. The Africa.4 Mussolini ramped up Italian The Nazis were very impressed by Kingdom of Italy never managed to settlement in Libya, but was still frus- this barbaric Italian repression, and conquer the resistance, and was forced trated by local resistance. He ordered looked at these genocidal policies as a to make agreements over territorial the abolition of the former policies of model for success. The Nazis took in control with local groups. Groups such cultural interchange with local groups, the lessons about forced transfer to as the Sanusi, a Sufi-inspired reformist and imposed a violent conquest policy. concentration camps, and even the use organization had developed into a Schools to teach Italian to natives and of gas to kill people. The Italians main- social force, in the wake of the depar- other cultural contacts were dropped, ly committed genocide by starvation, ture of Ottoman control in North and education for natives was banned but they did develop the lethal gas Africa. While based on Islamic tradi- above the sixth grade. Based on an ide- method which the Nazis soon used tion and culture, the Sanusi, or ology of racist supremacy in which massively in the Holocaust. Sanusiyya movement, organized social Arab Muslims were seen as sub-human, Nazi leaders like Heinrich Himmler structure based on modernizing ideas Mussolini’s military used tactics (head of the SS) and others also used such as education, promoting trade, unmatched in brutality at any other Italian fascism as a model for moving and anti-colonial resistance. time during colonial wars in Africa. about 15 million Germans into con- The Italians shifted gears, organized quered territory in East Europe. They Italian immigration to the colony, pro- Fascist tactics target sent SS officers to Italian colonial moted cultural links with natives, native resisters schools for trainings, and accompa- including schools to teach Italian to By 1930, Barqa’s (Eastern Libya’s) nied boatloads of Italian immigrants locals and other cultural exchanges. tribesmen were well organized under with great fanfare, as they headed to But Italy directly controlled no more tribal leadership, including that of Libya to occupy the stolen land of the than the urban areas in the narrow Umar al-Mukhtar, who was a leading natives.5

8 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 U.S. and European imperialism ed to the demise of the League of This anti-communist entanglement are complicit Nations, and was an immediate pre- helped prevent any exposure of the The condemnation of the German lude to the Second World War. Libyan genocide. When post-war Libya Holocaust after the war was of course At first, the lack of attention to the demanded reparations from Italy for justified, but it was hypocritical at the Libyan experience was due to the ban- the genocide, Italy refused, arguing same time. The U.S. made no serious ning of all journalists except Nazis in that Libya was part of Italy, and so effort to stop the Holocaust during the Libya by the Italians during 1929-34. ineligible for compensation. But Italy war. U.S. President Roosevelt, for During this time, many public figures had earlier released all claims to Libya instance, refused pleas to order the such as Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, in a 1947 peace treaty with the Allies! bombing of the rail lines in Germany and poet Ezra Pound willingly added The Italian denial of compensation was known to be used for transporting Jews to that by expressing open support for reinforced however, when the Allies and other victims to the camps in Mussolini and Italian fascism. allowed Italy to refuse demands for a Germany and occupied Poland. war crimes trial by the Ethiopian and Imperialist powers cover-up Yugoslav governments at the UN. The The U.S. itself was also guilty of genocide… Libyan government formally main- genocide in the atom bombing of After the war, U.S.-led Western atti- tained its claims due to pressure from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, and the Shura (parliament), but didn’t with the UK, in the fire bombings of tudes toward Italian fascism was that it was moderate compared to German push it because it needed financial sup- Hamburg and Dresden in Germany. port from the Allies.8 All of these bombings took place very Nazism, and not capable of horrific late in the war, when both adversaries genocidal crimes. These lies—a myth, The occupying Allies also did little were already clearly defeated (Japan actually—portrayed Italian fascism as to stop the persecution—including had been appealing for peace as early as not a serious problem. The post-war quite a few murders—of Jews in Libya 1943); and all of these bombings were government of Italy went along with after the war. The Jewish population aimed at civilians, not war production. this. As late as 1981, a movie by Mustafa had mainly come from or aligned with Akkad about the genocide in Libya Italy during the colonization; and U.S. and UK genocidal atrocities made with real documentary footage— many had remained there after the Before and during the war, there Lion of the Desert—was banned by Italy. enactment of fascist anti-Semitic laws were financial and industrial connec- A 1989 documentary made in the under Mussolini. Most of them fled to tions in the 1920s with Germany by U.S. UK on the same subject—A Fascist the new state of Israel in 1949-51 due ruling-class elements, which continued Legacy—was given a similar treatment to this pressure.9 right through the war. And under the by the “democratic” Italian govern- U.S. domination of the world guise of loans to help Italy pay its debts ment: they bought it and shelved it. ramps up incurred under the Versailles Treaty of This film was based on the work 1919 after World War I, J.P. Morgan American historian Michael Palumbo, After World War II, the U.S.—the bankers in the U.S., along with the Bank who had discovered classified files only major nation in the war that of England, decided in 1925 to help showing a post-war cover-up of war escaped massive deaths and destruc- financially stabilize Mussolini’s regime crimes by both Italian fascist generals tion—quickly moved to establish “the in Italy. This was accomplished by the and officials of the war-time allies.7 American Century” of world imperial- establishment of single central Italian ist dominance. In an era of anti-colo- bank, the Bank of Italy, in 1926.6 ...and pursue colonialism nial nationalist uprisings, particularly Just as the U.S. in 1945 wanted to in Africa, the U.S. focused on capital Italian fascism was minimized in recruit German scientists for the next penetration backed up with military western propaganda war against the USSR—despite the support rather than outright colonial In 1935, after the repression of horrific mass murder of Jews and oth- occupation. As Lenin explained in his Libyan resistance had mostly been ers in Nazi concentration camps—it seminal Imperialism, the Highest Stage completed, Mussolini expanded his also wanted to recruit Italian rightists of Capitalism (1916), the exportation imperial fantasies with the invasion of into the new war against communism. of capital is at the core of imperialism. Abyssinia (Ethiopia). This invasion From 1943, Libya was under British Africa was at the stage in which the also included crimes against humanity, and French war-time occupations, fol- U.S. taught a lesson of its dominance though not on the same scale. It got lowed by an imposed Sanusi Monarchy to its allies. In 1956, Gamal Abdul much more international recognition in 1951; and all of these regimes were Nasser—the head of a military coup than the genocide in Libya, contribut- willing partners in the cold war. which toppled the British-backed King

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 9 Farouk of Egypt in 1952—nationalized sexes, and insisting on wage parity, as exports to any countries that support- the Suez Canal. British and French well as banning forced marriage of ed Israel, especially the U.S. In March troops, soon invaded Egyptian territo- under-age women were passed. Libyan of 1974, the embargo was lifted by all ry in an attempt to reverse this affront women soon took many professional except Libya. And by 1979, the exam- to imperialist interests. The Soviet positions, and outnumbered men in ple of oil nationalization set by Libya Union offered military aid to Egypt, institutions of higher learning. had been followed by Iran, Saudi but the U.S. stepped in to support Well before the overthrow of his Arabia, and Kuwait. Again, the sisters Egyptian ownership of the Canal, keep government in 2011, standards of liv- were taking notes. The U.S. had already it open to trade, and provide military ing were much improved, and Libya declared Libya a potential enemy of the support to Nasser. There was a new was the most literate and most pros- U.S. in 1977. capo in town. perous country in Africa. Libya in the cross hairs In the years since, this pattern of U.S. control of formerly colonial While imperialist powers saw North regimes expanded globally. NATO has Now, Libya is a disaster. Africa as part of the Middle East, Gaddafi was trying to Africanize it. He been established as an instrument of Its infrastructure is U.S. control world-wide, first to threat- promoted formation of the African en the USSR, and then to assert U.S. bombed to oblivion, and Union, and he proposed to create an power everywhere on the globe. In it is dominated by vari- African currency using Libya’s oil sur- 2006-08, AFRICOM was established to plus capital to set up an African Bank. solidify that control in Africa.10 ous cliques and militias, This was yet another threat to the all in the service of vari- imperialists: it meant that African The regime of Muammar Gaddafi ous imperialist provid- resources might come to be sold to the Meanwhile, in Libya, the formal world market in African currency. The “independence” of that country was ers of weapons. U.S., European Union and the French established with the imposition of the particularly—still the holders of many Sanusi King Idris under a UN-drafted interests in Africa if not actual colo- democratic constitution in 1951. Idris Libya’s oil and world politics nies—saw a serious threat to the Euro kept Libya tied with Western imperial- Massive oil reserves had been dis- and the dollar in this project. ist powers by signing a 20-year treaty of covered and developed in Libya by U.S. The imperialist nations were also friendship and alliance with Britain. and European companies in the late threatened by Gaddafi’s aid to pan- This agreement allowed the U.S. and 1950s. Libya’s oil attracted European Arab, pan-African and third world UK to establish military bases in Libya. companies particularly, due to its national liberation movements. Meanwhile, the monarchy rapidly closeness to the European market, and chipped away at the democratic aspects its “light sweet” crude. The Idris Accusing Libya of “terrorism,” and of the constitution. Kingdom benefitted and began to grow fearing its close relations with the rich, but the masses only felt the effect Soviet Union, the U.S. under Reagan All this began to change with the slapped an oil embargo on Libya in bloodless military coup under the lead- under Gaddafi, and the oil nationaliza- tion was key to that. 1982, froze Libyan assets in the U.S. in ership of then Captain Muammar 1984, and bombed Libya with a clear Gaddafi, in 1969. Gaddafi began as an Gaddafi nationalized much of the intent to liquidate Gaddafi personally anti-colonialist populist, who was not imperialist companies’ oil holdings; and in 1986. Two years later, while Reagan loyal to the Western connections of the required production-sharing ventures was still in office, Gaddafi struck back Idris regime. He told the imperialist with others. The Libyan nationalizations with a bombing of a U.S. airliner, military bases to get out, banished Italian were, predictably, a slap in the face to which crashed in Lockerbie Scotland. colonials, and returned the land seizures the “seven sisters” of big oil. Libya “had Although Gaddafi had been targeted to original owners. He established free let in the independents to challenge the for death by the U.S., this was clearly education and healthcare, provided sisters; and it was aloof from the cau- an error for Libya. When proof of clean drinking water and basic foods tious attitudes of the rest of OPEC. It responsibility came out, the UN 11 with state subsidies, and built roads. was the outsider at both ends and by imposed a new round of sanctions. 12 In 1971-72, Gaddafi’s regime passed ignoring the rules it changed them.” laws to reverse the previous regime’s In the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, most Libya in decline and under attack reactionary Islamist oppression of Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia With its oil boom, Libya had a radi- women. Laws affirming equality of the and Libya, imposed an embargo on oil cal transformation from rural to urban.

10 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 High-paying jobs in the oil industries with Wall Street connections—who pri- academics and others who have white-washed attracted thousands to the urbanized marily pushed for this war. The Italian fascism as “moderate.” The term “shar” coastal regions, flipping Libya from a Pentagon generals were much more in the title refers to the “evil, starvation, death and depression” of the Italian colonial concen- primarily rural nation to primarily cautious, but the attack was launched tration camps. urban. But Gaddafi’s regime remained on March 19th nevertheless. The seven- 6 F. William Engdahl, A Century of War, based on its tribal allies in the South. month U.S.-NATO bombing campaign Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Furthermore, with the decline in oil demolished the most prosperous nation Order, Wiesbaden Germany, 2011, p.93 prices on the world market, the regime in Africa, and was the deciding factor in 7 Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, op cit, page 54. The became corrupt. Gaddafi made himself the elimination of Gaddafi’s regime. His author says he tried to obtain a copy of A Fascist “Leader Brother” and president for life, brutal murder at the hands of Islamic Legacy through his university’s inter-library while healthcare, education, and dem- rebels was the final note. Clinton said, loan office, but was told he could not have it due to “legal arrangements.” ocratic institutions such as courts suf- “We came, we saw, he died,” in a dis- 8 Eventually, Italy made a settlement for its fered. All of this weakened Libya’s gusting rehash of an ancient Roman genocidal actions, but it was little more than one response to the crisis in 2011. But the conqueror’s arrogant brag. fifth of what the Libyan government wanted, main problem was still imperialism. Now, Libya is a disaster. Its infra- and it was mostly tied to Libyan purchases of Italian products. (see Ahmida, note 5, page In January 2011 there were upris- structure is bombed to oblivion, and it 128). ings in both Tunisia and Egypt. As the is dominated by various cliques and 9 Harvey E. Goldberg, “Rites and Riots: The self-declared gendarme of Europe in militias, all in the service of various Tripolitanian Pogrom of 1945,” Plural Societies 8 Africa, France—under Sarkozy— imperialist providers of weapons. (Spring 1977): 35-56, referenced in “1945 Anti- moved first, planning, too late, to The U.S. is the new Roman Empire, Jewish riots in Tripolitania,” Wikipedia. (Gold- berg was an ex-Communist Party socialist.) intervene in Tunisia. In March, the the driving force of capitalist imperial- 10 Horace Campbell, Global NATO and “Arab Spring” came to Libya, with ism—this time of the whole world. mainly Islamic groups in Benghazi and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya, Monthly Review Press, 2013 other Eastern cities rebelling. France 11 Libya could tap into the North Afri- took the initiative for an intervention can aquifer, which is the largest water resource in Libya, by lining up Lebanon and the in Africa. The Gaddafi regime built the infra- 1 “Waves of Russian and Emirati Flights Fuel structure to do it. Saudis to support a no-fly zone over War in Libya,” New York Times, September 4, Libya in the Arab League. The U.S./ 2020. 12 Anthony Samson, The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They NATO did the rest, with a devastating 2 Islamic domination in North Africa dates Made, quoted in Horace Campbell, op.cit, p.86. bombing campaign. back to the expansion of Mohammedanism by armies coming out of Arabia in the late 600s 13 Horace Campbell, op.cit, p.115. See The U.S. war on Libya and 70’s CE. The Turkish Ottoman Empire, this and following pages for more on the finan- cialization of the U.S. energy industries. In the U.S., a war on Libya was pri- beginning in the 15th Century, became the marily promoted by Wall Street. This early-modern manifestation of the Muslim caliphates. The demise of this empire occurred reflected the increased financialization with World War I, after which Turkey emerged of the energy markets under the Reagan as a modern nation, and Libya emerged out of administration. Financial control of two provinces of the Ottoman Empire: Tripoli- The U.S. is the new the capitalist market is the determining tania and Cyrenaica. feature of the imperialist stage of capi- 3 Italy’s lame excuse for this slaughter was the Roman Empire, talism. With regard to Libya, this death of some of its troops at the hands of rebels fighting against Italian colonization. The Italian the driving force involved imperialist alarm at Libya’s government ineffectively tried to keep it a secret. use of its capital in promoting 4 Mussolini wasn’t the first to make this Africanization of North Africa. “Roman Empire” claim: The Kingdom of Italy of capitalist Very few reports have linked the had mouthed it first. The ancient Roman Empire Libyan dominance in the Arab Banking encompassed most of North Africa after the imperialism—this defeat of Carthage, its main North African rival. Corporation to the seismic events in 5 Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, Genocide In Libya, time of the Libya. Those writers and analysts from Shar, A Hidden Colonial History, Routledge, Wall Street with links to the think New York, August 2020. Ahmida is a professor whole world. tanks that Wall Street financed were at the University of New England, and the front and center in the call for war.13 grandson of Libyan militants who fought in the resistance against Italian colonists. The book is It was Hillary Clinton and other offi- very useful on research of this little-known his- cials in the Obama administration—all tory, and the Eurocentrism of political leaders,

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 11 Revolutionary Program for Latin America and the U.S.

Position paper of Partido Obrero This perspective that has devel- against the establishment of preventive (Argentina), Grupo Acción Revolucionaria oped—that of renewed clashes between quarantines. Denialism, which in the (México), Juventud Obrera (Costa Rica), the ruling classes and their govern- case of Brazil remains to this day as the Agrupación Vilcapaza (Perú), Fuerza 18 ments, on the one hand, and the work- government’s guiding line, has wreaked de Octubre (Chile), Agrupación León ing and oppressed masses, on the havoc, enabling a sweeping spread of Trotsky (Uruguay) and Agrupación other—presents the revolutionary left the virus and infecting the fascistizing Trabajadores Bolivianos presented to the with the need to address the great Bolsonaro himself. Virtual Conference of Latin America and problem of the processes of the 2019 (…) the United States. popular rebellions—overcoming the The fight for the centralization of (Extracted for publication in Socialist crisis of leadership of the labor move- ment and the oppressed masses of the health systems of each country, Viewpoint) under the leadership of the health Latin America. Addressing this crisis of workers, is presented as a program The emergence of popular rebellion leadership necessitates, first, to adjust a with common characteristics for all in the United States represents a blow characterization of the moment and, Latin America. It is a fight in which to Donald Trump’s government, secondly, the formulation of the pro- nothing less than the life of the work- and—as agents or tributaries of U.S. gram and the strategy that the revolu- ing masses is at stake. Similarly, the imperialism—to all Latin American tionary left must raise. governments. For this same reason, it fight for the duplication of health bud- also represents a spur to workers’ pop- The pandemic in Latin America gets and for the nationalization with- ular and anti-imperialist struggles of In mid-June, Latin America became out compensation of the pharmaceuti- the peoples of the subcontinent and a the epicenter of the pandemic crisis, cal industries. The fight to defend or call to retake the path of popular rebel- Brazil was positioned as the main infec- impose quarantines, against the employer’s need to continue produc- lions of 2019. tious focus of the subcontinent and the tion at any cost, and by workers’ safety The pandemic has altered the politi- second country affected by the pan- and hygiene committees in every fac- cal scenario in Latin America, but it is demic worldwide (only surpassed by tory, company and workplace, are far from having closed the cycle of U.S.) There is no doubt that the health issues and demands that occupy a lead- catastrophe that harasses Latin America popular rebellions. The contradictions ing position today—an order that the is the responsibility of the capitalist that gave rise to these outbreaks not revolutionary left must raise. only remain, but have been enhanced social class of the subcontinent and the by the spread of these outbreaks. The different governments that, in one way Economic collapse arrival of COVID-19 occurs at the same or another, represent it. The pandemic A historic economic collapse is also time that the popular rebellion in Chile exposed the serious crisis in housing, developing in connection with the was taking a new impulse, with the general job insecurity, the fall in access health catastrophe. The Latin American gigantic and combative mobilizations in to health. The denialist policy about collapse occurs in the context of the March, and a few months after the great the pandemic, which especially charac- international capitalist bankruptcy, popular rebellions of Ecuador, Puerto terized the government of the fascistiz- which was accelerated and deepened Rico, the resistance of the Bolivian peo- ing Jair Bolsonaro and initially also the hand in hand with the pandemic con- ple against the coup, the general strikes “neoliberal” Sebastián Piñera and tingency, inaugurating a period of eco- in Colombia, the great educational “national and popular” presidents nomic depression that can only be strikes in Costa Rica and, further back, Manuel López Obrador and Daniel compared to the Great Depression of the rebellion in Nicaragua. The corona- Ortega, is nothing more than the the 1930s. This global economic col- virus pandemic has put these processes expression of the enormous lobby lapse and the recessive trends were on hold, although it has in no way can- exercised by the capitalist classes in already clearly present long before the celed them. With the arrival of COVID- their respective countries. These capi- health contingency broke out, and this 19, the subcontinent has been plunged talist classes, from the very beginning was corroborated by the monetary pol- into a true sanitary storm, and has been of the pandemic crisis, pressed for the icy of the U.S. Federal Reserve through- plunged even further into an economic, continuity of all productive and eco- out 2019, which repeatedly reduced the social and political crisis. nomic activity and systematically acted interest rate with the aim of propping

12 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 up the corporate profit rate and pro- contractors and financial companies in against the workers and the Venezuelan mote a productive investment plan. the subcontinent. people, initiating a process of dollar- Likewise, overproduction led to a (…) ization of fuel prices and decisively marked decline in investments, of such advancing in the scrapping and privati- magnitude that it did not even com- Imperialism wants to put an end to zation of PDVSA (the state oil compa- pensate for the process of wear and tear the Bolivarian regime headed by ny). The adjustment of the Maduro on fixed capital. With the transforma- Maduro, and that this be the fulcrum to government is what has begun to tion of COVID-19 into a pandemic, deliver a final coup de grace to the Cuban arouse reactions from the working the consequent border closings and the regime. Precisely, the Lima Group, class, which also rejects the govern- declaration of quarantines in many which gathers the main Latin American ment’s persecution of union activists. countries, a deep economic standstill leaders and was born under the auspices In particular, the struggle of the oil and an unprecedented capitalist col- of Yankee imperialism, was born with workers in defense of wages and collec- lapse were completed. the explicit objective of condemning the tive labor agreements stand out. Venezuelan government. After the suc- (…) cessive failures of Juan Guaidó, the pup- The revolutionary left must be placed The crisis has once again shown that pet of the Yankees in Venezuela, to seize in the first line of combat against reac- the capitalist world collapse can only be political power, imperialism has imple- tionary and pro-imperialist coups. Only faced with anti-capitalist and socialist mented various avenues with the aim of from this field, the one of a decided measures. The fight for non-payment breaking the Maduro regime. battle against the reactionary, the left will be able to seize the necessary politi- of external debts, for the rupture with (…) the IMF and with imperialism, for cal authority to uproot the workers’ extraordinary taxes on large incomes vanguard and the working masses from the influence of the capitalist’s national- and fortunes, for the nationalization The fight for non-pay- without compensation of banking sys- ism, and to lead a workers’ and popular tems, foreign trade and natural resourc- ment of external debts, movement under the flags of socialism. es, such as oil, gas, mining and energy for the rupture with the With these objectives, we face the coup resources, etc., and general workers’ in Bolivia and denounce the blockade control has a continental scope. In all of IMF and with imperial- and the imperialist attacks against Latin America, the agitation and the ism, for extraordinary Venezuela, with complete indepen- fight for this workers’ program to solve taxes on large incomes dence from the nationalist leaderships. the crisis is a fundamental task of the revolutionary left. The fight for this and fortunes, for the From São Paulo to Puebla program is inextricably linked to the nationalization without The response of Latin American fight for workers’ governments and for “progressives” to the alignment of the the reconstruction of an international compensation of bank- continental right in the Lima Group revolutionary political leadership—the ing systems, foreign was the creation of the Puebla Group Fourth International. trade and natural in July 2019. The Puebla Group appears as the devalued version of what was The hand of imperialism, its resources, such as oil, once the São Paulo Forum, which agents and the coups gas, mining and energy emerged as a regrouping of Latin The Donald Trump government American nationalist and leftist forces spares no effort to achieve greater resources, etc., and against “neoliberal” regimes. Largely, interference in Latin America. This is general workers’ control the forces that make up the Forum what explains Trump’s demand for it has a continental scope. became government throughout Latin to be an American, Claver Carone, America, on the basis of becoming the who presides over the IADB (Inter- left custodians of the capitalist regime American Development Bank) for the The attempt by his government to in the face of the crises and rebellions next five years, contradicting an sweep out the right sector of the parlia- emerging in the beginning of the cen- “unwritten law” that establishes that its ment and reestablish full dominance of tury (Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, etc.) presidency corresponds to a Latin the regime he leads, is being carried out The experience of the São Paulo Forum American country. Trump wants to at a moment when, protected by the ended in a tragedy. The failures of ensure full control of this institution to economic sanctions of imperialism, he Unasur and Mercosur were the con- reinforce a policy of blocking Chinese is executing a strong adjustment crete expression of the impossibility of

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 13 a Latin American integration (the so- more than a mere story. The revolu- for an unemployment insurance that is called “Patria Grande” or the Greater tionary left must distinguish the real equivalent to the cost of living in each Homeland) on a capitalist basis. With existent coup offensives from the country, and fighting for the general the world crisis, starting in 2008, the nationalist crowing, which only seeks to distribution of working hours without weakness of the merely rentier survival muzzle the workers’ organizations and reducing wages. Putting a limit to the plan of the “national and popular” the left, and thus deprive them of their layoffs poses the question of promot- governments of Latin America became action and their criticism with the aim ing the occupation of any factory or evident. They sank with the fall of the of subordinating them to the national- company that closes or dismisses prices of raw materials: they were ist or populist-front government. employees. And confronting famine unable to overcome the semi-colonial Nationalism must be opposed by pro- entails organizing the fight for mini- status and the production of only raw moting the direct action of the working mum wages and pensions that are materials. The “national bourgeoisies” class for its immediate demands and an equivalent to the cost of living in each ended up mired in the corruption cases economic and political program of the Latin American country. In order to of the Odebrechts or the Lópezes workers so that the crisis is paid by the foster these minimum demands, (which the right exploited to promote capitalists. Latin American unity can together with the fight to end job inse- political change.) The anti-worker only be achieved by workers’ govern- curity and informality, to repeal the character of governments such as that ments at a subcontinent level. That is to labor and pension reforms and to end of Lula or Cristina was revealed in their say, on a socialist basis. private pension systems, we promote maintenance of job insecurity, inter- Anti-worker offensive, program the united front of workers and work- vention against numerous strikes and ers’ organizations. We carry out this and the fight for unions the strengthening of the nationaliza- promotion for a united fight front, tion of union organizations against any Latin America is also the continent understood as a practical agreement attempt at independent organization. most affected by the social crisis. The with all the participant currents to pro- Their budget adjustment policies gave capitalist class and the different gov- mote a mass struggle, without ever rise to a long process of political ernments are unloading the crisis on sacrificing the Party agitation for the decline, which ended up encouraging the backs of the workers. independent structuring of the work- the coup, to which they did not respond, (…) ing class, the workers’ government and and the electoral rise of new right-wing This context of a phenomenal attack socialism. The fight for the workers’ governments on a continental level, against the living conditions of the immediate demands puts on the agen- such as the ones of Bolsonaro, Piñera, working masses, further highlights the da the fight to kick out the sellout Macri, Lacalle Pou, etc. paralysis and collaborationism on the union bureaucracies, the promotion of Formally, outside the setup of the part of the bureaucracies of the workers’ worker congresses in each Latin Puebla Group there is another bench- unions in all countries. The union American country and the plans to mark of the “progressive” or “national bureaucracies were decisive in contain- fight until a general strike is reached to and popular” field—the Mexican ing the open and determined interven- impose these congresses. President Andrés Manuel López tion of the labor movement in the (…) Obrador (AMLO). Since taking posses- course of the 2019 popular rebellions. sion of the Mexican presidency on In this way, they managed to avoid the Mass movements and December 1, 2018, AMLO did not fall of the governments backed by the revolutionary politics make any trips abroad until July 2020. struggle of the masses. …The fight for The great rebellions in Latin His first international tour was to visit the political independence of the work- America and the United States were Donald Trump, under the pretext of ers’ organizations is, above all, a method preceded and led, to a large extent, by celebrating the signing of the neocolo- to accelerate the process of separating mass movements with a strongly com- nial Free Trade Agreement, signed by the workers’ bases from their bureau- bative dynamic, which have made the Mexico, the USA and Canada a year cratic and capitalist leadership, not to historical methods of the working class ago. AMLO mobilized, objectively correct the capitalist course of that lead- their own despite not having a defined propping up Trump’s candidacy…In ership or for its self-regeneration. class anchor. In recent years, the wom- summary, AMLO starred in an act of It is imperative to respond to this en’s and diversities movement has colonialism with little precedent. social attack with a program of the stood out, like no other, for its con- The so-called “fight against the working-class’ immediate demands frontation with right-wing govern- right-wing” proclaimed by Latin and an action plan. Facing mass unem- ments, which have misogyny and dis- American “progressivism” is nothing ployment means raising the demand crimination against diversities as a

14 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 common feature. Both the “Ele Não” national separation on the Black com- (Communist Party of Brazil), PDT against Bolsonaro and the “Me too” in munity. A revolutionary victory would (Democratic Labor Party) and PSB the United States staged mass mobili- have to be the foundation of a larger (Brazilian Socialist Party). The PSOL zations. In the same way, it is necessary unity. But that unity cannot avoid the has not gone beyond an electoral seal, to highlight the enormous fight waged historical oppression suffered, it must based on a superstructural agreement in Argentina for the right to abortion. recognize and defeat it. Only by uncon- on trends. Indeed, the PSOL has not In Chile, the massive women’s move- ditionally claiming the rights of the endeavored to be the engine of the class ment struggle anticipated largely the Black population, including the right struggle, and it has been tailing Lulism. outbreak of the October 18th rebellion. to their autonomy, can the founda- Currently, PSOL integrates an “anti- (…) tions be laid and advance in the unity Bolsonaro” front together with parties of every American worker and the from the bourgeoisie, many of which A workers’ vanguard can only claim exploited against the current capitalist played a leading role in the parliamen- its place in the fighting ranks of the social order. The agitation and defense tary coup against Dilma. IS international industrial proletariat by of this right for the Black community (International Socialists) also inte- participating in the struggles against all must be accompanied by a whole pro- grates the Broad Front of Peru, a kinds of oppression. gram of universal characteristics, which democratizing front opposed to the The popular rebellion in the U.S. includes the immediate demands of the strategy of the workers’ government. has the Black community as the central entire North American working class The 2019 electoral campaign of protagonist. However, it has a massive and an economic and political pro- “UNIOS en el Frente Amplio” (Unite multiracial character, joining in the gram of all the workers. in the Broad Front), the sister organi- solidarity demonstrations with radical- zation of IS in Peru, had as its two ized white sectors and advancing in a Revolutionary strategy main axes “the fight against corrup- true common struggle. The scope of For nine years, the Left Front (FIT- tion” and “against insecurity,” even the ongoing struggle stands out for its U), with its contradictions and limits, demanding that “the police comply connection with the growing labor held high the banner of class indepen- with their job.” These facts reveal the conflict and for the severity of the dence and the fight for workers’ gov- tendencies to electoralism that nest on country’s crisis, in health, economic, ernment in Argentina. However, it is the left. The parliamentary expectation social and political matters. Strikes and clear that this independence has been and appetites for a position is the lure worker’s protests over working condi- sustained against solvent tendencies to sacrifice the fight for the workers’ tions have multiplied with the worsen- that emanate, on many occasions, from political independence. Before and ing pandemic, marking a tendency for the Front parties themselves. These after, the electoral tendencies had been the organized working class to con- trends have had a privileged scenario in strongly expressed, as evidenced by the verge with the rebellion led by the Brazil, where the sister organizations of PTS’ use of all the workers’ struggle Black community. Most of the the Socialist Left and the MST (Landless tribunes for the mere projection of American left, particularly the one that Workers’ Movement), the CST their electoral candidates. has colluded with Bernie Sanders, as (Socialist Workers’ Current) and AS The dissolution of the left into the powerful organization of Socialist (Socialism of the 21st Century), respec- “broad” fronts or parties with a center- Democrats (Democratic Socialists of tively, are integrated into the PSOL, left hue, which regroup organizations America), does not support the claim (Socialism and Liberty Party) a “broad with contradictory policies under the for autonomy of sectors of the Black party” with center-left characteristics same hallmark and are led by cliques community. The “leftist” criticism of and class collaboration. The MRT, sis- with mere electoral appetites that the centrality of racial demands, with a ter organization of the Partido de los advocate class collaboration, under- classist language, hides that DSA is lag- Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS), in turn mined the fight for the workers’ inde- ging behind the most combative sec- asked for their PSOL membership, and pendent political structuring. In oppo- tors of the Black movement, that have although that membership was denied, sition to the political dissolution, the identified the imperialist state of the this was not an impediment to inte- preparation of the new round of popu- United States as its main enemy and grate the PSOL lists in 2018, when it lar rebellion incubations demands to anti-imperialist fighters of the world as proclaimed as its fundamental orienta- fully unfold the struggle to set up revo- their allies. Any principle of autonomy tion to promote “a parliamentary front lutionary workers’ parties throughout for the Black community equals a dec- committed to the reconstruction and Latin America. In opposition to the laration of hostility to the U.S. imperi- development of Brazil” along with the construction of electoral apparatus to alist state. It is not a matter of imposing PT (Workers’ Party), the PCdoB thrive through parliamentary seats

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 15 under the shadow of “broad” parties or Year of the Plague: Danger of Fascism fronts, on the one hand, or the with- drawal of left groups to messianic and By Chris Kinder “spotless” propaganda, on the other, we propose the setting up of combat October 11, 2020–As you read this, It is becoming more and more likely parties of the working class to fight for the 2020 election day in the U.S. will that Biden will win the popular vote, workers’ governments. In opposition have already passed, but is that the end perhaps even in a landslide. Trump is to the projection of mere referents or of the story? All the signs say, no. getting more and more desperate. Yet electoral candidates, we promote the During the delay between election day he continues to insist that his reelec- formation of political leaders of the and the December 14th date for the tion is a forgone conclusion. working class, who are the organizers electoral college to vote, many things In order to make this prediction and socialist tribunes of the workers. In can and will happen, and most of them come true, he and Republican allies opposition to the publication of mere are not good. States, for instance, will have used a deep treasure chest of “left news,” we promote the establish- be inundated with mail-in ballots to deceptive tricks to suppress the vote, ment of a party’s political tools, news- count, and many of them are very especially in districts with a high per- papers that are the instrument to cen- poorly prepared for this task. And centage of Black, Brown and Asian trally develop the agitation and revolu- there will be sinister problems. voters. Trump also rants endlessly tionary propaganda, the organization Enter Donald Trump and Co. The against mail-in voting, claiming that of the class and the revolutionary party. current unelected U.S. president has there will be thousands of fraudulent The next stage calls for a political party planned for months to stay in power ballots, for which there is practically no struggle, that is, a struggle that must be without actually being re-elected. He evidence whatsoever. waged through agitation, propaganda, has openly proclaimed that he will He has also ramped up war-mon- and the organization of the workers refuse to leave office. He has even pro- gering against China, accusing it of and youth vanguard. jected the possibility of 12 more years, interfering with fraudulent ballots. The revolutionary left—that pro- not just four. And he has ways to out- There is no evidence or likelihood for motes a united front of workers’ orga- flank the popular vote completely. this, just as there is not for Russia, for nizations to enforce the workers’ strug- that matter. Repeat a lie often enough, gle and subordinates the parliamentary Trump is arranging a coup and some fools will believe it. In this roles to the urgency of the working Trump’s poll numbers have increas- case, that means his numerous white- class direct action—also works for the ingly been dropping as of this writing. supremacist allies. workers’ political independence with a clear strategic proposal that is summa- rized in the following slogans: “Out with Trump and his agents from Latin America;” “Out with the Bolsonaros, the Piñeras, the Añezes and the Lenin Morenos;” “Down with the govern- ments of national sellout, austerity and repression against workers, enough with capitalist governments;” “Let the crisis be paid by the capitalists, for a workers’ solution to the crisis;” “For workers’ governments, for the Socialist Unity of Latin America including Puerto Rico.” Read the full program at: PrensaObrera.com, July 30, 2020 https://prensaobrera.com/ english/a-revolutionary-strategy-and-a- revolutionary-program-to-intervene-in- latin-america-and-the-us/ Portland, Oregon / USA - August 4th, 2018: Proud Boys and Alt Right protesters at a Patriot Prayer rally in Portland Oregon. (Shutterstock)

16 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Gangs of thugs modern times, the electors have gener- for killings of Communists (who were Trump is openly urging far-right ally followed the popular vote, but if the majority of victims of the violence.) vigilantes like the Proud Boys, Oath that vote was invalidated, legislatures Hitler served as a defense witness, but Keepers, Wolverine Watchmen, Three could pick whoever they want for elec- the Brownshirts were convicted and Percenters and others to intimidate tors. If enough Republican-dominated sentenced to death. Though Hitler’s voters en masse, and invade vote- states do this, it could lock-up the dictatorship would soon change this counting centers to “challenge” (ie., “election” for Trump. scenario, it was not secure yet. reject) ballots from Black and Brown And Trump could declare a nation- Hitler’s cloak of fraudulent communities; and to cause enough al emergency, which his loyal Attorney legality chaos and violence in the vote-count- General Barr will support. This could ing process to convince swing states send the decision to the Supreme Hitler’s chancellorship in January and courts that the voting-counting Court, which Trump and his co-dicta- 1933 was a appointment by the German process has been invalidated. tor in the Senate have stacked with President Hindenburg, based on the Nazi coalition with two small parties, These fascistic militias have already rightist constitutionalists. The Court which gave him a majority in the been prepared with events such as the could send the decision to the House of Reichstag. Nazis staged torchlight “unite-the-right” torchlight mobiliza- Representatives, which is allowed one parades throughout Berlin. But tion in Charlottesville which killed one single vote for each state’s representa- Hindenburg was still in charge of the protestor, and set an example for violent tives, where Republican controlled military as long as he remained alive attacks on demonstrations against police states out number Democratic states (about one year,) and Hitler was unable brutality and murders of Black people. by 26 to 23, thus electing Trump. to pass an “enabling act” to make him These groups are egged on by Trump’s Either way, Trump’s coup would be the supreme leader until he established falsely blaming the left for the violence, “legal,” according to the constitution. a stronger majority in the Reichstag. refusing to denounce white suprema- cists, and asking the Proud Boys to How Adolf Hitler came to power The bombing of the Reichstag, “stand back and stand by” in the debate All this is remarkably similar to the planned and organized by the Nazis with Biden. The Proud Boys promptly way Adolf Hitler came to power in and blamed on the Communists, was took that slogan as their marching Germany. Hitler’s party, the National key. Hitler got Hindenburg to sign off orders, and put it on their t-shirts. Socialist German Workers Party on a “Reichstag Fire Decree,” which (NSDAP-Nazi) never won a majority declared an emergency that allowed Many rightists are also mobilized to in an election, as Trump has not and Hitler to suspend most civil liberties, oppose anti-virus measures, also urged will not. In Hitler’s case, this includes including habeas corpus, freedom of on by Trump. Most of these have been even the election that was held shortly the press, and the right of free associa- rallies, but the potential for dangerous after Hitler was made chancellor, in tion and public assembly. Mass arrests violence was blatant when the 1933. In the 1932 elections, the Nazis Communists, and the banning of non- Wolverine Watchers and others con- actually lost a few seats in the Reichstag Nazi political parties soon followed. spired to kidnap, and possibly kill, the (parliament), though they remained governor of Michigan over her virus The “Night of the Long Knives,” the largest single party. Hermann shutdown orders. This plot was which murderously beheaded the SA, Göring became the Reichstag presi- exposed by the FBI in early October. the leadership of which had threatened dent, but Hitler refused an appoint- the leadership of the military, was the Crimes cloaked in a fraudulent ment as vice-chancellor, saying he final act. This, and the death of legality didn’t want to “play second fiddle.” Hindenburg in August of 1934 solidi- It is important to understand that Deadly clashes in the streets between fied Hitler’s full dictatorship. the U.S. is not a democracy, and never Nazi Brownshirts and Communists has been. A court decision that the vote were ramping up, as a severe depres- “Don’t forget how people laughed count is invalid could throw the elec- sion was sweeping away jobs in at me” tion to state legislatures. In the Germany, as in the rest of the world. In 1934, Hitler was quoted saying, Constitution, the state legislatures Göring promoted a bill in the Reichstag “Don’t forget how people laughed at choose the electors, whose vote alone to strengthen penalties against “acts of me 15 years ago when I declared that elects the president. The popular vote political violence,” hoping that one day, I would govern Germany. is never mentioned in the Constitution. Communists could be rounded up. They laugh now, just as foolishly, when In the early days, the legislature- Instead, a major case was made against I declare that I will remain in power!”2 appointed Electoral College was it. In five Sturmabteilung1 (SA) Brownshirts Does this remind you of anything?

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 17 Even though Trump himself is a QAnon, a hard-right threat 19th Century in Russia by elements in little short of being an actual fascist— While this question is hard to the Russian Orthodox Church, in he is more accurately a self-serving answer, we see clear indications of a response to the influx of Jews into Russia arrogant racist white supremacist, growing hard-right threat. Take the from its conquests in Poland and the nationalist, opportunist, and know- QAnon conspiracy theory. Starting as Ottoman Empire. Central to its mythol- nothing moron (one easily runs out of an obscure and totally bizarre internet ogy was the “Blood Libel,” which adjectives)—his actions are certainly discussion just a few years ago, it has claimed that Jews kidnapped and slaugh- moving the U.S. in the direction that exploded into a rapidly spreading tered Christian children, and drained Hitler mapped out. He has declared he Nazi-like cult. It claims there is a secret their blood for use in the dough used to will stay in power whatever the out- intelligence agent, Q, who is exposing a make matzos for Jewish holidays. come. Although they are not centrally secret Satan-worshiping “deep state” Pogroms against Jews organized as were the Brownshirts, the cult which kidnaps white children, hard-right militias and vigilante groups keeps them in secret prisons run by Jews in Russia were confined to spe- in the U.S. are coming together in a pedophiles, who slaughter and eat cial villages called “pales,” and subjected common cause to wreak havoc on the them to gain power from the essence in to periodic deadly pogroms, or raids, car- election process in support of Trump. their blood. This cabal, Q claims, is ried out by Czarist military. The Czarist secret police may have had a hand in the Trump will probably not be able to financed by Jews, particularly George Soros, and Jews in the media. Protocols as well, all used to justify the fire-bomb Congress as the Nazis did pogroms. The Protocols were published the Reichstag. But he can foment vio- Trump’s mission, according to in the early 20th Century, translated and lence, and is able to declare an emer- QAnon is to expose and destroy this spread throughout Europe, including in gency which would pretend to invali- horrific deep state cabal. Trump’s com- Germany, which also had a long history date the election result. He and his ment, so far? He said he doesn’t know of confining Jews to ghettos, and to cer- thugs could possibly manufacture much (no surprise there), but they tain occupations as well. other atrocities to blame on the left. He “like me,” and this pleases him! The Protocols were a gift to the Nazis. has already gone overboard on blam- The QAnon “ideology” is not new. It It was used in Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and it ing Black Lives Matter protestors for is based squarely on an anti-Semitic was promoted in the Nazi newspaper, Der the violence which is actually caused by tirade known as The Protocols of the Sturmer (The Storm). It was also made white rightists. This poses the question Elders of Zion. These “protocols” were a into a children’s book, which was required of, how ready is the U.S. for fascism? forgery, probably written in the early in the curriculum of all primary schools! QAnon’s source material in the Protocols is also not that new in the U.S. Fascist lovers and supporters of Mussolini and Hitler’s Germany abounded in this country. Henry Ford echoed Nazi hatred of Jews, and had 500,000 copies of the Protocols printed and distributed in the U.S. The infa- mous Catholic priest, Father Coughlin, preached the Protocols on his national radio programs in the 1930s—one of the first mass uses of radio. And the Ku Klux Klan combined anti-Semitism with its white supremacist hate message.3 U.S. corporations supported Nazis Many large U.S. corporations were also complicit in supporting Mussolini and the German Nazis, both before and during World War II. This included financial investment, supplying of

18 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 resources, and industrial production. financing for Biden rather than Trump. of capitalist/imperialist rule in the U.S. Oil supplies were critical to both Japan They liked the tax break, but did not and the world. The Democrats will not and Germany, and U.S. companies, really need it. What else do they have to and cannot solve problems caused by chiefly Standard Oil, supplied both gain from Trump? More chaos? the extreme wealth gap in the U.S., the throughout the war, using round-about unchallenged advance of climate change, routes through South Asia, Central and the coronavirus pandemic, or the threats South America, and Spain, which was a Only the development of of fascistic gangs. Only the development neutral power friendly to Hitler. U.S. a revolutionary workers of a revolutionary workers party, deter- directors of SKF—a huge trust financed mined to overthrow capitalism, can chiefly by a Swedish bank—made sure party, determined to solve the many problems we face. that SKF’s production of ball bearings, overthrow capitalism, critical for airplanes, were delivered to Germany during the war. Fifteen can solve the many 1 The Sturmabteilung (SA) literally “Storm months after Pearl Harbor, U.S. aircraft problems we face. Detachment,” was the Nazi Party’s original para- military wing. It played a significant role in Adolf production lacked a supply of new ball Hitler’s rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. bearings, with the result that worn-out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung bearings caused crashes of U.S. fighter Democrats can’t solve anything 2 It was at this time that Hitler declared that planes. This is just one example in a Biden will win the popular vote, and the “National Socialist movement will go on for detailed ten-page story.4 Trump and his thugs will try to disrupt it, 1,000 years!” “Germany: Second Revolution?” After the war, fascism was an anath- that much is certain. But despite Trump’s Time Magazine, July 2, 1934; quoted in “Hitler’s legal resources in the undemocratic U.S. Seizure of Power, Seizure of Control (1931- ema throughout most of the world, but 1933),” wikipedia.org. Constitution, and despite the surge in now it is out of the bottle again. Rightist 3 “QAnon is a Nazi Cult, Rebranded,” by populism and outright fascism is fascistic mobilization in the U.S., I think Gregory Stanton, September 9, 2020. spreading. But what is the likelihood of that Trump’s coup attempt will not suc- https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is- fascism’s victory in the U.S. today? ceed—this time. Trump will wind up in a-nazi-cult-rebranded/ defeat, one way or another, but that will (Stanton works with Genocide Watch, and the Will Trump’s coup work? not be the end of it. While this prediction Alliance Against Genocide) Both Mussolini and Hitler came to is tenuous, one thing is certain: a Biden 4 Anthony Gronowicz, “The history tells power because they had ruling class victory will solve nothing. another story about the role of the U.S. in World support in the context of mass working War II,” on the action greens list. Professor The fascist mobilization is not going Gronowicz teaches at the City University of class revolutionary movements which to go away, nor are the many problems New York, and is the author of several books. threatened to overthrow capitalism. Both fascist movements were based on violent organized bands, controlled from the top, and able to combat the workers movements and parties. Today’s fascists in the U.S. are a collec- tion of dangerous armed bands who are capable of murderous attacks, and have the support of the right-populist president, but they lack a unifying national organization. The ruling class’ power is not sig- nificantly threatened today. While still having many isolated struggles, and while ideas of socialism have been spreading, workers lack a revolutionary party, are not organized as a class, and so are not currently threatening the rul- ing class. Also, the bourgeoisie is show- ing serious doubts about Trump, as seen by the large increase of Wall Street

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 19 How the Pigs Abuse “Gang” Labels By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

Using racism to create political of the Federal Department of Loyalty in his speech, “Power Anywhere bogey men expressed, “of course, the fact that a per- There’s People!”: Socially and politically charged son believes in racial equality doesn’t “[Y]ou ain’t seen nothin’ till you labels have long been used (or mis- prove that he’s a Communist, but it see one them beautiful sisters with used) by officials as a cover for abusing certainly does make you look twice.”1 their hair kinda’ start gettin’ grey, and discriminating against Black and The FBI perpetuated the same views and they ain’t got many teeth, and Brown people, and suppressing politi- and targeted people accordingly. “FBI they were tearing them police up! They were tearin’ ‘em up! The pigs cal views that challenge or question the agents spotted white communists by status quo. would come come up to them and their ease and politeness around say, “You scared of communism?” During the Cold War, when the Negroes, or by the simple fact that they And the Sisters would say, “No— 2 U.S. and its Western allies, were socialized with Negroes at all.” scared of it? I ain’t never heard of it.” engaged in a propaganda war against In 1948 president Harry Truman “You like socialism?” Communism, the “Communist” label aimed, according to his own political “No, I ain’t never heard of it.” was used to discredit, and as a pretext strategist, “to identify [presidential can- to justify attacking, people and politi- didate Henry Wallace who promoted The pigs, they be crackin’ up, because they enjoyed seeing these cal views that officials disliked or liberal views on race] and isolate him in people frightened of these words. opposed. During the Civil Rights era, the public mind with the Communists.”3 anyone (especially whites) who As a result of these policies linking anti- “You like capitalism?” opposed Jim Crow segregation, lynch- Communism with race, when Wallace “Yeah, well, that’s what I live ing and the many overt abuses faced by toured the South during the 1948 elec- with—I like it.” Blacks was labeled a Communist. tion campaign, violent white mobs “You like the Breakfast for In fact, the FBI targeted Martin screamed charges against him and his Children program, ni**er?” Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X under entourage as a “Communist” and “nig- “Yeah, I like it.” its COMINFIL (Communist ger lover!” This in the South was the 4 And the pigs say “Uh oh.” The Infiltration) program using the pretext “Communist Menace.” pigs say, “Well, the Breakfast for of investigating them for supposed Officially manipulated racism Children program is a socialistic pro- backing from Communist countries, as formed the basis of the mass hysteria gram. It’s a communistic program.” cover for surveilling, harassing and that fueled the Red Scare and And the women said, “Well I tell ultimately murdering them, to counter McCarthyism of the Cold War. you what, boy. I’ve been knowing their leading struggles against white you since you was knee-high to a supremacy and capitalism in Amerika. The pigs even tried to use the Communist bogey man to turn Black grasshopper, ni**a. And I don’t know if I like communism and I The real basis and method that offi- communities against the Black Panther don’t know if I like socialism. But I cials used to incite anti-Communist Party. Of course, it didn’t work, because sentiment across the U.S. white popu- know that that Breakfast for Blacks had no racist basis upon which Children program feeds my kids lation wasn’t political, it was racial. to manipulate them to fear They did this by linking Communism ni**a. And if you put your hands on Communism, while they whole-heart- that Breakfast for Children program, with white fears of Black integration edly supported the BPP’s community I’m gonna come off this can and I’m and Civil Rights in the public mind. service programs like the Free Breakfast gonna beat your ass like a….’” Officials openly advanced these for Schoolchildren program. Fred views. As the chairman of the Hampton, Jr., the Chairman of the Inventing new bogey men—ter- Washington State Investigative Illinois chapter of the BPP described rorism and gangs Committee expressed, “If someone the pigs’ failed attempts. How they As the late historian Howard Zinn insists that there is discrimination tried to turn the community matrons observed, when the Soviet Union col- against Negroes in this country, or that against the Party by describing the BPP lapsed at the turn of the 1990s, U.S. there is inequality in wealth, there is and its programs as Communist— officials had to create a new racially every reason to believe that person is a although the BPP actually was a charged bogey man with which to communist.” Also, the head of the board Communist organization. Here’s Fred incite “majority” public opinion

20 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 against those countries, people and With gangs as the new bogey man there were Black youths in Los ideas they opposed. This time they with which to demonize and justify Angeles. [LAPD chief Darryl] Gates used Arab terrorism. But this label repressive policies against the Black sealed off large areas of South didn’t readily apply to whipping up community at large, officials maneu- Central as ‘narcotics enforcement fear within the U.S., using people of vered to label any and every young zones.’ There was a strict curfew, color who remained marginalized and Black male and view they opposed as constant police presence and on- the-spot strip searches for those whom the establishment desired to gang related. Indeed, they labeled Black caught outside after curfew.”6 continue to hold back socially, politi- youth who didn’t even exist as gang cally and economically. So, another members, to inflate gang databases cre- Alongside these attacks on the Black racially charged bogey man had to be ated to stigmatize entire Black commu- communities, a parallel program was created and used that could be readily nities as gang affiliated. occurring inside U.S. prisons and jails, applied to people of color within the where officials were also engineering U.S. This was the “gang” label. the growth of gangs, while purging In all prison systems, them of leaders who might lead them in During the 1960s and ’70s U.S. offi- positive directions and replacing them cials systematically targeted for destruc- the STG label is used to with ones who could be controlled tion independent Black political leader- suppress and censor through their own self-interest and ship like Malcolm X and the BPP, that literature that expresses desire for power and money into cycles was winning and influencing large num- of violent conflict and drug prolifera- bers of Black youth to take up the fight views and teaches tion and addiction. The pigs use these against segregation, racism, endemic histories from critical elements to control prisons, target non- poverty, and the myriad abuses that are Black and Brown affiliated politically conscious and oth- inherent to the capitalist system. erwise “problematic” prisoners, and to In turn, through blacksploitation perspectives. Often, it’s justify increasingly draconian measures films and other entertainment media, used to censor media and calls for increased funding and hustlers, drug dealers, pimps and espe- resources for “gang intelligence” mea- cially the mafia were glamorized to that criticizes racism sures and staff, and the construction of poor urban youth as the images of and racist groups. more prisons, especially supermax and social rebels whom they should emu- solitary confinement units. late and imitate, while outright govern- ment terrorism was used to discourage Officials used the drug infestation The security threat group label them from identifying with and joining and gang proliferation that they creat- To allow the gang label to be applied groups like the BPP. ed themselves to carry out this agenda. more generally and broadly to any As one report explained: prisoner or prisoner group that offi- At the same time the government “Operation Hammer [a cam- cials wish to target, prison officials flooded the poor Black communities paign created by the LAPD targeted have created the term Security Threat with narcotics and assault weapons at the Black communities of Los Group (STG), which is a more broadly that destabilized the communities and Angeles] was a counterinsurgency inclusive euphemism for gang. gave rise to the growth of, and violent program that sometimes resembled conflicts between, youth street gangs. the Phoenix program in Vietnam. As with the cops on the outside, The resulting drug epidemics and gang There were hundreds of comman- everyone and every idea prison officials wars were used to bolster the bogey do-style raids on ‘gang houses.’ wish to suppress, they label as STG man image of gangs by officials bent on More than 50,000 suspected gang related. More often than not, the STG continuing to marginalize, exploit and members were swept up for inter- label is used to target things in man- repress Black people. I discuss and rogation based on factors such as ners that are facially absurd and in no extensively document the government- style of dress and whether the sus- way relate to any STG matter. Often pect was a young Black male on the engineered process of dumping drugs the motives are blatantly racist. street past curfew. Of those caught in the Black communities and generat- up in such Hammer sweeps, 90 per- Indeed, most STG investigators and ing the violent rise of gangs and gang cent were later released without their staff are white and have no con- conflicts in my article, “Kill Yourself or charge, but their names were held in nection to communities or cultures of Liberate Yourself: The Real U.S. a computer database of gang mem- people of color. Yet, the vast majority Imperialist Policy on Gang Violence vs. bers that was later shown to have of prisoners targeted as STG affiliated the Revolutionary Alternative” (2010).5 included twice as many names as are Black and Brown. The few excep-

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 21 tions in cases of more racially diverse sor literature that expresses views and and their teachings while targeting and STG officials occurs in prisons that are teaches histories from critical Black repressing Blacks and Browns. located in areas where there is a more and Brown perspectives. Often, it’s As an example of how absurdly the diverse local population. But in many used to censor media that criticizes STG label is abused and used as an ille- of such cases the STG staff are still racism and racist groups. gal tool of censorship by so-called white officials shipped in from other Florida prisons, where I was con- “expert” gang officials and investiga- places to run the STG operations. fined from 2017-2018, routinely tors, a recent issue of Socialist Viewpoint Overall the entire STG corps is banned publications as “STG materi- magazine was banned by STG investi- trained into a hostile doctrinaire view al,” citing articles that criticized racially gators here at Indiana’s Wabash Valley of the so-called gang culture, which discriminatory government practices prison, where I’m confined. They stereotypes Black and Brown commu- or the actions of white supremacist claimed the magazine violates the pris- nities, culture, people and history and groups in society. on system’s STG policy (policy # 02-03- is blatantly ignorant of and prejudiced I’ve witnessed over and again, STG 105, which can be read on the Indiana toward them. In all prison systems, the officials endorsing and permitting the Department of Correction’s [IDOC] STG label is used to suppress and cen- spread of white supremacist groups website.) The magazine, they claimed, had “hand signals” in it. People from all walks of life are routinely seen using hand signals, presidents using the “V” for victory, which among others is a general peace sign, and even clenched fist. Sports people and rock stars are commonly seen with thumb and pinky finger extended, or thumb, pinky and index fingers extended, and so on. But in the fevered minds of prison gang “experts,” any and every hand sign in a publication coming into a Black or Brown person is problematic. Aren’t these “expert” gang investiga- tors supposed to know how to distin- guish between gang communications and everyday people using everyday body language? Of course, they are, which is what demonstrates the foul motives behind what they do. This case is telling. The IDOC’s STG policy which was cited as banning the magazine in no way applies. As a threshold matter, the poli- cy defines an STG. Here’s what it says: “Security Threat Group (STG): A group of offenders that set them- selves apart from others; pose a threat to the security or safety of staff or offenders; or are disruptive to programs or the orderly manage- ment of the facility.” By this policy’s own definition, the magazine has no connection to any STG. Socialist Viewpoint, which can be also be viewed online, is a Socialist

22 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 magazine published and edited by two Future Focused in Black August 2020 elderly white women, with obvious Jewish last names, who are not prisoners By Jalil Muntaqim and have never been to prison. They are obviously not a “group of offenders.” By 2023, the U.S. will be 40 percent that is currently evolving with the Black We already know that officials don’t “minority,” and 50 percent of the entire Lives Matter (BLM) “anti-racism social like socialist and Communist views, population will be under 40 years old. consciousness movement.” Similar to and have linked suppressing those These are the demographics that cannot the moral civil rights consciousness views with racist opposition to equality be ignored as progressives move for- movement, the BLM “anti-racism for Black people. Indeed, they’ve used ward building opposition to institu- social consciousness movement” has racially charged labels to suppress those tional racism and plutocratic governing. challenged the symbols and social char- views, which is exactly what is occur- In my thinking, it is incumbent on acter of America’s racial divide. ring in this case...the racially charged today’s Black activist academic com- It has placed front and center the STG label is being deliberately misused munity to take into account what inequities of racial division in America’s to suppress a socialist magazine. America will look like in ten years to social order, demanding the demilitar- From “Communism” to “terror- better position Black people in opposi- ization and defunding of the police and ism” to “gangs,” the agenda of using tion to the deniers of change. In this a more equitable diversified inclusion racially charged labels to suppress peo- regard, I am raising dialogue toward in the capitalist-imperialist system, ple of color and ideas that officials dis- the building of a national Coalition for among other perfunctory systemic like continues. It’s the same racist a Changed America (NCCA), compris- demands. In its platform it has called imperialist shit in the same racist impe- ing Black historians, social and politi- for the ending of mass incarceration rialist toilet. cal scientists, demographers, econo- and the criminalization of poverty, to mists and statisticians along with polit- Dare to Struggle Dare to Win! support climate change initiatives, and ical activists who are prepared to build to stop the gentrification of communi- All Power to the People! a future focused America. ties of color and housing displacement, It is in preparation for the inevitable demanding debt relief for students and Write to Kevin “Rashid” Johnson: that we will better control and forge challenging dysfunctional and racist Kevin Johnson #264847 our common destiny with the neces- school systems and curriculums. Wabash Valley Correctional Facility sary ideological, socio-economic and In each of these and other demands 6908 S. Old U.S. HWY 41, P.O. Box 500 political determination to preserve our are racial and economic implications Carlisle, IN 47838 existence in a changed America. that may ultimately create social con- www.rashidmod.com It is extremely important progres- flicts and confrontations, since change sives seek the means to organize greater will not come easily in a socio-eco- unity and uniformity in ideological and nomic and political order that for cen- 1 David Coute, The Great Fear: The Anti- political objectives that build and sus- turies has existed under the delusion- Communist Purge Under Truman and Eisen- hower (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1978) p. 168 tain a mass and popular determination ary cloud of white supremacy. 2 Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963 (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1988) pp. 209-10 3 Robert Griffin, et al., Athen Theoharis, “The Politics of Scholarship: Liberalism, Anti-Com- munism and McCarthyism,” The Spectre: Origi- nal Essays on the Cold War and the Origins of McCarthyism (NY: New Viewpoints, 1974) p. 278 4 Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1996) pp. 260-63 5 http://rashidmod.com/?p=626 6 Alexander Cockburn, et al., Whiteout: the CIA, Drugs and the Press (NY: Verso, 1999)

“Capitalism is the virus” is painted on an abandoned factory in New Orleans.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 23 Racialized, unequal wealth the University of California, Berkeley, Can there be any serious opposition distribution and Gabriel Zucman of the London to this reality when the American pop- However, the most pervasive and School of Economics, almost all of the ulace is under the delusion of being devastating cause for all these issues is increases in American inequality over governed in a democracy inasmuch as the racialized unequal distribution of the last 30 years is attributable to the they are permitted to vote for a mil- wealth in this country. It is well ‘rise of the share of wealth owned by lionaire to govern them, when in truth researched and recorded the wealth the 0.1 percent richest families.’” (New the corporate government is a plutoc- disparity and income gap between York Times, “Another Widening Gap: racy? The American populace has no whites and Blacks is 40 percent greater The Haves vs. The Have Mores” by understanding that the U.S. corporate today than in 1967, with the average Robert Frank). And much of that rise is government is in fact a corporation Black household net worth of $6,314 driven by the top 0.01 percent. established by law in 28 U.S.C.A. compared to the average white house- §3002(15)(a) which states: “(15) hold net worth of $119,500, according “United States” means—(A) a Federal to the New York Times seven-part series Today, with the COVID- corporation.” by Nicholas Kristof, “When Whites 19 pandemic, and the Just Don’t Get It,” published 2014- Controlling the means 2016, now compiled by ImpactAmerica. rate disparity of Black of production Hence, the majority of the American When such economic disparity is deaths compared to populace as wage earners hustle and accounted toward the lack of educa- white deaths, lends to scrape for the crumbs off the plutoc- tional opportunities and criminal a greater understanding behavior in the Black community, we racy table, demanding increase in min- are better able to identify the perni- how unequal distribu- imum wage, when they should be demanding control of the means of cious problem. The Brookings Institute tion of wealth presents reported three years ago: “As poverty production. It is this inequitable distri- increases and spreads during the 2000s, a genocidal dynamic to bution of wealth, and the amalgama- the number of distressed neighbor- poor and oppressed tion of disparity as the middle and lower classes becomes less distinct, that hoods in the United States—defined as peoples, especially census tracts with poverty rates of 40 requires the progressive academic percent or more—climbed nearly three Black people. community to persistently address this quarters.” issue to raise consciousness and to direct attention to the real culprit of The report continued: “The popula- It further states: “The wealth of the peoples’ suffering. tions living in such neighborhoods top one percent grew an average of 3.9 Most recently Congress held hear- grew by similar margins (76 percent, or percent a year from 1986 to 2012, ings on the monopolies of Amazon, five million people) to reach 11.2 mil- though the top one-hundredth of that Facebook and Apple, discussing wheth- lion by 2008-2012” (New York Times, one percent saw its wealth grow about er they were “too big.” “Crime and Punishment” by Charles twice as fast. Sixteen thousand families M. Blow). in the tiptop category—those with for- The U.S. capitalist socio-economic Today, with the COVID-19 pan- tunes of at least $111 million—have order demands the capacity to exploit demic, and the rate disparity of Black seen their share of national wealth near- and profit from people’s labor. Thusly, deaths compared to white deaths, lends ly double since 2002, to 11.2 percent.” American workers consciously or to a greater understanding how When consideration is given to the unconsciously are complicit in their unequal distribution of wealth presents fact just one individual, the head of exploitation, abiding the social rules of a genocidal dynamic to poor and Amazon, Jeff Bezos, can make $13 bil- wage earners, which limits participatory oppressed peoples, especially Black lion in a day, this obscene wealth democracy to oppose their oppression. people. hoarding must have a devastating Labor unions and other representa- With the country in increasing eco- impact on America’s social order. This tives of worker’s rights are themselves, nomic crisis exacerbated by the is especially disconcerting when 16,000 for the most part, instruments of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important families out of approximately 350 mil- capitalist system. They have not to take into account reports on the rise lion Americans control 99 percent of demanded workers’ ownership of the of wealth: “According to a recent paper the country’s wealth—which demands means of production on behalf of the by the economists Emmanuel Saez of structural and institutional change. wage earners they represent.

24 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Rather, they ensure the viability of were ignored, held in abeyance or whit- Again, in three years, this country’s the corporation by preserving the tled down to cosmetic acts of appease- minority community will be 40 percent interest of the wage earner-worker in ment until the struggle was annihilated of the population, 50 percent of which cooperation with the corporate interest as a public nuisance and disappeared. will be under 40 years old. It is incum- of profitability. They do not prohibit The removing of Confederate statues bent on Black academic intelligentsia the exploitation of the worker but and allowing the Black Lives Matter’s to consider the idea of the develop- make it more palatable for the worker name to be painted in the streets has ment of the National Coalition for a to be exploited in a less egregious man- little bearing on how the corporate gov- Changed America (NCCA), specifically ner and for the corporation to contin- ernment operates. functioning as a think-tank and policy ue to reap exorbitant profits from development apparatus offering posi- workers’ labor. tion papers that are future focused and The union’s hard-fought conces- ...the majority of the that provide strategic guidance in the development of the anti-capitalist and sions from a reluctant corporate entity American populace as generally amount to pennies (or a per- anti-imperialist movement. centage of a penny) to a dollar of the wage earners hustle and —San Francisco Bay View, August corporation’s largesse. How can this be scrape for the crumbs 29, 2020 explained and presented to the off the plutocracy table, https://sfbayview.com/2020/08/jalil- American wage earners in order to per- demanding increase in muntaqim-future-focused-in-black- suade them to oppose American capi- august-2020/ talism as it currently exists? minimum wage, when “The system” they should be demand- While it is heartening to see young ing control of the means people, especially Black Lives Matter of production... Labor unions and (BLM) advocates, protest in the streets challenging the impunity of police other representatives repression and racist violence, demand- It, in essence, appeases the protest- ing the tearing down of symbols of ers and presents a false sense of achieve- of worker’s rights are white supremacy, it should be noted ment. While challenging the socio- themselves, for the these demands are readily adopted by cultural dynamics of white supremacy the system of oppression to preserve its may have liberatory psycho-social most part, instruments existence and capacity to exploit the value, it does not change the condi- American worker. These demands are tions of worker exploitation and capi- of the capitalist not a threat to the system of capitalism, talist profiteering, especially concern- although they expose the socio-cultur- ing Black workers who are generally system. They have not al institutions of racism, and how rac- super-exploited and vulnerable as the ism is utilized to forge divisions among pandemic has exposed and made demanded workers’ white workers and workers of color. explicitly obvious. ownership of the I believe we can define the BLM as an So, I pose this question to the Black “anti-racism social consciousness move- academic intelligentsia: How do you means of production ment” and not an anti-capitalist work- perceive your continued contribution ers’ movement. I am not confident these to an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist on behalf of the wage struggles by young people will result in movement being developed in this his- substantial institutional changes or con- toric time of turmoil in the United earners they represent. crete changes in the corporate culture States? How will the progressive com- and reality of capitalist profiteering. munity of Black erudite activists sup- Occupy Wall Street (OWS) created port this generation of Black protesters similar national attention, but devoid and dissenters and challenge their of a national organization, leadership engagement in this protracted (r)evo- and agenda, their demands for change lution for a changed America?

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 25 Rushing for a Vaccine Trump administration is paying big pharma billions in rush for vaccine By Marjorie Cohn

Desperate to distract the national won’t have results before mid-Novem- Last week, Johnson & Johnson discourse from his criminal mishan- ber. Moderna, AstraZeneca, and announced it had paused its clinical dling of the coronavirus pandemic, Johnson & Johnson say they hope to trial due to an unexplained illness in Donald Trump is promising that a vac- have results by the end of the year. one of its volunteers. The company cine will be available before Election “Trying to produce a vaccine at refused to provide details, claiming the Day. His vaccine campaign is named ‘Warp Speed’ is a terrible gamble with need to protect the patient’s privacy. “Operation Warp Speed” and there is a public health,” Clifford Conner, a sci- Robert R. Redfield, director of the real danger that its speed will warp the ence historian and author of the new Centers for Disease Control and results. Ironically, the Trump adminis- book, The Tragedy of American Science: Prevention, told a Senate panel on tration is comparing this effort to the From Truman to Trump, said in an September 16 that a vaccine wouldn’t Manhattan Project, the highly secret interview with Jeff Mackler of Socialist be readily available until mid-2021. A government program to develop the Action USA. “If none of the inade- few hours later, Trump declared, with- first atomic bomb. “This isn’t a secret quately tested trial vaccines kill any- out evidence, that Redfield “made a government weapon we’re trying to body—and if one of them should actu- mistake” and a vaccine would be wide- keep from an enemy,” said David ally prove therapeutically worth- ly available in weeks. Mitchell, founder of Patients for while—it will be a matter of dumb Shortly before Trump contradicted Affordable Drugs. “The enemy is the luck, and dumb luck is never a good Redfield, four senior physicians direct- virus. This is actually a rescue mission plan in a deadly crisis.” ing the national coronavirus response to save Americans and humanity from In July, AstraZeneca halted its clini- the virus.” team endorsed the Food and Drug cal trials because a participant became Administration’s (FDA) new stricter Vaccines generally take ten years to seriously ill. Although AstraZeneca safety rules. Those requirements man- develop, test and distribute. The short- refused to identify the malady, citing date the approval of outside experts est time it has taken to develop a vac- privacy concerns, the patient’s symp- before the FDA will pronounce a vac- cine is four years. Yet four pharmaceu- toms were consistent with transverse cine safe and effective. tical companies are in late stages of myelitis, or inflammation of the spinal clinical trials. Pfizer, apparently the cord. Several researchers decried The new FDA emergency rules also front-runner in the vaccine race, says it AstraZeneca’s lack of transparency. require that participants in clinical tri- als be followed for two months after administration of the immunizations before final authorization, in order to identify possible side effects. But desperate to win an electoral advantage in the face of Trump’s falling poll numbers, the administration stalled its approval of the FDA’s new policies for two weeks. Trump accused the FDA of preventing authorization of a vaccine before Election Day, calling it a “political hit job.” The day after The New York Times reported that White House officials were blocking the FDA’s new guidelines, the administration did an about-face and approved them. “I have tremendous trust in these massive companies that are so bril- liantly organized in terms of what they’ve been doing with the tests,”

26 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Trump said at a press briefing. “I don’t ness of COVID-19 vaccines. The board Congress members, advocacy orga- know that a government as big as we has the authority to fast-track or halt a nizations and a former administration are could do tests like this.” clinical trial. This small panel of ten to official are calling for Operation Warp In the race to develop a vaccine as 15 outside scientists and statistical Speed to release its vaccine contracts quickly as possible, Operation Warp experts works in secret, ostensibly to with the pharmaceutical companies. Speed is “paying out billions of dollars shield them from company pressure. “The administration really just seems to Big Pharma corporations in advance The secrecy, however, may also lead to to be playing a game of hide-and- of any results whatsoever,” Conner told undue influence by drug companies. seek,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) Truthout. They are not complying with “We want to know they’re truly inde- told NPR. regulatory oversight and traditional fed- pendent,” Eric Topol, a clinical trial The Trump administration has eral contracting mechanisms that create expert at San Diego’s Scripps Research, ignored requests by the House of transparency, he noted. “Before any of said. “The lack of transparency is exas- Representatives for information on the companies had done any research or perating.” The safety board is oversee- COVID-19 spending. “[R]ight now, developed any products, they were ing trials by Moderna, Johnson & the entire process is riddled with polit- already reaping windfall profits from Johnson and AstraZeneca. But Pfizer, ical interference and a lack of transpar- their association with Operation Warp which is funding its clinical trials, has ency,” Senator Patty Murray, Speed.” What that demonstrates, its own five-member safety panel. (D-Washington), ranking member of Conner adds, is that, “Warp Speed is the Senate Health, Education, Labor not so much a scientific ‘race for a vac- and Pensions Committee, wrote in a cine’ among competing research labo- “Warp Speed is not so statement to NPR. “These contracts ratories as it is a speculative frenzy much a scientific ‘race need to be made public, so Congress among competing hedge funds.” and the American people are not left in for a vaccine’ among Three of the pharmaceutical com- the dark—there is too much at stake.” panies that have contracted with Warp competing research Rick Bright, who was fired as direc- Speed to develop a vaccine have never laboratories as it is tor of the Biomedical Advanced successfully brought any vaccine to Research and Development Authority, market, Conner said. Novavax has a a speculative frenzy filed a whistleblower complaint, charg- Warp Speed contract for $1.6 billion, among competing ing that some federal COVID-19 con- Moderna has a $1.5 billion Warp Speed hedge funds.” tracts were awarded based on “political contract, and Vaxart’s stock prices connections and cronyism” instead of have soared, its owners realizing huge scientific evidence. Bright said there’s profits. Pfizer also has a Warp Speed Topol criticized Moderna and Pfizer no reason to hide the contracts, which contract worth $1.95 billion. for including in their data people who causes him to suspect “that there’s The Trump administration is pres- had fairly mild cases of COVID-19. something interesting in there they suring the FDA to rebrand its emer- Topol said evidence of the effectiveness don’t want discovered.” gency authorization of a vaccine as a of a vaccine would be more solid if Trump’s stubborn insistence on hav- “pre-licensure.” But, concerned it only moderate and severe cases were ing a vaccine by Election Day does not would appear to be politicizing scien- included. In addition, Topol faulted comport with reality. Neither do Big tific determinations, the FDA is push- Pfizer and Moderna for their willing- Pharma’s predictions. The shortcuts ing back. An FDA spokesperson cited ness to halt their clinical trials early, they threaten to take for political gain “important substantive differences” which could prove detrimental later and mega-profits endanger the public between the emergency use authoriza- when the vaccine is administered to safety. That should frighten us all. tion and the more rigorous process to millions of people. —Truthout, October 19, 2020 license a vaccine. “There is no such “Take the time, the extra weeks. No thing as ‘pre-licensure’ or ‘pre-approv- shortcuts. Nobody will regret it,” Topol al’ under the laws FDA administers,” cautioned. “I’ve been doing clinical tri- https://truthout.org/articles/trump- the spokesperson said. als for decades. I don’t know if there’s administration-is-paying-big-pharma- A data and safety monitoring board ever been a more important one than billions-in-rush-for-vaccine/ has been established to review infor- this one. I’d like to see it done right, mation about the safety and effective- and not stopped early.”

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 27 General Strike to Stop COVID-19 By Dr. Nayvin Gordon

The Federal Government issued All this is part of the systematic Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to advisory guidelines, August 18, 2020 attack on science for the people. The be a reason schools don’t open.” adding teachers to the list of “essential recent passage of the Cares Act gave These murderous policies of delib- workers.” These workers can be allowed trillions of dollars to the rich corpora- erately accelerating the spread of the to continue working and not quaran- tions and Wall Street while pennies pandemic must be stopped. A strike of tine after they have been exposed to went to mass COVID-19 testing to teachers, students and parents can be 1 COVID-19. protect the people. the spark that ignites a general strike These guidelines directly contradict for mass testing, tracing and isolation the science of public health pandemic to end this epidemic. It is up to us. control and will further spread disease Only a mass movement of workers can and death to students, staff, teachers force the government to meet the needs and their families across the nation. of the people. Following an outbreak in Camden Our lives depend on sharpening the County Georgia in early August, class struggle. Deputy Superintendent Jon Miller is reported to have sent a district-wide —August 24, 2020 email to administrators, writing, “Staff who test positive are not to notify any other staff members, parents of their 1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/educa- students or any other person/entity July 2020 the White House Press tion/2020/08/21/trump-administration- declared-teachers-essential-workers-heres-what- that they may have exposed them.” Secretary said, “We will not let science that-means/ 2 Furthermore, some states are already stand in the way of opening schools.” 2 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ concealing the true number of COVID- Vice President Mike Pence also said, live/2020/jul/16/coronavirus-us-covid-donald- 19 infections. “we don’t want the guidance of the trump-anthony-fauci-joe-biden-live-updates

A Very English Theft How the countryside was taken from the public, using profits from slavery By Nick Hayes

A couple of years ago, I approached This wall, surrounding the grounds vagrants or “sturdy beggars” in England the longest wall in England. I put my of Charborough House, was of partic- and Ireland and sent to the colonies as hands on its ledge, lifted myself up and ular interest to me. It was built by punishment. But within a decade he climbed into 7,000 acres of private land Richard Drax’s ancestor, John was importing even cheaper labor— belonging to the representative of Sawbridge, who married into the Drax free, in fact—in the form of enslaved South Dorset, Richard Drax MP dynasty, and who was able to finance people from West Africa. (Member of Parliament.) the build following a recent windfall As more and more Englishmen It was a work trip. I was researching from his sugar-cane estates in the landed on the Caribbean, cut down the my new book, The Book of Trespass, a his- Caribbean—although the money came trees, ploughed the land and began tory of how the English countryside was not from his sugar, but from his slaves. sugar production, the countryside back partitioned. I spent an entire year hop- James Drax first landed in Barbados home in England also began to change. ping the walls of the dukes, lords, media in 1627. He cleared the land for farm- The slave traders and colonialists were magnates and private corporations that ing, planted tobacco, watched it repeat- making quick money in the Caribbean own England, looking for the origin of edly fail, then looked to the Dutch and heading home to translate this trespass and tracing the history of the colonies in Brazil for a better idea: wealth into landed property. privatization of land—or in other words, sugar. His estates were first worked by Property legitimized their wealth: the public’s exclusion from nature. the indentured servants rounded up as not only did they ape the architecture

28 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 of aristocratic castles and mansions, estate. (For an MP who once stood up walls and barbed wire. In 2011, a report their deer parks and sculpted gardens, during an immigration debate in from the University of Leicester, titled but their newly purchased land also Parliament to declare “this country is Rural Racism, said: “Minority ethnic bought them seats in an unreformed full,” there’s certainly a lot of empty incomers were often treated with suspi- parliament, whose votes were directly space behind Drax’s walls.) Eventually, cion, as many white rural residents felt linked to the amount of land you pos- while making our way through planted that they belonged only in the city, with sessed. As foreign land was claimed by pines, we were discovered by a game- all its concomitant ‘negative’ attributes the colonialists, so more common land keeper. There’s no way through here, of noise, pollution, crime and, crucially of England was claimed by their profits. he said, evidently expecting my friend for some, multiculturalism.” All across the west coast of England, and I to ignore the path on which all And people of color may feel unwel- new estates were built, or old ones three of us were standing. Very polite- come in the countryside in part because bought and remodeled, as a direct ly, and in no uncertain terms, we were English rural estates are walled by the result of slavery. From the late 1600s to chucked off the land. profits of colonialism, littered with mon- the early 1900s, it is estimated that one- uments to the subjugation of their ances- sixth of Britain’s country houses were tors. Until recently, this perspective on bought by businessmen whose for- “Racism,” according to the landscape of England has been large- tunes were sourced from colonial Land in Our Names, “is ly overlooked. During the 2010 election trade. The sugar barons made the most a structural and systemic campaign, when asked about his own money, but it was also the moneylend- family’s connection to slavery, Richard ers, the investors, the chain-makers problem that needs Drax replied: “I ignore it.” Blunt, but and the shipbuilders that boomed. reparative justice in effective, especially since the education The Drax family were surrounded order to stop the system and institutions of England have by other wealthy dynasties in the followed the same approach. Caribbean just as they were surround- unnecessary violence ed in England. The Beckfords, owners that people of color Links to slavery and colonialism of massive estates in the Caribbean, experience.” But now the National Trust are lead- settled in Fonthill, just 20 miles up ing the way in exposing the cultural from Charborough; the Codringtons legacy of slavery and colonialism in the bought up land just outside of Bristol, While the stray rambler knows what countryside, using the buildings for in Dodington Park, now home to it feels like to be unwelcome in the coun- which they care to retell the story of our entrepreneur James Dyson. tryside, for Black and minority people colonial past. Their forthcoming report there are greater barriers than just brick (co-authored with Professor Corinne Land and profit accumulation The interior of the Drax estate tells a silent story of what the colonialists did with their property. The purchase of land secured a firmer grip on power, not just in one lifetime, but for many generations to come. Farming, forest- ry, pleasure gardens, hunting, shoot- ing—all of these became reliable sourc- es of income, an accumulation of pri- vate profit in direct proportion to the dispossession of the commonwealth. In fact, what happened abroad—the mining of minerals, the rent on land, the dispossession of the locals—were colonial methods first practiced on English soil, as the landlords colonized the commons at home.

At Charborough, my friend and I The famous wall dividing Charborough House and its estate from the open countryside beyond. wandered for several miles across the CREDIT: John Palmer/CC

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 29 Fowler at the University of Leicester) problem that needs reparative justice in officially institutionalized in England, highlights that a third of their proper- order to stop the unnecessary violence December 23 1837 would be a good ties have links to slavery and colonial- that people of color experience.” start. On that day, the Slave ism. The Trust is integrating this colo- Here’s a radical idea: racism is more Compensation Act was passed, and nial history into its online and on-site alive today than it ever was in the slav- enslaved Africans were officially defined narratives, as well as removing, re- ery era. In the words of Eric Williams, by law as the “inalienable property of interpreting and redisplaying relevant the first prime minister of Trinidad and their masters.” Of course, the slaves objects in their collections. Tobago, and author of the 1944 book themselves weren’t paid a penny; the Capitalism and Slavery: “The reason funds were designated to compensate (for slavery) was economic, not racial. the “property” owners for their losses, The concept of race itself It had to do not with the color of the funded by the British taxpayer. was a quasi-scientific lie, laborer, but the cheapness of the labor. Richard Drax’s wall, in other words, Slavery was not born of racism: rather, constructed in 1841–2, was built by the concocted on the sugar racism was the consequence of slavery.” commoners it excluded, and paid for by farms of the Caribbean The concept of race itself was a a nation who subsequently lost the value of the land it enclosed. The story of the as a way of dividing the quasi-scientific lie, concocted on the sugar farms of the Caribbean as a way English countryside is a history of the solidarity between white of dividing the solidarity between white interests of a few men overriding the indentured servants and indentured servants and the enslaved interests of everyone else, using their power to legitimize their exploitation. the enslaved Africans. Africans. In 1661, the English authori- ties passed The Act of Better Ordering While we continue to accept the legiti- and Governing of Negroes on Barbados. macy of widespread public exclusion By banning miscegenation (sex from the countryside, we continue to Many groups across England are between races) and giving privileges to nourish the lie of just and natural white spearheading a drive towards a more the white workers, it gave race a salience supremacy—because as history tells us, inclusive countryside. Black Girls it never had before. they are one and the same thing. Hiking, Righttoroam.org.uk, Wild in —The Telegraph, August 19, 2020 the City and CPRE are all organiza- Even so, the white workers, both in tions concerned with overcoming the the Caribbean and back in England, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/ myth that “Black” automatically means took a long time to fall for the ruse. non-fiction/english-theft-countryside- “urban,” promoting the bizarrely radi- The 1661 Act didn’t work; the Irish and taken-public-using-profits-slavery/ cal notion that a love of nature, a need Africans together plotted two major for open air, is not contingent on the slave uprisings in 1686 and 1692, and color of one’s skin. to this day there are many Murphys, McDonnoughs and McGanns in the The 1661 Act didn’t Other groups, such as The Land Caribbean phone book. Likewise, at Workers Alliance and Land in Our work; the Irish and home, racism took a long time to take Names, campaign for greater access to off. The Anti-Corn Law League saw Africans together land for the growing of food. They slavery as a violent, extreme extrapola- believe that facilitating Black and eth- plotted two major slave tion of what was happening to the nic minority groups to grow their own white workers of England. To them, uprisings in 1686 and food—to farm in the English country- the divide between Black and white was side—should effectively be seen as rep- a smokescreen to mask the fundamen- 1692, and to this day arations for slavery. tal issue: the exploitation of labor and there are many Reparation is about parity, the active land, the idea that certain sectors of enabling of equality: re-telling the story society should have a greater share of Murphys, is not enough; apologizing for colonial- the world than others. ism is not enough; pragmatic steps must McDonnoughs and be taken to reverse the iniquity and psy- The slave “compensation” act McGanns in the chic damage done to the English citizens Which brings us back to who are the descendants of enslaved Charborough, and the wall around the Caribbean phone book. people. “Racism,” according to Land in estate of Richard Drax MP. If you’re Our Names, “is a structural and systemic looking for a date when racism became

30 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Military Recruiters Don’t Belong in High Schools Recruiters deliberately exploit the financial and social insecurities of teenagers to enlist more soldiers. By Sidney Miralao

Schools have become contested to earn honor and respect serving Army e-sports team and an Army video territory. around the world are very compelling game streaming channel, all designed For years, getting police officers out to 17-year-olds, especially those with- to reach vulnerable youth at an even of schools has been a central goal of out a lot of other options. younger age. racial justice campaigns. Recently, That’s key. Recruiters deliberately These practices are nothing less they’ve won victories in Denver, exploit the financial and social insecuri- than predatory. Research reveals Minneapolis, Portland, Charlottesville, ties of teenagers to enlist more soldiers. numerous physical and mental health and even on many university campuses. risks from joining the military at a However, there’s another group of young age—including higher rates of outsiders in schools we should be wary ...the U.S. spends more substance abuse, depression, PTSD, of—the U.S. military. on its military than and suicide. Since the end of the draft in 1973, the next ten countries Students’ rights to healthcare, edu- the U.S. has relied on an all-volunteer cation, housing, and citizenship, service to maintain its 1.3 million- combined... among other military “perks,” should member global police force. Over the not have to be earned by putting their life on the line. years the military has used a number of A RAND Corporation study, for different recruitment methods, but the example, found that nearly 57 percent Far more effective jobs guarantees target audience has always been the of students at public high schools with could exist if we invested in them: same: high schoolers. JROTC programs relied on free or Education, healthcare, and clean ener- The No Child Left Behind Act of reduced-price lunch—about ten per- gy all create more jobs per-dollar than 2001 significantly changed how mili- cent more than schools without them. Pentagon spending. Yet the U.S. spends tary recruiters reach teenagers. Section more on its military than the next ten Sometimes the disparity is even countries combined. 9528 mandates public high schools starker. Education Week reporters in give military recruiters the same access Connecticut found that recruiters Pentagon recruiters don’t belong in to students that college recruiters get, made ten-times as many visits to one schools—or anywhere vulnerable kids including their personal contact infor- largely low-income school as they did gather. And getting them out should be mation. Schools became gold mines for to a nearby affluent school. part of a bigger effort to right-size our recruiting “future soldiers.” military and invest in the things that Finally, four years of studies by the actually keep us secure. Recruiters at my high school in Resistance Center in western Fairfax County, Virginia always set up Massachusetts found that Black, Hispanic, —Common Dreams. August 16, 2020 shop in the cafeteria. For the next two Indigenous, and low-income students https://www.commondreams.org/ hours, they would sit through the four were overrepresented among the enlistees views/2020/08/16/military-recruiters- different lunch periods and give their most often put in harm’s way. dont-belong-high-schools?cd- spiel to whoever was curious enough to stop at their station. Schools aren’t the only place the Recruiters use their omnipresence military targets on campus to build relationships and young people. As trust in all kinds of different ways. early as 2002, They may offer to chaperone home- recruiters had coming events, time-keep at football already begun games, or even give lectures on history using e-sports as or government in classrooms. a platform. All the while, they paint a glamor- Today this effort ous picture of life in the military. has transformed Promises of scholarships and a chance into an official There’s a group of outsiders in schools we should be wary of: the U.S. military.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 31 Railroad Strike of 1877 and Modern Policing By Robert Ovetz

The months-long uprising that has defund—and eventually abolish—the entire country. In response to brutal followed George Floyd’s murder at the police. Any efforts to pursue these ends attacks by local police and elite-run hands of the Minneapolis police on without taking into account the polic- militias, the workers launched an May 25 has once again brought the ing’s historical role in suppressing class armed struggle, evoking comparisons function of the police as an institution struggle is likely to leave this role firmly to the 1871 Paris Commune and expec- of control and domination into focus. in place. tations of revolution. From a historical perspective, this vio- For a time, the workers seemed to lence is not surprising. be winning and even controlled the cit- The earliest police forces in the United The police did not exist ies of St. Louis and East St. Louis. States have their origins in militias that Ultimately, however, their inability to were used as a weapon to enforce racial- to police the elite. expand and sustain the strike, take over ized capitalism by suppressing rebellious and run the railroads themselves and slaves and native peoples. These early An investigation of the historic rail- adequately defend themselves against iterations of the police were often infor- road strike reveals a simple truth: a state repression resulted in their defeat. mal, privately funded and sporadically struggle against the police must be a Even so, the railroads backed off on trained. The police as we understand struggle against capitalism. pay cuts and planned changes to work- them today—a state-sanctioned and ing conditions that would have endan- publicly funded instrument of racial and The 1877 railroad strike and the gered the workers. class subjugation—however, can be modern police The initial successes of the strike traced very precisely to the nationwide The nearly two-week-long strike in threatened to inspire widespread work- railroad strike of 1877. the summer of 1877 brought much of er rebellions and shook U.S. capital to The history of how the police were the country to a standstill. Triggered by the core, prompting a complete over- reorganized, managed and equipped wage and staffing cuts, self-organized haul of local police and the transforma- with newly designed technology in workers without a formal union to rep- tion of militias into the state-run-and- response to the Great Railroad Strike of resent them spread their struggle to funded National Guard we have today. 1877 is critical to today’s struggle to many railroad companies across the Howls from the newspapers and elites about the “mob,” “communism,” and the armed “rabble” provoked the reor- ganization of the police, transformation of both volunteer and state militias into the National Guard, the reorganization of railroad work and the consolidation of the railroads into integrated indus- trial corporations to be better prepared for the next general strike. What is most relevant for us today is how police work was Taylorized by establishing a clear chain of command, assigning patrolmen to rationalized beats and police wagons to be used as weapons used to break up crowds and carry off arrestees. According to Sidney Harring’s classic book Policing a Class Society, “Police professionalization is properly understood as simply one small part of the total process of ratio- nalization under advanced capitalism.”

32 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 To protect and serve “class struggle is at the core of the during which they slept at the station, Class and racial tensions had been police function,” the growth and reor- were shortened and they received days growing in the decades prior to the ganization of police forces was intend- off, pensions and benefits. 1877 railroad strike. Throughout the ed to meet the need for changing tac- The 1877 and 1886–7 eight-hour- 1840s and ’50s, there was a wave of tics and strategy of class conflict. He day and railroad strikes reinforced the ethnic and racial riots precipitated by concurs with Marx’s observation in emphasis on local police over militias. the anti-Catholic, anti-immigration Capital Volume I that the state In Pittsburgh, the defeat of the and xenophobic Know Nothing move- “employed the police to accelerate the Philadelphia militia during the 1877 ment’s control over local cities and accumulation of capital by increasing strike prompted elites to focus on police departments, which they used to the degree of exploitation of labor.” improving the local police force. There stoke ethnic and racial hatred and ter- The industrialization of policing were several advantages to using police rorize immigrant communities. corresponded to the prerogatives of rather than militia for local crowd con- Between 1830–65, close to 100 riots industrial capital to control workers by trol. They were more flexible and took place across major U.S. cities. preventing disruption and restoring mobile because they did not move in Although the riots stoked a wave of control. Harring reminds us that “As military formation, had experience fear among the ruling class that the capitalism developed, individual capi- with crowd control, operated under current police systems were unpre- talists’ adaptations to the class struggle local political control, were locals pared to control or repress a growing needed to be rationally organized and familiar with the local terrain, worked working class, there was no firm con- disciplined, a function beyond any full-time and belonged to an institu- sensus on the need to support and fund individual capitalist but appropriate tion that emphasized obedience and the police. One exception was Boston, for the capitalist state.” The police did loyalty to capital despite their recruit- where police were organized into a not exist to police the elite. ment from the working class. full-time office of professionals in 1837 Technology of control after three earlier riots and criticism Several critical new technologies from the city’s elites. According to “class struggle is at made the police a more effective force Bruce Johnson, it was not until they the core of the police for social control in the rapidly grow- were placed under state control in 1885 ing cities. New city police departments that the police were forced to protect function,” were established, expanded rapidly and property during strikes. transformed themselves from working As a result, cuts to the Chicago and The takeover of policing by local for bribes and tips to professionally Pittsburgh police departments, for city and state governments socialized trained public workers. To ensure example, during the depressions of policing as a public function of govern- accountability, police were organized 1870s and 1890s left them incapable of ment paid for by public expense rather according to innovative management defending property and elite neighbor- than by elites alone. In effect, the wage techniques that allowed them to be hoods during the strikes. The 1877 and property taxes levied on workers monitored with the newly invented railroad strike resulted in a new empha- paid for their own domination by the telegraph and telephone in 1880 as well sis on legitimizing and expanding the police. The industrialization and trans- as new hiring and training procedures. police. Changes to policing coincided formation of policing into a govern- While city-wide coordination ensured with the reorganization of the militia mental function in which officers and the police could be mobilized rapidly into the National Guard. In St. Louis, constables were hired or appointed and in large numbers. the police force was enlarged, a made it more efficient and legitimate. The police call box was invented in National Guard armory was built and Between the 1880s and ’90s police 1880 in Chicago, modeled after the fire the Lucas Market, where strikers had departments were restructured with a alarm telegraph installed in the homes assembled, was demolished as part of new division of labor that mimicked and businesses of the rich. It had three the process of reorganizing public the military. They followed a central- mechanisms to sign a simple short space to facilitate the deployment of ized bureaucratic structure, standard- message—riot, robbery, send help— police and military force. ized recruitment, training, profession- with the pull of a lever, an alarm bell There was a substantial growth in alism, discipline and specialized units. that would ring each box to alert men the size of forces, as much as seven-fold In the 1890s police were trained as on the beat to call in for a message, and in some cities across the Great Lakes public employees and their 12-hour a two-way conversation between the region. Harring observed that because workdays and seven-day workweeks, officer and switchboard.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 33 Call boxes were installed by the rich dated and coerced burgeoning urban strikers. Portrayed in the 1970 film The for $25 in 1881, the equivalent of two populations and dampened collective Molly Maguires, the Coal and Iron weeks’ pay for a worker. As Harring action. At times of class unrest, the Police were mercenaries on the state observed, this “clearly shows the class police could be used to protect strike- payroll whose only purpose was to pro- basis of the innovation: the public breakers, break up meetings, marches tect mining companies and their capi- police apparatus was merged with a and pickets, keep workplaces open, tal from organized workers. private system of mobilizing officers” deploy special agents to supplement Nevertheless, the reorganization of transforming every member of the elite their forces and provided the bulk of the police alone failed to realize the nec- thereby into a policeman. Police box the forces of repression. essary discipline and control that would systems were estimated to increase prevent further insurgencies. Policing force productivity by the equivalent of must be understood within a larger con- 200 men at a reduced cost, a dramatic An investigation of the text of intra-class conflicts over tactics increase in the production of variable historic railroad strike and strategy of class domination and surplus value. control that was paired with the courts, The combination of these new tech- reveals a simple truth: a military, welfarism, arbitration and the nologies and management strategies had struggle against the new division of labor. According to a tremendous impact on the ability of police must be a struggle Harring, “Class violence was not as well the police to control mass action. The controlled by the police as the bourgeoi- signal system and new horse-drawn against capitalism. sie originally expected or hoped that it patrol wagons now allowed a dozen or might be, and this failure can be seen as more officers to be put on the scene in a As a branch of local government, the one reason for the turn toward ‘progres- few minutes compared to one hour police legitimated and sanctioned the sive’ or ‘reformist’ methods of control- under the previous system which official use of violence to protect capi- ling the class struggle, now identified required running about town to round tal, in turn fueling the tactical escala- with the welfare state.” up a force before marching on the scene. tion of strikes. This spiraled into armed As a result, the size of local and state The increase in the number of wagons conflict that redirected focus away from government grew dramatically while from one to seven in Buffalo between capital and onto the police. Sympathetic shifting the costs for education, train- 1887–96 resulted in an exponential local officials might delay their use of ing, public services and policing onto growth in calls, responses and arrests. In police but they rarely kept them on the the working class. This necessitated Pittsburgh, police estimated that a wagon sidelines. Toledo Mayors Jones and new sources of tax revenue that corre- had the impact of a dozen policemen. Whitlock were unique in that they did sponded with the permanent establish- The patrol wagon became a symbol of not allow local police to protect scabs. ment of the federal income tax in the intimidation and power, making unruly As a result, the 1906 Pope-Toledo Sixteenth Amendment. crowds give way at their approach. Motor Car Company strike led to an Much like gas and flash bang gre- arbitrated settlement favorable to the Reform or abolition? nades today, the wagon allowed a small workers. Otherwise, cases in which Calls to defund, abolish, or hold the number of police to defeat immense workers influenced, let alone con- police more accountable with civil crowds which had been previously trolled, police during strikes are rare. penalties and criminal punishment for impossible. Wagons were used as Police who appeared sympathetic were excessive use of force are not new. weapons, slamming them into crowds quickly reassigned or disciplined. Racism of individual police officers or to break them up, make mass arrests States also designed new types of the institutional rules that govern them and to take away large numbers of police forces to protect specific indus- are not the only reasons why people of people. Such technologies made polic- tries. The Pennsylvania governor, who color are disproportionately more like- ing a productive industry in the service oversaw both the suppression of the ly to be oppressed, injured or killed by of the ruling class. Molly Maguire miners and the railroad the police. Racial supremacy plays a An effective and efficiently-man- strike, had just recently set up the Coal central role in policing the working aged police force provided a potent and Iron Police in the summer of 1877, class in order to impose, maintain and weapon for raising the costs of organiz- amassing 100 men by June 1878. The restore control when the racial hierar- ing and striking. Police not only pro- Coal and Iron Police were used to chy of class power is threatened. tected property but also carried out the replace local police in strikes where the We should be vigilant about the social control functions that intimi- latter might be too sympathetic to efforts of non-profit advocacy groups

34 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 to co-opt and redirect the struggle Cops: Racists and Strike Breakers against the police into reforming the police. Efforts to make the police less By William Lewis discriminatory in their application of their oppressive power will leave the With the uprising in Minneapolis force that would later be used on work- institution as a tool of class domina- after the police murdered George ers as they started to organize and tion firmly in place. These groups have Floyd, and the backlash from the capi- strike after the Civil War. failed to achieve even the most non- talists’ media and the Right, there is Policing appeared during the indus- threatening changes to police policies bound to be a lot of bewilderment as to trial revolution because capitalism and practices, such as banning choke who our friends are and who are our requires a body of armed people to and carotid holds or simply enforcing enemies. make sure that the growing number of the laws against police violence that I know some union members are have-nots don’t just take what they already exist. confused about the nature of the police need from the haves. In the racist capi- Previous efforts to “diversify” the and might take the wrong side on this talist system of the United States, the police and require that they wear cam- issue. After all, aren’t there police bottom-most layer of the have-nots are eras have clearly not blunted their unions? Correctional officers are one Black workers. This is a consequence of power. And as the aftermath of the of the most heavily unionized sectors the hundreds of years of chattel slav- 1877 strike shows, reorganizing the in the country. Aren’t they just public ery, the use of the Thirteenth police to make them more accountable sector workers like firefighters or Amendment to maintain slave-like will also likely result in making them a teachers? The differences stem from conditions through the prison-indus- more effective force of repression. their functions. trial complex, the use of Klan terror To abolish the police we need to Like the motto, the police do “pro- etc. Police terror against Black people is understand its role as a weapon in the tect and serve”—they protect property nothing new—it is a function of the class struggle. Because the police are and serve the rich. That is their role. system. essential to control and suppress class The origins of the police go back to Police against pickets struggle, efforts to abolish it are insepa- slave catchers and strike breakers. The confusion of some union mem- rable from the struggle to abolish capi- The first modern police force was bers might stem from their own expe- talism. By refusing to drive anti-police formed when British merchants pooled rience. With decades of docility in the violence protesters to jail, the money to hire professional guards to labor movement, the experience of the Minneapolis and New York City bus deter theft and control the tens-of- average picket line—usually something drivers demonstrated how demands to thousands of workers on the docks. In called an informational picket where defund and abolish the police are inte- the United States, Southern slave own- the goal is only to raise awareness and gral to a larger class struggle. Without ers needed a force to track down not physically stop people—involves a further similar efforts such demands “property” that had escaped North—a few officers overseeing the protest will only succeed in putting a friendlier face on the end of the club wielded against the working class. Robert Ovetz is a precarious univer- sity lecturer and the author of When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921 (Haymarket 2019) and editor of Workers’ Inquiry and Global Class Struggle: Tactics, Strategies, Objectives (Pluto Press, 2020). —ROAR, September 9, 2020 https://roarmag.org/essays/1877-rail- road-strike-modern-police/

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 35 from a distance. Sometimes, if it gets a porters. Again, no officer was ever workers. Knowing this, shouldn’t we little rowdy, they might intervene to arrested. be fighting alongside our Black sisters, move the line to another part of the During the Minneapolis Teamsters brothers, and siblings who are being sidewalk or they’ll direct traffic. But for Strike in 1934, workers employed fly- murdered in the streets by the armed the most part they play the role of ing pickets where they would pile into thugs of the state? keeping things safe and harmless. a truck and rush to anywhere there As a final example: Philando Castile, Sometimes, they even support the might be scabbing. On July 20, police a Teamster brother, was shot and killed demands of the workers—albeit they’ll baited workers with two scab trucks in front of his girlfriend and daughter say so in hushed tones to the staff orga- unloading merchandise. When a picket by a cop who had pulled him over. This nizer or whoever is designated to speak truck appeared, they fired their shot- murder was livestreamed on Facebook to the police. During the 2011 guns into it, wounding 67 and killing for all to see. Yet the murderer was Wisconsin protests against attacks on John Belor and Henry Ness. An inves- acquitted of all charges. The best the collective bargaining, there were no tigation ordered by the Minnesota gov- Teamsters could do was write a letter. arrests and a whole lot of fraternizing, ernor determined that “police took They never mobilized their member- since police technically “work” in the direct aim at the pickets and fired to ship into any kind of action, and how public sector too. kill. Physical safety of police was at no could they when they organize police All this obscures their repressive nature. time endangered.” Yet again, no officer into their affiliated Teamsters Law If we go back a few decades, few was arrested. Enforcement League? workers had these illusions. During the After all of these murders, the least height of the labor movement in the we could do is fight to kick the police United States, the police killed workers Like the motto, out of the union movement. Beyond with impunity. Just this week, eighty- the police do “protect that, we should be organizing within three years ago, was the Memorial Day our unions to take a lead in the struggle Massacre. and serve”—they protect against police violence. We can stop On May 30, 1937, Chicago Police property and serve the racist terror with mass workers’ actions fired into a crowd of strikers and sup- rich. like strikes, but only if we organize to porters of the Little Steel strike. And do that. they continued firing into the fleeing —Left Voice, May 28, 2020 masses until they had killed ten people, In more recent times—only 20-years-ago—the police of Charleston, https://www.leftvoice.org/the-cops- permanently disabled nine, and injured racists-and-strike-breakers another 28. Many of the casualties were South Carolina, baton charged picket- shot in the back. The killings were ing longshoremen, arrested the major- declared “justifiable homicide.” ity Black union leadership, and threat- President Roosevelt, who many ened them with up to ten years in Policing appeared reformist socialists today see as a prison. The video is shocking with the model, said a “Plague on both your sheer amount of repression against during the industrial houses” in response to the massacre. striking workers. Only a sustained revolution because No officer was ever arrested. international movement was able to defend the Charleston Five from years capitalism requires a A few years before, in July of 1934, of prison time. there were two bloody days: “Bloody Thursday” on the San Francisco water- As recently as 2011, when police body of armed people front and “Bloody Friday” in were fraternizing with demonstrators to make sure that the Minneapolis. In San Francisco, after in Madison, police and longshoremen police utilized tear gas and mounted of the ILWU battled it out in Longview, growing number of charges, they turned shotguns onto the Washington. The police not only crowd. At the intersection of Steuart brought in turreted armored cars and have-nots don’t just and Mission streets, Howard Sperry armored boats, they also took to arrest- and Nick Bordoise were murdered. ing union leaders about town and not take what they need That evening, the police continued even at the picket lines. from the haves. their offensive by firing into the union These are just some examples of the hall full of injured strikers and sup- real history between police and union

36 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Arming the Planet The USA as the world’s leading weapons dealer By Melvin Goodman

For the past several decades, the has earned billions-of-dollars in sales to precision-guided bombs that he had United States has been the world’s lead- the Saudis, whose coalition has consider- agreed to sell to the Saudis. Recently, ing producer of major weapons systems able responsibility for many of the deaths investigators from the United Nations and the leader in global arms sales. of more than 127,000 Yemenis, includ- asked the Security Council to refer More of these sales have taken place in ing more than 15,000 civilians. actions by all parties to an interna- the globe’s most volatile region, the tional tribunal for potential war crimes Middle East, than in any other region of prosecution, according to the New the world. The so-called peace deals The so-called peace deals York Times. between Israel and the United Arab between Israel and the The Trump administration is cur- Emirates and Bahrain, which were bro- rently taking on a great risk in propos- kered by the United States, were busi- United Arab Emirates ing seven large weapons packages to ness deals designed to expand U.S. and Bahrain, which were Taiwan. This would violate agreements arms sales in the Persian Gulf. The brokered by the United with China that require the sale of only Trump administration has made arms defensive weaponry to the self-govern- sales to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and States, were business ing island. The weapons would repre- other Middle East countries the focus deals designed to expand sent one of the largest sales to Taiwan, of its foreign policy in the region. and would include long-range mis- No sooner had the ink dried on these U.S. arms sales in the siles—Boeing’s AGM-84H—that agreements than disputes emerged over Persian Gulf. would allow Taiwanese fighter air- whether Israel had agreed to permit the craft—Lockheed Martin’s F-16—to hit sale of U.S. F-35 fighter aircraft—the distant targets in China. Last year’s sale most expensive weapons system in the Arms sales as war crimes of 66 F-16s for $8 billion represented U.S. arsenal and the most sophisticated In 2016, the Department of State’s one of the largest arms packages to jet fighter in the world—to the United legal office concluded, in fact, that U.S. Taiwan in history, Arab Emirates. Israel has 20 F-35s, officials could be charged with war There have already been conse- which it has flown over Syria, Lebanon, crimes for approving bomb sales to the quences. Beijing has sent two anti- and Iraq. Until now, no Arab country Saudis and their partners. As a result, submarine aircraft into Taiwan’s air had been allowed access to this aircraft. in his last month in office, President defense identification zone, which led As part of an U.S.-Israeli arms Barack Obama blocked a shipment of the Taiwanese air force to scramble agreement in 2008, the United States agreed to make sure that Israel would maintain a “qualitative military edge” in the Middle East, which gave it a vir- tual veto power over arms deals with Arab states. For example, when Egypt was permitted to buy the U.S. F-16 jet fighter, it had to agree to basing arrangements that the Israelis imposed. U.S. arms sales generally have con- tributed to tensions in some of the world’s most sensitive arenas. Saudi Arabia’s misuse of U.S.-supplied fighter aircraft in Yemen, the world’s worst humanitarian nightmare, has contribut- ed to the rising civilian death toll there. For the past five years, the United States F-35A. Photo: Staff Sgt. Madelyn Brown/U.S. Air Force.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 37 against them. Chinese fighter jets have do the most harm to U.S. interests. CRS summary appeared in 2018 and crossed the median line in the Taiwan Settlement activity was announced recorded that the United States ranked Straits, and a Chinese military exercise during a visit by then vice president Joe first in arms transfer agreements (near- conducted a series of anti-ship ballistic Biden in 2010, then secretary of state ly half the global total) and first in missile tests, which were intended as a Hillary Clinton in 2011, and even on value of arms deliveries (more than signal to the United States. The risk of the eve of a summit meeting between one-third of global sales). Deliveries to an accidental military clash has Obama and Netanyahu in 2011. Egypt, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia domi- increased. China has also threatened Pentagon speakers at the National nated U.S. sales. sanctions against both Lockheed War College, where I taught for 18 Israel does not even appear on the Martin and Boeing; Lockheed Martin years, argued that U.S. military assis- list of weapons recipients in view of does little business in China and is not tance programs “suffused Third World U.S. largesse, which includes President vulnerable to sanctions, but Boeing armies with U.S. values.” This would Obama’s 2016 record-breaking $38 bil- sells commercial jets to China and be difficult to ascertain in Egypt, lion deal over a ten-year period. The would definitely suffer. Turkey, and Afghanistan. A retired deal with Israel was followed by the sale The increased militarization of commandant of the U.S. Army War of 36 Boeing F-15 fighters to Qatar and national security policy over the past College argued that “they learn our 24 Boeing F/A18 Super Hornets to decade has found the Department of way of war…but they also learn our Kuwait. Defense taking much of the turf of the philosophies of civil-military rela- There has never been a more impor- Department of State in engaging allied tions.” There’s a particular conceit in tant time to debate President Dwight nations regarding security assistance. that statement in view of the growing D. Eisenhower’s warning about the Recent defense authorization bills have imbalance in U.S. civil-military rela- insidious economic, political, and even given the Pentagon control of certain tions in recent years as well as the spiritual effects of what he called the aid programs as well as greater flexibil- dominant role of the military in Egypt “military-industrial-congressional ity in supporting counterterrorism and Pakistan. complex.” For the past twenty years, activities overseas. Pentagon military The Trump administration the United States has been in a perma- aid programs, moreover, ignore key launched what Donald Trump calls a nent state of war with a government, human rights or governance concerns “great rebuilding of the Armed Forces” an economy, and a global system of that once upon a time drew scrutiny as well as politicizing the military military bases that virtually ensures from the State Department. The bureaucracy and enhancement of the conflict. The fact that this important Pentagon has always held an advantage role of the Pentagon in state-to-state issue is not part of the presidential over the State Department, a much diplomacy. The current dialogue debate of 2020 is particularly regretta- more cumbersome and slower-moving between civilian officials and general ble. It’s long past time for congressio- bureaucracy than the Defense officers on international security has nal leadership to take on this “com- Department. Also, the State become unequal. The fact that Mark plex.” Department has never been aggressive Esper, the former vice president for Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow in protecting its equities, unlike the government relations at Raytheon, one Pentagon. at the Center for International Policy of the largest weapons manufacturers, and a professor of government at Johns Military assistance, as opposed to is Secretary of Defense provides added Hopkins University. A former CIA ana- military sales, has created problems heft to Pentagon arguments for greater lyst, Goodman’s most recent book is and disappointments as well. The top weapons sales. Meanwhile, the American Carnage: The Wars of six recipients of U.S. military assistance Department of State must deal with the Donald Trump (Opus Publishing), and in recent years (Israel, Afghanistan, greater points of friction in the global he is the author of the forthcoming The Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, and Turkey) pro- community created by increased sales Dangerous National Security State vide little return, let alone leverage, to of sophisticated weaponry. (2020). Goodman is the national secu- the United States. Israel has military rity columnist for counterpunch.org. dominance in the Middle East, and U.S. is first in arms transfers shouldn’t be receiving military assis- The Congressional Research Service —CounterPunch, September 23, tance. President Barack Obama insti- of the Library of Congress published 2020 tuted record levels of assistance, but an annual review of conventional arms https://www.counterpunch. the Benjamin Netanyahu government transfers until 2017, when the Trump org/2020/09/23/arming-the-planet-the- typically timed announcements of set- administration blocked such informa- usa-as-the-worlds-leading-weapons- tlement expansion on the West Bank to tion from the general public. The last dealer/

38 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Power of Labor Solidarity Professional athletes are showing America just how powerful labor really is By Dave Zirin

August 27, 2020—The wave of NBA player leaders want the fran- these players are doing is nothing less strikes by athletes against racist police chise owners to put some “skin in the than striking for Black lives. They are violence is not ebbing. On Thursday game.” They want the billionaire own- using their power as workers to protest night, the New York Mets and Miami ers—who are not only wealthy but not only the police shooting of Blake and Marlins took the field, held a 42-sec- politically connected to every munici- the white supremacist terrorism in ond moment of silence (in honor of pality where they have a publicly fund- Kenosha, but also the fact that, as one Jackie Robinson,) and then walked off. ed stadium—to push for legislation player put it, “nothing is changing.” They left behind a shirt that read “Black and using their influence to fight back. After a summer of marches, uprisings, Lives Matter” on home plate. As NBA insider Shams Charania from and occupations, scant legislation has Numerous NFL teams have canceled The Athletic reported on Twitter from a moved and police still act with impunity. their practices, with the Baltimore Ravens, meeting between players and owners, By exercising their power as work- after a four-hour team meeting, putting “Players challenged owners to be pro- ers, the players are inspiring an incred- out a remarkable action statement. NBA active, not reactive, to social justice ibly dormant part of the resistance to referees even organized a march in the changes; create actions, not simply racism and Trumpism: the labor move- Orlando Bubble, wearing T-shirts that financial commitments.” ment. If the NBA can shut down in read, “Everyone Against Racism.” Even protest of racist police violence, why the National Hockey League, after first not other industries? Why not cities? ignoring what was happening, to the cha- What these players Why not entire sectors of the country’s grin of many players, canceled a slate of are doing is nothing less economy? Strikes do not have to be games in solidarity with the events swirl- than striking for about wages and benefits. There is a ing around the sports world. long, hidden history in this country of Black lives. Pro athletes have shown themselves striking for human rights—“not just willing to fight and be heard. Black bread but roses.” It’s a history the play- athletes are saying that they no longer I’m all for extracting concessions ers could help revive. will be a repository of adulation with from billionaires. But there is another That may sound far-fetched, but I their uniforms on but a risk to be killed avenue the movement can take. What can say that I received half a dozen calls by police when the uniform comes off. It is a historic moment by any measure, and one without a blueprint. We don’t know where this is going, or how long it will last. But folks are already asking what this can actually accomplish beyond raising awareness about the shooting of Jacob Blake. For now, it’s centering the conver- sation in this country on racist police violence and not the gaslighting “law and order” bombast coming out of the RNC, and inspiring people to violence during a time of relentless darkness. Frankly, if nothing else came out of it, it would still be important. But the players want more. Supporters want more. Everyone strangled by the absence of political oxygen in this bro- ken country wants more. MCiti Field after the New York Mets and the Miami Marlins walk off the field prior to the start of the game on August 27, 2020.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 39 from unionists or union officials last “Herd Immunity”—Deadly Anti-Science Policy night telling me that they and their members felt like they had been hit By Dr. Nayvin Gordon with an electric prod. The idea that everyone in the country was talking If COVID-19 was as lethal as Ebola, Over the last 40 years the politicians about this “strike” taking place was the six-million U.S. infections regis- have closed public hospitals and mas- making so many of these workers feel tered on September 1, 2020, would sively defunded and cut back on the like they also had power. have already resulted in three million people’s public health facilities to This isn’t just about solidarity. This COVID-19 deaths. This is the reality of privatize the health system. Now that is about results. If the players want the the murderous; let them die “herd the for-profit system is clearly unable results they crave, and if the country is immunity” policy the administration is to protect the people, the government as broken as they believe it to be, this is intentionally following. How many has abused and misused the science of an actual solution: to strike against rac- deaths will they accept with this abuse “herd immunity” by intentionally pro- ist police violence, to strike against and misuse of science?1 moting this homicidal policy as a legit- Trumpism, to strike for Black lives. “Herd immunity” is a concept primar- imate scientific approach to the pan- Nothing else has worked. But by with- ily used for the science of vaccinations to demic. It is simply eugenics, homicidal drawing their labor, the players in the protect the people from dangerous infec- criminal negligence, and a crime NBA have immediately brought their tious diseases such as measles and small- against humanity. bosses to the table and launched a pox. Greater percentage of vaccinations The government did not spend trillions national conversation. If that message (90 percent plus), mean greater protection on the people’s Public Health System. blares across the land—and if labor for the population, or herd immunity. The government did not spend tril- leaders rise to the occasion and respond If no vaccine is available, we use the lions on a massive national strategy to with equal courage—we could finally science of Public Health to protect the test, trace and isolate infected individuals. see solutions and not feel like we are all people with testing, contact tracing poised with bated breath, just waiting The government did give trillions to and isolation. For a hundred years this for the next hashtag. bail out the financial elite of Wall Street. science has been used to treat and pre- —The Nation, August 27, 2020 vent infectious disease such as sexually How many preventable deaths are we willing to accept? https://www.thenation.com/article/ transmitted diseases and tuberculosis. society/mets-marlins-strike/ The robust public health system in Time for a radical change, towards a Taiwan has been able to suppress and society built on the people’s health eradicate COVID-19. needs and an egalitarian world. “Herd immunity” that follows as a —September 9, 2020 result of deliberately allowing an infec- ...by withdrawing their tion to spread through the community does not protect the people, it allows labor, the players in them to sicken and die. This policy is 1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ responsible for the deaths from COVID- trump-coronavirus-scott-atlas-herd- the NBA have immunity/2020/08/30/925e68fe-e93b-11ea- 19 in the U.S. now approaching a-quar- 970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html ter-of-a-million. Only those who sur- immediately brought vive may have herd immunity. their bosses to the This is the hor- ror people faced table and launched in the 1800s before the devel- a national opment of the science of Public conversation... Health. This is not science but a deadly return to the Dark Ages. Shutterstock

40 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Denver Black Lives Matter Activists Arrested By Left Voice

On September 17, six protest lead- build a case against those arrested. from both Republican and Democratic ers, including four members of the These coordinated arrests, which uti- Party leaders, targets and intimidates Party of Socialism and Liberation, were lized both surveillance and brute force, activists fighting for racial justice, while arrested in Denver, Colorado in a coor- aim to instill fear in every Denver area the murderers of Elijah McClain, dinated police action. Those arrested activist. “Protest, and you could be Breonna Taylor and many more walk and since released on bail, are now next” is the message being sent. And free. The real threat to public safety can being threatened with a litany of bogus the absurd list of felony charges, known be found in every police precinct, every felony charges, including “kidnap- as “charge stacking,” means the arrest- city hall, and every seat of political ping.” Four of the arrested individu- ed activists could be facing years, if not power. als—Russel Ruch, Lillian House, Joel decades, in prison. Drop the charges against Denver Northam, and Eliza Lucero—are pro- The arrest of these protest leaders in PSL activists—Free all the arrested test leaders who have denounced the Denver are part of a larger nationwide protesters! crimes of the Colorado police, most crack-down on the Black Lives Matter notably the racist murder of Elijah To sign the PSL’s petition to have movement. Across the country, pro- the charges dropped, click here: McClain. The repression against these testers have been snatched off the activists, and many others, is nothing streets by the police or federal forces in https://www.pslweb.org/drop- short of police-state retribution. As a unmarked vehicles. In New York City, thecharges PSL statement noted, the NYPD used facial-recognition soft- To donate to the PSL’s legal defense, “This attack on the Denver anti- ware to find and harass a Black Lives click here: racist movement and the PSL is part Matter activist. And earlier this month, https://www.pslweb.org/ of a concerted national assault on in Washington, federal marshals donate4denver?utm_campaign=drop_ the Black Lives Matter movement, gunned down Portland activist Michael the_charges_on_denver&utm_ an attack driven directly from the Reinoehl without warning as he walked White House, from Governors’ medium=email&utm_source=psl to his car. mansions, and from local police — Left Voice, September 18, 2020 chiefs and police departments Left Voice denounces the attempts around the country.” to repress or otherwise intimidate anti- https://www.leftvoice.org/denver- It is clear from the manner of the racist, anti-police activists. It is unac- blm-activists-and-psl-members-arrest- arrests that the Denver area police are ceptable that the state, under direction ed-charged-with-multiple-felonies trying to punish and intimidate activ- ists. Russel Ruch, for instance, was fol- lowed to Home Depot and arrested in the parking lot; Lillian House was sur- rounded by five police cars as she was driving; and a S.W.A.T. team was sent to Joel Northam’s home. According to the 30-page long arrest affidavits, the police used livestream footage, call transcripts, and social media posts to

Above: Party of Socialism and Liberation activists marching in Colorado anti-racist protest.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 41 Socialists in Stamford Attacked By Erwin Freed

On Friday, Aug. 28, Socialist to try and silence it by destroying a times violently attacked, Black Lives Resurgence’s weekly “Pop Up book table.” She continued, “I’ll be Matter demonstrators in Portland, Revolutionary Bookstore” in Stamford, there at the bookstore next week stand- Philadelphia, New York City, and Connecticut, was attacked by a man ing in solidarity. I hope others join me.” many other cities and towns. At least shouting, “Not in my country!” The attack in Stamford is a reflec- 60 incidents have taken place in which The man flipped over the book table tion of the broader violence done to people have used cars to slam into pro- and began tearing down banners and Black, Latinx, immigrant, and women testers at Black Lives Matter rallies. flags. Fortunately, no one was hurt. For workers and youth in the city by police, Overall, this is a reflection of the several weeks prior to the attack, mem- big business, and vigilantes. Recently, violence perpetrated by the federal bers of Socialist Resurgence have been on August 8, police brutally assaulted government, in actions ranging from selling books, buttons, and pamphlets activists who were marching for justice bombing workers in foreign countries in Stamford, and have had a great for Steven Barrier, a 23-year-old who to sending in federal agents to U.S. cit- response from the community. Kim, died at the hands of police in October ies to repress and kidnap protesters. In walking with her grandchild, donated 2019. The police attack took place in some areas, local police have given $20 and pinned a trans liberation the same location as the Socialist support and expressed their “thanks” Socialist Resurgence button on her Resurgence pop-up bookstore. to the armed rightists, and elected poli- grandson. David, a veteran of the This reflects a nationwide wave of ticians have sometimes appeared at struggle for Black liberation, bought a attacks on activists by far-right vigilan- their events. Representatives of both book on Malcolm X and Leon Trotsky’s tes. The latest incidents include the major capitalist parties have unleashed Fascism: What it is and how to fight it. actions of an armed militia group in the police on protesters standing for Lupe Agrado, a furloughed hotel Kenosha, Wisconsin, which included racial justice. The attack on Socialist banquet server and member of Local in its ranks Kyle Rittenhouse, who Resurgence is part of a national attack 217 Unite Here, said after hearing news murdered two activists and severely on all workers’ rights to organize. of the attack, “I’m really angry that this wounded another. Armed groups of We call for an end to police terror, person fears the truth and felt the need vigilantes have harassed, and some- vigilante violence, and state repression. We refuse to give an inch to right-wing vigilantism; we immediately set up a new book table. The August 28 inci- dent shows that the workers’ move- ment needs to defend itself, through large solidarity contingents and by making sure to spread the message of workers’ power. Donating to Socialist Resurgence will help send a message, and will help recov- er the costs of damaged materials. See: https://socialistresurgence. org/2020/06/02/please-contribute-to- the-socialist-resurgence-fund-drive/ —Socialist Resurgence, August 29, 2020 https://socialistresurgence. org/2020/08/29/right-winger-attacks- socialists-in-stamford/

Socialist Resurgence table immediately after attack on Friday, August 28, 2020.

42 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 U.S. Military Police and “Heat Rays” U.S. military police “sought use of heat ray” to disperse White House Black Lives Matter protesters By Associated Press

September 17, 2020—A military Use of the device appeared to stall led federal forces to turn on what whistleblower has said federal officials amid questions about whether it actu- appeared to be a largely peaceful crowd sought to use some controversial crowd ally caused more serious injuries or on June 1 in the square in front of the control devices, including a so-called burns than initially thought. White House. heat ray, to disperse protesters outside The long-range acoustic device, also Law enforcement and security offi- the White House in June. called a sound cannon, sends out loud cers that night clubbed and punched In written responses to questions messages or sounds and has been used demonstrators and set mounted offi- from a House committee, the national by law enforcement to disperse crowds. cers and chemical agents against them guard major Adam DeMarco said the The U.S. military has, in recent in one of the most controversial con- defense department’s lead military years, ordered the cannon for the navy’s frontations at the height of this year’s police officer for the national capital Military Sealift Command to be used nationwide protests over the killing of region sent an email asking if the by ships to hail or warn other vessels. Black people at the hands of police. Washington, DC national guard pos- The forceful clearing of Lafayette sessed a long-range acoustic device used DeMarco testified in late July before the House natural resources committee, Square, long one of the country’s most to transmit loud noises or an Active prominent venues for demonstrations, Denial System (ADS), the heat ray. which is investigating the use of force against crowds in Lafayette Square. His came minutes before Donald Trump DeMarco said he responded that the remarks on the crowd-control devices arrived in the area, en route to stage a guard was not in possession of either came in response to follow-up ques- photo event in front of a historic device. National Public Radio and the tions from the committee. church nearby. Washington Post first reported —The Guardian, September 17, 2020 DeMarco’s testimony. DeMarco’s lawyer sent his answers to the committee on August 28; NPR https://www.theguardian.com/us- Use of either the acoustic device or posted the document online Wednesday. the ADS would have been a significant news/2020/sep/17/us-military-police- escalation of crowd control for the The Trump administration has heat-ray-blm-protesters-white-house- guard, particularly since the defense claimed vicious attacks by protesters protesters officials ordered that troops not be armed when they went into the area. Law enforcement personnel were armed. Although active-duty military troops were sent to the region, they remained at bases outside the district in case they were needed. The ADS was developed by the mil- itary nearly two decades ago and was unveiled to the public around 2007. It is not clear if it has ever been used in combat, although reports suggest it has been deployed. The system, which emits a directed beam of energy that causes a burning sensation, was considered a non-lethal way to control crowds, particularly when it may be difficult to tell the enemy from innocent civilians in war zones. Protesters and police gather at Lafayette Square, in front of the White House in Washington DC, on June 22, 2020.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 43

Environment ENVIRONMENT

The Ocean is Losing Its Breath By Ian Angus

“Ocean deoxygenation is the third but created by capitalism’s dependence on even in very clear water, light pene- less-reported member of an evil climate fossil fuels. Both are disrupting biogeo- trates less than 200 meters down. That change trinity, along with global warming chemical cycles that have shaped the euphotic zone (euphotic is Greek for and ocean acidification. It is not so much biosphere for hundreds-of-millions of well-lit) is the origin of nearly half of another shoe dropping out of our CO2 years, causing unprecedented rifts in the world’s oxygen, and most of the emissions as it is a large boot-kicking the Earth System’s metabolism. ocean’s supply. ocean ecosystem, with significant knock- The ocean oxygen crisis is driven by In most of the ocean, the upper 200 on impacts for hundreds-of-millions of the nitrogen and carbon dioxide gluts, meters or so is called the surface or people who depend on the oceans for a in different parts of the ocean. mixed layer. Waves, wind-driven cur- living, and with feedbacks on climate.” In coastal areas and estuaries, mil- rents and convection constantly stir its —Skeptical Science1 lions-of-tons of synthetic nitrogen fer- contents, making its temperature, The ocean is losing its breath, with tilizer carried by rivers are creating sea- salinity and dissolved gas content deadly effects on marine life and the sonal dead zones in coastal areas around roughly uniform. Dissolved oxygen biogeochemical cycles that shape the the world. About 900 such zones have spreads through the mixed layer rela- entire biosphere. been identified, and there are undoubt- tively quickly and evenly. Since 1960, low-oxygen areas in the edly hundreds more. Scientists have The mixed layer is warmed directly open ocean have expanded by 4.5 mil- been studying coastal dead zones since by sunlight and is constantly replen- lion square kilometers, an area the size the 1980s, and there is broad agreement ished by fresh water from rivers, rain 3 of the European Union. Some regions about their causes and effects. and melting ice, so it is lighter (less have lost 40 percent of their oxygen, This article focuses on a parallel dense) than the water below it, where a and the volume of water containing development that has only been stud- sudden temperature drop defines the zero oxygen has more than quadru- ied in the past 15 years or so—the thermocline, a colder and denser layer pled. The ocean is losing about a bil- growth of hypoxic (low-oxygen) and that separates the mixed layer from the lion metric tons of oxygen every year. anoxic (zero-oxygen) areas in the open cold and very slow moving deep layer At present rates, the decline in life- ocean, caused by global warming. They that comprises about 90 percent of the giving ocean oxygen will triple by 2100. are not always physically separate from ocean’s volume and mass. The thick- Add that to the rapidly growing num- coastal dead zones—in the Baltic and ness of the thermocline varies with ber of coastal dead zones, and we have Arabian Seas, for example, they over- seasons and latitude—in polar seas, it a life support emergency. lap—but they develop and are expand- and the mixed layer scarcely exist—but ing differently. Overall, the ocean’s oxygen content in most of the ocean it extends from has fallen just two percent, but the All of the oxygen dissolved in sea- 200 to 1000 meters below the surface. decline has occurred almost entirely in water, no matter how deep, originated A variety of processes known col- parts of the ocean where marine life is at or near the surface, in one of two lectively as ventilation move some of usually most abundant, so its impact is processes. the mixed water, and the oxygen it far greater than that percentage suggests. There is a constant exchange of oxy- contains, into the thermocline. The Previous articles published in gen molecules (O2) between the atmo- distribution of oxygen depends on Climate and Capitalism2, in this sphere and the ocean, at the air-sea local, regional and global currents, extended series on metabolic rifts have interface. In simple terms, O2 from the tides, local topography, unpredictable examined two ecological gluts created air dissolves in the water and O2 from turbulence and other factors, so it is by capitalism’s inherent drive to the water bubbles into the air. uneven. Most notably, in some parts of expand at all costs: the nitrogen glut Considerably more O2 is produced the thermocline a combination of weak created by industrial agriculture’s by plants, especially phytoplankton, ventilation and oxygen-consuming dependence on synthetic chemical fer- that grow on and in the water. microorganisms results in pockets tilizers, and the carbon dioxide glut Photosynthesis requires sunlight, and called Oxygen Minimum Zones. Most

44 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 of the thermocline at that depth is For many millennia, the two-way isms need more oxygen to maintain teeming with fish, but life in an OMZ is gas transfer across the air-sea interface the same level of activity. The effect is largely limited to microbes that can was balanced, so the amount of dis- barely noticeable in warm-blooded survive with very little or no O2. solved oxygen in the ocean remained animals such as us, because our bodies A different and much slower process roughly constant. At some time in the always use a great deal of energy to plays a major role in distributing oxy- past half-century, that balance was maintain a stable condition. But the gen in the deep ocean. When water broken: the warming ocean began respiration rates of cold-blooded freezes in the North Atlantic, it leaves releasing more oxygen than it absorbed. organisms, which includes almost all A recent study estimates that between marine life, increase substantially when salt behind, creating a layer of dense 1975 and 2005 the net loss of oxygen the water gets warmer.8 brine that sinks to the bottom and from the ocean to the atmosphere slowly moves south, bringing along any So, while lower solubility and stron- averaged more than a-billion-tons-a- oxygen it absorbed at the surface. Thus ger stratification are reducing the sup- year. If warming continues, that out- begins the Global Conveyor Belt, a slow ply of dissolved oxygen in seawater, gassing could nearly triple by 2100.5 deep-sea current that carries almost 20 aerobic respiration is increasing the million cubic meters of water-per-sec- Stratification and circulation consumption. ond—100 times more than the Amazon As we’ve seen, the ocean is divided by It is difficult to quantify the relative River—distributing oxygen and nutri- temperature and salinity into three impacts of each of the three process, ents though the deep ocean.4 A full cir- sharply defined layers, with the least but so far solubility and stratification cuit takes about 1000 years. By the time dense layer on top. Climate change has seem to have caused greater oxygen water from near Greenland reaches the further reduced the density of the top reductions than increased respiration. North Pacific, most of the oxygen is layer, by warming the water, increasing That is likely to change as global tem- gone. This contributes to the formation rainfall, and melting glaciers. That makes peratures rise, because heat’s impact of an OMZ in the West Bering Sea and it still more difficult for oxygen-rich on metabolic rates is exponential. the Gulf of Alaska. waters to move into the thermocline. According to a recent study, “for 2°C Reduced solubility means that there warming, there will be a 29 percent Climate change versus oxygen is less oxygen in total, and increased increase in ocean oxygen consumption Ocean acidification is a direct result stratification reduces the portion of the rates, and for 3°C warming, a 50 per- of skyrocketing CO2 emissions. Ocean oxygen that circulates below the mixed cent increase, leading to large-scale deoxygenation has the same cause: layer. Since 1960, Oxygen Minimum ocean hypoxia.”9 greenhouse gases are heating the world, Zones in the thermocline have grown and over 90 percent of that additional 20 percent, from just over 25 million Consequences heat has been absorbed by the surface square kilometers to 30.4 million—to “Oxygen is fundamental to life in the layer of the ocean, reducing the ocean’s eight percent of the ocean’s total area, oceans. The decline in ocean oxygen total oxygen and expanding Oxygen and seven percent of its volume.6 ranks among the most serious effects of Minimum Zones. Global warming is also weakening human activities on the Earth’s environ- Research into the details of deoxy- the Great Conveyor Belt: the north ment.” —Denise Breitburg, Senior genation is ongoing, but it is clear that Atlantic portion now carries 15 percent Scientist, Smithsonian Environmental climate change is responsible for most less water than it did in 1960. So far, no Research Center10 oxygen depletion in the open ocean. effect has been measured on deep An Ocean Anoxic Event (OAE) is a Three temperature-dependent pro- ocean oxygen levels; that may reflect period when the level of dissolved oxy- cesses—solubility, stratification and the current’s slow speed, or limited gen in a large part of the ocean plunges circulation, and aerobic metabo- sampling of deepsea water. It has been to (or near) zero. That has happened lisms—are stealing the ocean’s breath. estimated that at present warming many times in Earth’s long history, Solubility. Basic physics: when water rates, deep sea circulation will fall as most recently about 94 million years 7 gets warmer, it can hold less dissolved much as 45 percent by 2100. ago, when loss of oxygen wiped out a oxygen. A given volume of water in the Metabolic rates. When temperature large proportion of marine life. As sci- Arctic can absorb more oxygen than increases, almost all chemical processes entists associated with the Woods Hole the same volume at the equator. If the speed up, including the complex bio- Oceanographic Institution point out, water’s temperature increases from chemical reactions that maintain life in ocean conditions today are similar to 4ºC to 6ºC, the amount of oxygen it all organisms. Metabolic rates increase those that prevailed before that crisis can hold decreases five percent. in proportion to temperature—organ- and are rapidly getting worse.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 45 “More widespread perturbation ring Oxygen Minimum Zones have https://climateandcapitalism. seems realistic under currently pro- played a key role in the nitrogen cycle, com/2020/09/20/triple-crisis-in-the- jected carbon emissions. Without because the bacteria that convert reac- anthropocene-ocean-part-two-running- positive human intervention, tive nitrogen (Nr) compounds into low-on-oxygen/ ancient OAE studies are destined to inert nitrogen gas (N2) are triggered to become uncomfortably applicable do so only in the absence of oxygen. in the not-so-distant future.”11 The expansion of OMZs means that We are not yet in an OAE, but if growing numbers microbes are remov- 1 Howard Lee, “Ocean Oxygen—Another oxygen loss continues to accelerate, ing reactive nitrogen from the ocean, Climate Shoe Dropping,” Skeptical Science, May 18, 2016. large-scale extinctions of marine spe- unbalancing the cycle and reducing the 2 https://climateandcapitalism.com cies are virtually certain. Even at pres- availability of essential nutrients for 3 Ian Angus, “Dead Zones: Industrial Agri- ent levels of deoxygenation, the dam- marine life. age is extensive. culture versus Ocean Life,” Climate & Capital- What’s more, when bacteria convert ism, August 12, 2020. “The vast body of evidence from Nr to N2 in the presence of small 4 Cold water also joins the conveyor near Ant- temperate marine ecosystems and a amounts of oxygen—that’s the case in arctica, and the return path carries warm water few studies from tropical marine most parts of OMZs—they also pro- from the tropics to the north. Any selected “begin- ecosystems demonstrate that hypox- ning” on this vast metabolic cycle is arbitrary. duce nitrous oxide (N2O), a green- ia stress often results in catastrophic 5 Changyu Li et al., “Increasing Escape of ecosystem simplification through house gas that is about 300-times more Oxygen From Oceans Under Climate Change,” loss of biodiversity, trophic com- powerful than carbon dioxide and also Geophysical Research Letters, June 2020. plexity and fisheries.”12 depletes the ozone layer. Multiple stud- 6 Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, ies have found large amounts of N2O “How Oxygen Minimum Zones Form”; A. Paul- In fact, any reduction in available rising from the ocean surface above mier and D. Ruiz-Pino, “Ocean Minimum oxygen, not just hypoxia, is problem- OMZs. This is a classic positive feed- Zones (OMZs) in the Modern Ocean,” Progress atic for most ocean life. Although some in Oceanography 80, no. 3-4 (2009), 113-128. back—global warming accelerates pro- marine animals, jellyfish for example, 7 L. Caesar et al., “Observed Fingerprint of a duction of nitrous oxide, which in turn are little affected by oxygen reduction, Weakening Atlantic Ocean Overturning Circu- accelerates global warming. others go into decline when the level lation,” Nature 556, April 12, 2018; S. Rahm- falls even slightly.13 As a result, the Finally, it is important to bear in storf, “New Studies Confirm Weakening of the mind that oxygen depletion does not Gulf Stream Circulation (AMOC),” Real Cli- population balance in areas where oxy- mate, September 17, 2020. happen in isolation—for example, gen levels are falling tilts quickly 8 Historical sidelight: the formula for calcu- towards hypoxia-tolerant species. organisms that consume more oxygen lating the effect of increased heat on the speed Others flee or die. also increase acidification by exhaling of chemical reactions was discovered by Svante more carbon dioxide, and fish trying to Arrhenius, the Swedish scientist who was the As well as directly threatening the escape oxygen-starved water find that first to show, in 1896, that CO2 emissions from lives and habitats of marine organisms, alternative locations are too acidic. burning fossil fuels could cause global warming. oxygen depletion is disrupting the 9 John G. Shepherd et al., “Ocean Ventilation global nitrogen cycle. For hundreds- —Climate and Capitalism, and Deoxygenation in a Warming World: Intro- of-millions of years, naturally occur- September 20, 2020 duction and Overview,” Philosophical Transac- tions of the Royal Society A, September 07, 2017, 6. 10 Quoted in “The Ocean Is Losing Its Breath. Here’s the Global Scope,” SERC news release, January 4, 2018. 11 Chadlin M. Ostrander, Jeremy D. Owens, and Sune G. Nielsen, “Constraining the Rate of Oceanic Deoxygenation Leading Up to a Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE-2: ~94 Ma),” Science Advances, August 9, 2017. 12 David J. Hughes et al., “Coral Reef Survival Under Accelerating Ocean Deoxygen- ation,” Nature Climate Change, March 2020. 13 Guy Claireaux and Denis Chabot, “The Significance of Ocean Deoxygenation for the Physiology of Marine Organisms,” in Ocean Deoxygenation: Everyone’s Problem, ed. D. Laf- Dots mark coastal “dead zones” where oxygen has plummeted to two milligrams per liter or less. foley and J. M. Baxter (Gland, Switzerland: Shaded areas in the open ocean have the same low-oxygen levels. Source: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre IUCN, 2019), 461. for Ocean Research Kiel.

46 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Capitalism—“Not Humanity”—is Killing Wildlife By Anna Pigott

The latest Living Planet report from and biodiversity loss. But it stops short the press. The Guardian, for example, the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) of pointing out that capitalism is what reports that “the global population is makes for grim reading: a 60 percent compels such reckless consumption. destroying the web of life.” This is gross- decline in wild animal populations Capitalism—particularly in its neolib- ly misleading. The WWF report itself since 1970, collapsing ecosystems, and eral form—is an ideology founded on a illustrates that it is far from all of human- a distinct possibility that the human principle of endless economic growth ity doing the consuming, but it does not species will not be far behind. The driven by consumption, a proposition go as far as revealing that only a small report repeatedly stresses that human- that is simply impossible. minority of the human population are ity’s consumption is to blame for this causing the vast majority of the damage. mass extinction, and journalists have From carbon emissions to ecological been quick to amplify the message. The From carbon emissions footprints, the richest ten percent of Guardian headline reads “Humanity to ecological footprints, people are having the greatest impact. has wiped out 60 percent of animal Furthermore, there is no recognition populations,” while the BBC runs with the richest ten percent of that the effects of climate and biodiver- “Mass wildlife loss caused by human people are having the sity collapse are overwhelmingly felt by consumption.” No wonder: in the 148- greatest impact. the poorest people first—the very people page report, the word “humanity” who are contributing least to the prob- appears 14 times, and “consumption” lem. Identifying these inequalities mat- an impressive 54 times. Industrial agriculture, an activity ters because it is this—not “humanity” There is one word, however, that that the report identifies as the biggest per se—that is the problem, and because fails to make a single appearance: capi- single contributor to species loss, is inequality is endemic to, you guessed it, talism. It might seem, when 83 percent profoundly shaped by capitalism, not capitalist systems (and particularly their of the world’s freshwater ecosystems are least because only a handful of “com- racist and colonial legacies.) collapsing (another horrifying statistic modity” species are deemed to have any The catch-all word “humanity” from the report,) that this is no time to value, and because, in the sole pursuit papers over all of these cracks, prevent- quibble over semantics. And yet, as the of profit and growth, “externalities” ing us from seeing the situation as it is. ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer has such as pollution and biodiversity loss It also perpetuates a sense that humans written, “finding the words is another are ignored. And yet instead of calling are inherently “bad,” and that it is step in learning to see.” the irrationality of capitalism out for somehow “in our nature” to consume Although the WWF report comes the ways in which it renders most of life until there is nothing left. One tweet, close to finding the words by identify- worthless, the WWF report actually posted in response to the WWF publi- ing culture, economics, and unsustain- extends a capitalist logic by using terms cation, retorted that “we are a virus able production models as the key such as “natural assets” and “ecosystem problems, it fails to name capitalism as services” to refer to the living world. the crucial (and often causal) link By obscuring capitalism with a term between these things. It therefore pre- that is merely one of its symptoms—con- vents us from seeing the true nature of sumption—there is also a risk that blame the problem. If we don’t name it, we and responsibility for species loss is dis- can’t tackle it: it’s like aiming at an proportionately shifted onto individual invisible target. lifestyle choices, while the larger and more powerful systems and institutions Why capitalism? that are compelling individuals to con- The WWF report is right to high- sume are, worryingly, let off the hook. light “exploding human consump- tion,” not population growth, as the Who is “humanity,” anyway? main cause of mass extinction, and it The WWF report chooses “humani- goes to great lengths to illustrate the ty” as its unit of analysis, and this total- link between levels of consumption izing language is eagerly picked up by Orangutang

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 47 with shoes,” an attitude that hints at petuates a distorted view of who we are The WWF report urges that a “col- growing public apathy. and what we are capable of becoming. lective voice is crucial if we are to But what would it mean to redirect By naming capitalism as a root reverse the trend of biodiversity loss,” such self-loathing towards capitalism? cause, on the other hand, we identify a but a collective voice is useless if it can- Not only would this be a more accurate particular set of practices and ideas not find the right words. As long as target, but it might also empower us to that are by no means permanent nor we—and influential organizations such see our humanity as a force for good. inherent to the condition of being as the WWF, in particular—fail to human. In doing so, we learn to see name capitalism as a key cause of mass Breaking the story that things could be otherwise. There is extinction, we will remain powerless to Words do so much more than sim- a power to naming something in order break its tragic story. ply assign blame to different causes. to expose it. As the writer and environ- —Climate and Capitalism, October Words are makers and breakers of the mentalist Rebecca Solnit puts it: 1, 2020 deep stories that we construct about “Calling things by their true the world, and these stories are espe- names cuts through the lies that https://climateandcapitalism. cially important for helping us to navi- excuse, buffer, muddle, disguise, gate environmental crises. Using gen- avoid, or encourage inaction, indif- com/2020/10/01/capitalism-is-killing- eralized references to “humanity” and ference, obliviousness. It’s not all the-worlds-wildlife-not-humanity/ “consumption” as drivers of ecological there is to changing the world, but loss is not only inaccurate, it also per- it’s a key step.”

INCARCERATION NATION Free All Political Prisoners And say their names! By Glen Ford

Black Agenda Report executive edi- ing years of torture and attempts to That’s why we say, power to the people. tor Glen Ford made the following break and humiliate them. But the rest of us are subject to remarks on August 15, 2020, to the Black That includes esteemed members of become prisoners, whether our offens- is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace the Black Is Back Coalition, who contin- es are overtly political, or not. Lots of and Reparations, which was holding a ue their work in the struggle, as do the folks who were politically opposed to virtual national conference under the brothers and sisters that remain behind the laws and practices of the U.S. state theme, “Fight for Black Power: Free All bars. They have never left the struggle. have spent some time in jail. political prisoners.” Of course, some people and institu- Some of them are eventually exon- Power to the People… and good tions are totally immune from impris- erated in the eyes of the state, and even morning. onment—like banking executives, who venerated—and held up as political We’re going to talk about political are considered too big to jail. icons and paragons of virtue. People prisoners, of which the United States But that’s because they are the state— like the late John Lewis, who bragged has many—despite the fact that the or rather, the state works for people like incessantly that he’s been arrested 40 United states claims it does not, and them. They are part of the ruling class. times, in addition to having his head never has, imprisoned people for polit- bashed in by police on a bridge that The ruling classes have shaped the ical reasons. will likely be named after him, now state to protect their interests. The that he’s dead. Scores of these prisoners are listed capitalist state exists for the purpose of by the Jericho Movement. They have making the nation and the world safe But John Lewis’s many periods of been incarcerated for many decades, for the rule of capital. These people will incarceration were brief, for a number some for half-a-century. never be prisoners of any kind—until of reasons. The most important reason Many more have died in prison, and they are overthrown and removed is that Lewis was part of a broad move- others have been released after endur- from power, by the people. ment, the Civil Rights movement, that

48 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6

Incarceration Nation had actively engaged many tens-of- So, during that period in history, in Stokely Carmichael, later known as thousands of people and was support- the early sixties, big capital and many of Kwame Ture. ed by many millions more in the their political servants were at times J. Edgar Hoover feared that Dr. King United States and around the world. allies of the Civil Rights movement. might become a “Black Messiah” that However, it is very important to And they fully expected that Civil Rights could unify the Black Nationalist understand that this “Civil Rights” activists, and Black folks in general, Movement. Hoover admitted that King movement was supported—at least would repay them by becoming allies of was no Black nationalist, but Hoover tacitly—by a segment of the U.S. ruling big capital and the U.S. imperial state. feared that he might become a Messiah class, and by large sections of the U.S. John Lewis totally fulfilled those of the Black nationalists in the future. state, in various regions of the country expectations. He became a loyal ser- So, King had to be neutralized, along and in the federal government. vant of the Democratic Party, and a with the actual Black radicals and revo- Northern Democrats and many beloved spokesman for U.S. exception- lutionary Black nationalists on the Republicans were opposed to Jim alism and Washington’s right to rule COINTELPRO list. And Dr. King did Crow. These politicians opposed segre- over the planet. become more radical. He did break with gation laws because many of their U.S. imperialism. He did start speaking bosses in the ruling class were against out more forcefully against capitalism. legal segregation. the same forces that tar- But the U.S. secret police had a prob- Many big capitalists opposed segre- geted Dr. King, in order lem with eliminating Dr. King. King gation laws, because Jim Crow put to neutralize him, politi- was famous for his Gandhian nonvio- lence. He had a Nobel Peace Prize. limits on the uses of capital. Legal Jim cally—those same forces Crow prevented the southern states So, how do you criminalize that from becoming fully integrated into put all of our surviving kind of man, and make him a political the national U.S. economy. Segregation political prisoners prisoner? What kind of pretext could limited how investment money could they use to discredit and incarcerate be spent in the south, and the kinds of behind bars Reverend Dr. King or run him out of projects that could be developed. the country—like they did Robert You can’t have a project like John Lewis was an imperialist, rul- Williams, the former NAACP leader Peachtree Plaza, in Atlanta, if you have ing class success story—and they’re from North Carolina who found asy- to have two sets of escalators, one for very glad that they didn’t keep him in lum in Cuba in 1961. whites and one for Blacks. And you jail, and that those cops didn’t kill him But Robert Williams advocated, and can’t make Atlanta or Charlotte or on the bridge. practiced, armed self-defense. Dr. King New Orleans an international city, and Dr. King was a different story. didn’t mess with guns. still keep Jim Crow segregation. Even before he began to publicly The secret police couldn’t set King Creating space for the Civil Rights oppose the Vietnam War and U.S. up, and King refused to commit sui- movement imperial policy, before he publicly cide, as they strongly suggested. So, So, much of the U.S. ruling class indicted the U.S. state and society for, since they couldn’t make him a pris- wanted Jim Crow to go. And this cre- what he called, the three evils of rac- oner, they made him a martyr. ated political space for the Civil Rights ism, poverty, and war, Dr. King had Now, the reason I spent so much movement in the south—because pow- become the most important Black time on Dr. King, who was not a long- erful sectors of the ruling class saw their leader in the country. time political prisoner, is to point up own interest in ending legal segregation And although, in the first half of the the fact that the same forces that tar- and denial of Black voting rights. sixties, King had not yet begun geted Dr. King, in order to neutralize That’s why John Kennedy made denouncing American imperialism or him, politically—those same forces put that call to Coretta Scott King when the capitalist system, King was still all of our surviving political prisoners her husband was serving time in a made a target of the FBI’s behind bars. Georgia jail, in 1960. Martin Luther COINTELPRO program. Even if the U.S. secret police were King was a political prisoner of the He was to be neutralized, along with NOT responsible for the death of state of Georgia, but elements of the communists and Black radicals, espe- Malcolm X in 1965, they would have national ruling class intervened, to cially Black nationalists. Dr. King was killed or imprisoned Malcolm later on voice their disapproval. on the same FBI list as the young in the decade.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 49 If you threaten to lead Black people No matter what the oppressor says. Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were on an independent political path, the Brother Malcolm had done his among those killed before the year was out. U.S. state will attempt to neutralize homework. He knew that back in 1949 Many of the brothers and sisters you, imprison you, or kill you. the Geneva Convention had declared who rejected Hoover’s ultimatum If you exercise your right to defend that occupied people have a human became political prisoners—and the yourself, and your people, from the right to resist that occupation. The survivors’ pictures are on the Black Is oppressive arms of the state, they make Black Panther Party put that right into Back Coalition poster that we prepared you into an outlaw, and hunt you down. practice, in response to the blue army for this conference. And if you somehow escape from of occupation in our communities. The latter part of the Black Liberation their clutches and find asylum in a When Dr. King was murdered in Movement was marked by calls to “Free comradely country, they will put a 1968, rebellions erupted in virtually Huey,” “Free Bobby,” and “Free Angela.” bounty on your head—as they have every heavily Black city in the country. These particular prisoners were Assata Shakur. And thousands of sisters and brothers freed. But ultimately, the revolutionary When Malcolm’s political children were soon knocking on the doors of Black movement was smashed by the formed the Black Panther Party for Self Panther Party offices across the coun- raw, murderous power of the state try, volunteering to join the resistance. Defense, in late 1966, they were exer- However, the U.S. state had an even cising their right under California law bigger plan. to bear arms on the street. The U.S. state answered COINTELPRO and related secret The Black Panther Party this resistance with police programs are designed to target In the beginning, the Party was a and neutralize the leadership of revolu- kind of armed cop-watch. The idea was the mother of all tionary movements. But Black people that the cops would be less likely to counterinsurgency were feeling rebellious all over the casually kill people in the Black com- country in the late sixties. Federal munity if they knew they were being programs: mass Black troops were called in to occupy Detroit watched by armed Black people. incarceration. in 1967, and to occupy Washington, The Party was the white settler DC and other cities in 1968, when over a hundred cities burned. state’s worst nightmare: Black revolu- When Brother Yeshitela1 talks about tionary nationalists with guns—real revolution being “in the air” in 1968, The U.S. state answered this resistance Black revolutionaries, not figments of that’s no exaggeration. The numbers of with the mother of all counterinsurgency J. Edgar Hoover’s imagination. Panther volunteers were, in fact, far programs: mass Black incarceration. They didn’t hide their socialism, and too large for the Party to handle. Mass Black incarceration they actively sought fraternal relations The state set COINTELPRO on war A mass Black incarceration regime with revolutionary movements and mode. Infiltration was even more per- socialist governments around the world. requires the criminalization of a whole vasive than folks ever imagined. The people. Black neighborhoods were placed The Panthers characterized the SWAT team was invented, and the Party under the most intense surveillance. police as an army of occupation in the was soon on the defensive, everywhere. Black community. It was in the last days of Lyndon The bodies were piling up, and much Johnson’s presidency that Congress An occupation army. Those words of the Party was facing charges of one kind created the Law Enforcement Assistance were carefully chosen. or another. Many were already in prison. Administration, which vastly increased Malcolm X told us that we should And then, in June of 1969, J. Edgar federal spending on local police. stop talking about “Civil Rights”— Hoover made the declaration of war offi- Essentially, the federal government was which are the rights that the govern- cial. He said the Black Panther Party was, massively reinforcing the Blue ment chooses to give you—and instead “without question, the greatest threat to Occupation Army in Black America. demand our “human rights,” as spelled the internal national security of the United The mission was to create a vastly out in United Nations documents. states.” Hoover vowed to put the party larger prison infrastructure: The black Oppressed people should not have out of existence by the end of the year. prison gulag. In just over a generation, to appeal to their oppressor for justice. The U.S. state was handing down an the U.S. prison population would swell They have the human right to resist ultimatum: Give up the struggle, or from only 200,000, in 1970, to well oppression, by any means necessary. become a prisoner, or a corpse. over two million—half of them Black.

50 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 One out of every eight prison ed a total transformation of society. They didn’t hate the Democratic inmates in the world is a Black Some just wanted to get rid of the Party—even though it was the American. And one out of every three impediments to their own ability to get Democrats who created Jim Crow in Black male children will go to prison rich, or to become a General in the the south. Instead, they wanted to join sometime in their lives. Armed Forces, or to climb the corpo- the Democratic Party, and to rise with- That was the U.S. state’s answer to rate ladder. in the Party ranks. the Black liberation movement of the And they opposed independent sixties. It was as if the rulers said: Since Black politics. They wanted to shut you Black folks won’t stay in your place; One out of every eight down the mass movement as soon as we’ve got another place for you: prison. prison inmates in the possible, so that it would not continue But the advent of the mass Black world is a Black to disrupt the rich white man’s politi- cal order—an order that they wanted incarceration regime raises the question: American. And one out If the state makes a political decision to to become a part of. criminalize Blackness, aren’t all Black of every three Black male They had a slogan, back then: “Taking prisoners of the state political prisoners? children will go to it from the streets, to the suites.” That’s a question that is wrestled prison sometime in We saw early on what this black mis- with, inside and outside the prison walls. their lives. leadership class was up to—and it had But we do know for certain who went to nothing to do with Black liberation. prison in the service of our movement The first Black big city mayor was in the struggle to free our people— They didn’t want to overthrow the Carl Stokes, of Cleveland. He was elect- whether they were armed or unarmed. ruling class—they wanted to join it. ed in 1967. Among his first acts was to And we embrace our duty and our For them, the Movement was about appoint a Black general as the city’s obligation to these political prison- Black representation at all levels of the police commissioner. And the first ers—not just during Black August, but capitalist structure—not self-determi- thing his general did was issue dum- in the totality of our political work. nation for the mass of Black people. dum bullets to the cops, so that they The state had help in eradicating the It definitely was not about revolu- could kill more Black people. threat of Black revolution. tion. That would spoil everything for Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard The struggle against Jim Crow the aspiring Black bourgeoisie—the Jackson, quickly moved to break the apartheid engaged all classes of Black people we at Black Agenda Report call overwhelmingly Black sanitation work- people. But not all Black people want- “The Black Misleadership Class.” ers union—the same union that Martin

All these men, and more, except Jalil Muntaqim, are still incarcerated.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 51 Luther King was supporting in Memphis But in those protests, we don’t hear • David Gilbert, anti-imperial- when he was assassinated. Maynard demands for the release of our political ist political prisoner Jackson said his main mission was to prisoners. They call for “abolition” of • Jeremy Hammond, anarchist create a new class of Black millionaires. prisons. But that’s a long-term goal. and computer hacker political Long before McFadden and But many of our political prisoners prisoner Whitehead composed their hit record, have already died, and the rest are old. They can’t wait for abolition. • Hanif Shabazz Bey, Virgin “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now,” the Black Islands five Liberation Movement was brought to a The failure of Black Lives Matter stop by the state, with the collaboration demonstrations to demand freedom • Alvaro Lunes Hernandez, of this rising Black political class. for all political prisoners is unaccept- Chicano political prisoner We would not see even a glimmer of able and must be criticized. • Kamau Sadiki, Black Panther a mass Black grassroots movement for The current movement makes a rit- Party two generations. ual of saying the names of the recent And that’s only a partial listing. When we still had a movement that dead—the victims of police violence. Political prisoners are being created all demanded “Free Huey,” “Free Bobby” And that is righteous, and correct: “Say the time, because wherever there is and “Free Angela,” those particular their names! political struggle, there will be political political prisoners were released. But prisoners, and political casualties. Say names of political prisoners after the movement was shut down, We must Say Their Names while But also, we must “Say the names!” scores of other political prisoners were they are still alive to hear us. of our political prisoners who still live. left to die in the gulag. Say their names, while it can still do So, we’re gonna say their names, Meanwhile, the new class of Black some good for the living. from the list published by the Jericho Democratic leaders became the manag- Say their names, because we owe ers of the mass black incarceration Movement: them a debt that can only be repaid by a regime. Instead of defending Black peo- • Abdul Azeez, Virgin Islands five lifetime of service to the people—as our ple’s interests and Black human rights, • Mumia Abu Jamal, Black Pan- political prisoners have already done. this class defended the system that ther Party criminalized Black people as a group. Free them All! • Sundiata Acoli, Black Panther Power to the People. They were proud to serve the infer- Party and Republic of New Africa nal machinery that condemned the —Black Agenda Report, August 18, 2020 • Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Student best and brightest or our activists and https://blackagendareport.com/free-all- thinkers to die in America’s dungeons. Non-Violent Coordinating Committee political-prisoners-and-say-their-names For two generations, there was no 2 Black grassroots mass movement in the • Jalil Muntaqim , Black Pan- United states. But the Black street never ther Party and Black Libera- stopped resisting, even without a radi- tion Army 1 Omali Yeshitella, founder of the Uhuru cal political leadership. • Joseph Bowen, a U.S. political Movement and leader of the African People’s prisoner Party The Los Angeles rebellion of 1992— 2 Won parole October 7, 2020. the “Rodney King” rebellion—regis- • Veronza Bowers, Black Pan- tered a higher death toll and more ther Party property damage than any urban upris- • Kojo Bomani Sababu, Black ing of the sixties. Liberation Army And, a generation after Rodney King, • Fred “Mohammad” Burton, a our young people rebelled again in the wake U.S. political prisoner of Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson. • Byron Shane Chubbuck, First And this year they scared the hell out Nation political prisoner of the state in cities across the country, in response to COVID 19 and econom- • Bill Dunne, a class war pris- ic depression. Unprecedented numbers oner of people were in the streets, with • Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, a young Black folks in the leadership. U.S. political prisoner

52 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Why the Police Reform Bill is Doomed to Fail By Comrade Pitt

“The supporters of reforms and too often. This murder was captured lished de facto quasi-penalties for voter improvements will always be fooled by on police body cameras yet nothing suppression by anyone including police defenders of the old order until they real- ever came from it. In fact, this case who attempted to keep people from ize that every old institution, however went under the radar and only resur- registering to vote based on race, but barbarous and rotten it may appear to faced after the death of George Floyd. this reform failed to produce the be, is maintained by the forces of some In essence, every police reform that intended result. To this very day voter ruling class.” —V.I. Lenin has been instituted has fallen flat on its suppression remains a major issue in This quote by Vladimir Lenin essen- face and this new police reform bill will many states. tially sums up what this essay is about also face the same outcome. To under- It has been sickening watching how however I’ll explain further as to why stand the reason why you cannot some Black prominent politicians are the recently enacted police reform bill reform the police system and receive under some illusion that this newly by congress is doomed to fail. We all the intended results it’s important to enacted police reform bill will change witnessed George Floyd choked to take a look at the history of police how police police Black men and death and Breonna Taylor was shot structure and how it emerged. women. Just as the 1870 Congress “Enforcement Act” bill failed, and eight times as she slept while police Following real, even rumored slave every one after that, this too is bound raided her home unannounced and revolts or slave runaways, the institu- to fail. This is pure political theatre and without knocking. On this police tion of slave patrol emerged. In empty moralization by playing games reform bill choke holds and no knock response armed white militia men were with the same system that is and has warrants have been banned but this bill hired by slave owners to take shifts rid- been hell bent by the ruling class to ter- fails to acknowledge or address the sys- ing around between plantations break- rorize and murder Blacks. I have heard temic racism which exists and is deeply ing up slave gatherings, apprehending entrenched in police departments far too often that the “System is bro- slave runaways, protecting white lives ken.” This is a poor and lame response across the country. This bill will most and property. likely prevent a few unnecessary deaths to a problem larger than the system but its overall purpose will more likely This system of policing gradually being broken when the system actually than not prove inauspicious. evolved into an actual professional job works like a well-oiled machine as it and “public safety” was no longer in was intended to. Subsequent to the murder of Mike the hands of amateur night watchmen Contrary to the optics and narrative, Brown, calls for police reforms echoed or plantation overseer. It had been around the country and the reaction the core issue here is of white police transferred to a full-time professional unjustifiably killing unarmed Black was to implement and mandate body body built on the core ideology and cameras on police in most states. men and women. Though in some foundation of white supremacy. After cases the killings have been undoubt- However that response failed to pre- slavery was abolished, during the Post- ably race motivated, we have to take vent further unjustifiable murders of Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras this into account that overall Black police Black men and women, in many cases, very system was employed to deter and officers compose a small percentage of including the murder of George Floyd. terrorize Afrikan Amerikans from par- police officers nationwide, which Cameras played a role in capturing it, ticipation in public life—especially increases the likelihood of white police yet did not deter former officer Derek voting. Those who attempted to vote interacting with Black communities. Chauvin from killing George Floyd. In were subject to public lynching which Therefore, as difficult as it may be, it’s fact, at one point he even looked would send a message to other Blacks. important to not get caught up in race directly at the camera unfazed. The “white League brotherhood,” and see this issue as solely white police Another example is from the 2019 “KKK” and “The Pale Face” paramili- killing unarmed Blacks because, make killing of Elijah McClain, a unarmed tary organizations also assisted this no mistake, Black police officers also young Black man who was murdered newly formed police system in the brutalize and murder other unarmed by Colorado police using the same reign of terror. In fact, most of them Black civilians just as viciously as any chokehold tactic as was used on Eric were also employed as police officers. white cop. The issue isn’t a “few bad Garner. His last words were “I can’t In response, in 1870 congress enacted apples” or “training.” They don’t need breathe!” Sentiments we’ve heard far the “Enforcement Act” which estab- to be “trained” not to kill unarmed

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 53 white civilians at the same rate as they echo. They have intensified the pres- reforming it. Attempts to do so are kill unarmed Blacks. The issue here is sure on the need for social change and synonymous with attempting to cure the system and until we all wake up and social justice. However we cannot cancer with Tylenol. Abolition is the recognize that capitalist-imperialism is afford to be complacent and be sole logical solution and policing needs at the root of all our problems, we will appeased by mere reforms only to end to be re-imagined but this also implies continue to suffer tragic losses and be up protesting and outraged at yet more getting rid of capitalism/imperialism manipulated by political opportunists killings of unarmed Black men and and paving the way to socialism and with empty chicanery rhetoric and women weeks or months later. eventual transition to communism. enactment of useless bills which will Imagine if police policed white Until then it’s merely a matter of time not end the reign of white supremacy communities with the same violence before we’re right back in the streets but merely perpetuate it. and militarized approach as they do chanting “Hands up, Don’t shoot,” “I In the 1960s urban uprisings in Los Black communities, or if they mur- can’t breathe” or “no justice, no…” Angeles, Oakland, Watts, Benton dered unarmed whites at the same rate You know the rest by now. Harbor, Michigan, Toledo, Ohio, as they do Blacks. Reforms would’ve Ferguson, MO, Baltimore, MD., been the last thing on the minds of Write to Comrade Pitt, New Afrikan Black Minneapolis, MN, etc., people have white Amerikans, revolution would’ve Panther party protested. Uprisings seem to have occurred long ago. The bottom line is United Panther Movement Minister of educa- occured simultaneously and more that the solution to this issue is to dis- tion: often. In the wake of many of these mantle and abolish the entire Police Peter Kamau Mukuria 1197165 unprecedented revolts and protests System. No amount of reforms, Red Onion State Prison came obvious political awakening and defunding or training is enough to PO Box 1900 organizing that has genuinely threat- change it. This is a rotten system built Pound, VA 24279 ened the system and calls to defund, on the foundation of white supremacy Instagram@PittPanther_art even dismantle, the police continue to ideology and sheer hate. There is no JPAY.com/email

COVID-19, Lockdown, and Mental Illness By Shakaboona

The COVID-19 lockdown of the stressed, on an emotional rollercoaster former First Lady Michelle Obama has Pennsylvania Department Of of mood swings, outbursts of anger, stated she too is battling depression Corrections (PADOC) has trans- aggression, severe depression, and sui- from the COVID-19, and they are formed the state prisons into one mas- cidal. Were it not for the free Zoom people who are in the free world. Then sive solitary confinement system, a visits, phone calls, and emails to main- how much more are incarcerated peo- prisoncrat’s dream come true, yet a tain communication with family and ple whom are locked down, locked nightmare for incarcerated prisoners friends, were it not for the yard periods under, locked out, and locked away who are fighting to maintain their to socialize with other incarcerated from society and placed in solitary mental sanity and emotional stability. people, and were it not for incarcerated confinement conditions suffering Solitary confinement is proven to people’s understanding of the need to mental illnesses? More pointedly, how cause mental illness and emotional keep safe under the threat of the many people in society even care? trauma in human beings, who are COVID-19 pandemic, there would be —PrisonRadio.org, September 2020 social beings by nature, which makes massive prison rebellions against the solitary confinement the antithesis to inhumane treatment that incarcerated human nature. Here, in the state pris- people are receiving in the name of Write to Shakaboona: ons, incarcerated people are fighting “COVID-19 Safety Measures.” Smart Communications/PA DOC just to keep their heads above water National newspapers recently have Kerry Shakaboona Marshall #BE7826 under the COVID-19 lockdown of reported that tens-of-millions of SCI Rockview prisons. Incarcerated persons can be Americans are suffering mental health P.O. Box 33028 seen in a constant agitated state, very issues as a result of the COVID-19, and St. Petersburg, FL 33733

54 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Military Torture in Indiana Prisons By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

The Gitmo torture lab PCF’s pre-existing inhumane condi- oners have documented mental ill- A lot of people may not remember tions, especially in its solitary confine- nesses) is for prisoners to yell, “medical the torture scandal that exposed the ment unit, G-cell house (GCH), that emergency!” until guards come. Most U.S. military back in 2004, when, dur- make Reagle’s actions all the more times the guards won’t respond for ing the illegal invasion of Iraq, photos depraved. fifteen minutes or more. Often, they surfaced of soldiers humiliating and Pendleton is an old prison struc- don’t respond at all. torturing civilians detained at Iraq’s ture. GCH houses nearly 300 people in While housed in GCH, I’d been on Abu Ghraib prison. four separate wings. Each wing con- the phone in my cell many times with As the story unfolded, it was revealed tains three tiers of open-front cells with people on the outside who heard and that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were not bars that face onto a wall. Each tier themselves remarked on prisoners yell- the isolated actions of a handful of contains between 21 and 24 cells. The ing “medical emergency!” for an hour rogue soldiers as originally portrayed tiers are closed in with a narrow walk- or more in the background, and guards by the media and military, but were way running their length between the never responded. instead techniques that had been sys- cell fronts and a caged-in barrier in A number of prisoners have died as tematically developed and refined by front of them. a result of guards not responding to the CIA and military on detainees at emergency calls. One such death the U.S. military base in Guantanamo occurred with a man housed in a cell Bay, Cuba. Gitmo, as it is commonly it’s readily seen as the just above me on March 20, 2019. known, had actually served for years as meanest cruelty to treat Prisoners have died like this and a U.S. torture laboratory.1 animals in the manner been left undiscovered for hours, as Among the U.S. soldiers captured in occurred this year. that human beings are those torture photos, were Amerikans who In many cases, to summon guards, worked as prison guards in their civilian being treated in U.S. prisoners have to create a disturbance lives. Which linked the culture of abuse prisons and act out by, for example, flooding that pervades U.S. prisons with the socio- their cells and the tiers, setting paper pathic mindset of military officials trained fires outside their cells, and so on. In a to deliberately torture other humans. To observe or communicate with a number of cases prisoners have physi- The interplay between U.S. mili- given prisoner, guards must walk down cally lashed out at guards out of frus- tary-to-prison torture is still very much the narrow tiers and stand directly in tration at having their and other’s seri- alive today. front of the prisoner’s cell. There is no ous needs and cries for help ignored. internal cooling system in PCF’s cell- New Pendleton warden blocks. Gitmo torture used at PCF a Gitmo student By policy, guards are supposed to Reagle’s response has been to heap Just over a month ago a new warden make security rounds every 30 minutes abuse on top of abuse. Upon becoming was appointed at Indiana’s Pendleton to ensure each prisoner is well. These warden, he established several proto- Correctional Facility (PCF) where I rounds are almost never made in GCH. cols which smack of torture techniques was imprisoned from November 2018 The only time prisoners usually see exposed in 2004 as applied at Abu until September 3, 2020. guards is during the four to five daily Ghraib and refined at Gitmo: sensory counts conducted in the unit, and at deprivation, unprotected exposure to This warden, Dennis Reagle, is a meal and medication delivery. Often, extreme temperatures, and water tor- U.S. military veteran who was sta- they don’t come around at count times, ture being key among them. tioned at Gitmo. What’s problematic is but instead, use unit log records to take what he’s been doing at PCF since Today it is generally recognized, count. assuming the position of warden. and even acknowledged by the United The authorized method for prison- Nations, that solitary confinement is Inhumane conditions in PCF solitary ers to summon guards in an emergency torture. As a result, many prison sys- Before detailing these measures, I situation such as a medical crisis, a tems across the country have been roll- should give some context in terms of suicide attempt (over half GCH’s pris- ing back the practice. Access to small

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 55 in-cell amenities like television and In fact, Reagle’s staff had me placed the manner that human beings are commissary food items also allow some on this very status and attempted to being treated in U.S. prisons. There are small level of insulation from the sen- move me into one of the unlit cells on well-funded animal humane societies, sory deprivation of solitary. August 25, 2020 (cell #9 on 4-D tier), rescue organizations, fundraisers, and Reagle, however, is increasing the when I was moved to GCH after an television shows dedicated to protect- use of intensified solitary and is remov- altercation in GP during which a guard ing domestic animals from confine- ing even these small diversions. He’s was allegedly injured (ironically the ment in unlighted idle pens, being banned all prisoners housed in disci- disciplinary report I received admitted water hosed, and exposed to extreme plinary segregation in GCH from com- I was the one attacked, yet I was accused temperatures. missary purchases and held many who of assault.) I resisted going into the cell But it’s fine for government officials are detained from general population and was, after several hours, placed to do the same to imprisoned human (GP) under these conditions although into a regular segregation cell, but was beings who are disproportionately they have not been found guilty of any still put on strip cell with no property people of color. until after I was transferred to another disciplinary infractions, and Indiana prison on September 3, 2020. In fact, the U.S. military refined prison policy specifically forbids this. such abuses at its secret bases and one It should be noted that during the He also allows guards to use high- of its students (certainly not its only time that I was held on strip cell numer- pressure water hoses to indiscriminately one) has obviously brought these sadis- ous people on the outside complained to hose down multiple prisoners and their tic mindsets and methods home to Indiana DOC officials that I was being cells on tiers where small isolated paper employ against defenseless people denied my personal property, including fires have been set by a single prisoner caged in U.S. prisons. some of my blood pressure meds. Many to summon guards. Victims report the received responses that I had all my Where indeed are the well-funded experience as feeling like they’re being property and was making up these claims. prisoner humane societies, rescue drowned, just like being waterboarded. organizations, fundraisers, and televi- Also, all their personal property is However, PCF officials admitted in sion shows dedicated to exposing and destroyed, and many now keep plastic response to a grievance I filed on stopping these abuses of people caged garbage bags on hand to cover them- September 1st about my denied prop- like animals in U.S. prisons? selves and store their property in for erty and inability to prepare a defense fear of these indiscriminate attacks. against the disciplinary report without it, that I was indeed on strip cell since Write to Kevin “Rashid” Johnson: Reagle has also established a proto- August 25, (PCF grievance log Kevin Johnson #264847 col that any prisoner who even attempts #117257). The response, made on Wabash Valley Correctional Facility to lash out physically at guards will be September 3rd after I’d been trans- 6908 S. Old U.S. HWY 41, P.O. Box 500 automatically placed on a “strip cell” ferred that same day from PCF and Carlisle, IN 47838 status for up to a month. On this sta- signed by the PCF grievance specialist, tus, for which there is no policy autho- Christina Conyers, stated: rization, the prisoner may have no “You were moved to GCH pend- property except bedding and under- ing a DHB (Disciplinary Hearing 1 This history of torture and the use of Gitmo wear. The cell will have no electrical Body) hearing for an alleged assault as a torture lab, and methods developed there being employed at Abu Ghraib was exposed and outlet or lighting. Essentially, he will be with a weapon. Due to the assault on held in total idleness in a dark cell, extensively documented by professor Alfred staff and offender this resulted in McCoy in his book, A Question of Torture: CIA which is outright illegal. strip cell status. You have been Interrogation from the Cold War to the War on This is particularly torturing in the removed from strip cell status and Terror. sweltering cells during summer and fall will be allowed his (sic) property. A claim of violation of due process where the prisoner is denied his electric rights as it pertains to the DHB pro- fan, and during winter where there is cess must be addressed through a often no operating heating in GCH DHB appeal and is not subject to the and the windows to the outside are left grievance process.” open. It requires no stretch of the imagination to recognize the literal We don’t allow such cruelty torture of confining someone to an to animals empty dark cell in sweltering heat or What is ironic is it’s readily seen as icy cold for a month. the meanest cruelty to treat animals in

56 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Psychological Impact of Solitary Confinement By Bryant Arroyo

The following is a slightly edited com- normal environments. The prisoner’s The underlying reason Secretary mentary recorded for “Voices From the anxiety becomes so great that he/she Wetzel previously provided us with Inside” by PrisonRadio.org. will seek a means to return to prison both five phone calls and five free The brain and nervous system, or with its decreased input and routine email vouchers was due to the restric- “the mind,” cannot function normally experiences. tion of the prison population from without stimulation. Neither can it In the psychological sphere, cruel having contact visits. function normally when given too treatment and its results are not so We prisoners are being denied much stimulus. The brain and the ner- obviously flagrant because mental meaningful educational and work pro- vous system must be maintained in a destruction is less apparent than physi- grams under the PADOC’s imposed “steady state.” A healthy mind is a cal destruction. Damage to the mind is Administrative Isolation Confinement. product of interaction between itself not as visible as a withered hand. As a result, prisoners are spending a and other organisms. But the reality is the same: human substantial amount of time inside their Along with intellectual impairment, impairment as a result of destructive cells/dormitories in absolute idleness. perceptual deprivation results in psy- treatment while in prison. When treat- Such unbroken inactivity increases chotic-like hallucinations and effective ment in prison leads to a person’s boredom, tension and frustration, changes in extreme behavior—includ- mental impairment, by definition that which in turn promotes incidents of ing extreme boredom, restlessness, treatment must be seen as cruel—truly violence. The evidence reflects that irritability, anger, unrealistic fears, barbaric! idleness of this magnitude destroys the anxieties, depression, physical com- The Pennsylvania Department of human element, internally escalating plaints and “development of a childish Corrections (PADOC) Administrative suicides, a host of medical problems, sense of humor, exaggerated emotional imposition of solitary confinement and hurts people, in turn hurting other reactions, and excessive irritation by undoubtedly constitutes a form of people. small things.” cruel and unusual punishment under In conclusion, I’ll depart with this Prisoners become “dulled from the Eighth Amendment. The distinc- final thought by philosopher James monotonous prison experiences dur- tion between “segregation” and “soli- Allen: “They themselves are makers of ing confinement.” (D. Schultz, Sensory tary” is often no more than mere themselves by virtue of the thoughts Restriction: Effects on Behavior, 1965) semantics. which they choose and encourage: that As prisoners are subjected to the The detrimental effects of isolation the mind is the master weaver, both of newly imposed restrictions of confine- and idleness are just as apparent in the inner garment of character and the ment under COVID-19, it has become both. Isolation as a treatment is puni- outer garment of circumstances and more difficult for us to engage in edu- tive, destructive, defeats the purpose of that, as they may have hitherto woven cational programs effectively. On any kind of rehabilitation efforts and ignorance and pain, they may know to August 13, I witnessed a prisoner pack- harkens back to medieval times. There weave enlightenment.” ing up his property to be on parole the is no justification for such treatment —Workers World, August 21, 2020 next day. But the effects of sensory and unless your purpose is to dehumanize https://www.workers. perceptual deprivation this prisoner and destroy my mind. org/2020/08/50743/ exhibited remained with him even after Prisoners are entitled—as a consti- his release. tutional right—to fresh air, outdoor It will be extremely difficult to exercise, recreation and educational adjust to the “new-norm” because our programs while in solitary confine- emotional and mental mechanisms are ment. Now, PADOC Secretary John being adjusted to deprivation circum- Wetzel has minimized the five weekly stances. Then there will be little toler- phone calls to once a week and five free ance for the myriad of sensory input in email vouchers to zero a week.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 57 My COVID Prison By Christopher Dye

A quarter-century in prison and this oners and respiratory illness frightens for social distancing. A lockdown decade past now in solitary confine- me. I trot eight kilometers a few times nonetheless creates challenges of its ment is part of my integrity. As respon- a week and do a daily exercise program own after a certain amount of time. sibility for the serious transgressions of to maintain better-than-average physi- July 12: I had an earache, sore throat, my past, prison is not a good place no cal conditioning, because prison is not and slight fever. Since cells here are tri- matter how well a fellow strives to do a place to expect much help if one gets ple-digit incubators all summer long, I his time here. sick. That physical conditioning is a don’t recognize a fever as such unless it COVID-19 is a weird, weird neme- thing of the past now. lingers once the cell cools in the eve- sis once it invades your body. This is Every prisoner was offered two ning. This fever didn’t fade, but it wasn’t the saga of my battle with a virus and a COVID-19 tests. June 4 and July 6 too bad for a few days in the beginning. plea to friends in closing. From Coffield were my test dates. Most prisoners did July 14: A prisoner three cells away Prison in Texas. the testing, although some refused. No from me was one of several notified housing changes or other repercus- As COVID-19 overwhelmed the that their July 6 tests had been con- sions came with refusal. prison where I live, I observed that firmed positive. guards and prisoners alike disregarded Coffield has done two separate pre- July 15: Coffield had 752 confirmed cautionary lockdowns. The first was wearing masks as often as not. Even positive cases, according to the Texas from May 5 until May 10 after a pris- nurses wouldn’t wear masks, com- Tribune. Almost 20 percent of the pris- oner had tested positive at an outside plaining that they were “too hot” and on population in Texas’ largest prison. hospital. The second, started on June made it difficult to talk. Prisonocracy I wasn’t nor would I ever be included 17, has “restarted” with each new case provided everyone with masks, includ- in the numbers since my tests had both confirmed numerous times, and ing two cloth versions for each prison- been negative. er. I’d “modified” my masks to better remains in effect as I write this on July July 16: COVID-19 and I went to fit my face and added a big happy face 21—with no end in sight. war. An old killer stumbling through a to each one. I was the only prisoner Lockdown is the best way a prison practice of non-violence for years now who always wore a mask outside the administration can try minimizing a and a new killer with hundreds-of- cell on my housing line of forty-two communicable disease outbreak in an thousands of bodies already on the fellows. I’m also older than most pris- unsafe environment that doesn’t allow sidewalk in its campaign of mass destruction. Even as I engaged the battle, I wondered what would winning really be? A virus isn’t a living entity. The only thing we could fight over was my life. In that regard, ultimate stakes. Flaring symptoms The fever flared suddenly and raged like a wildfire for the duration of the conflict. My body burned constantly and yet I never produced even a drop of per- spiration. I’d drink sixty ounces of water several times each day and neither sweat nor pee. Gallons of water intake wouldn’t relieve my feeling dehydrated. Weird, weird scenario. (I remain convinced the water ultimately saved my life.) My senses of taste and smell disap- peared completely. Eyesight, hearing, and equilibrium crashed soon thereaf-

58 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 ter. I couldn’t breathe except in desper- humor, at least. It might sound crazy, That really stinks! Wait a minute, a ate gasps as my lungs largely ceased to but that became an important encour- swamp on Mercury looks just like a function. Something like a vise under agement for me in a war I was clearly prison cell in Texas. my sternum tightened and locked until losing. Laughing at COVID-19 and July 26: I’m sweating! Both the sheet I was no longer fighting as much as I how it was wreaking havoc on me that I sleep on and the concrete beneath was just waiting for the end. COVID- became an actual weapon. If this virus it are soaked in a small lake of perspira- 19 winning every round in every way. was going to kill me, I became deter- tion. My equilibrium is still off, but I Decisively! mined to laugh in its face until the stand and stagger my way to the sink. I Death would have been a relief. I Elders came for me. drink 60 ounces of water like a fam- lingered in misery. A Quaker prays. A Amazon delivers anything, any- ished camel on a desert odyssey. I turn stubborn fool refuses to surrender. where to anyone, but it can’t get a back towards the front of the cell. Time Those would remain my battle strate- steering gear repair kit to the hot side out! I steer to the toilet and stand there gy. As COVID-19 continued to torture of the sun. Maybe the drones melt try- peeing like a stallion. me, every joint and muscle in my body ing to get there. Or else they’re intelli- I’m quite ill, but I feel much better hurt. Standing up became a precarious gent enough to avoid this burn zone than I did. The fever is essentially exercise far beyond the vertigo I’ve entirely. I’d sure like to try rebuilding where it was in the beginning and I lived with for a lifetime. Falling down the steering gear, though. As Doris Day have a few commissary aspirin packets in a cage on concrete and steel soon left would say, “Que sera, sera.” left. My taste, smell, eyesight, hearing, me battered and bruised. A few carpal tunnel, cognition, and equilib- attempts would at least land me on the rium remain noticeably affected. For toilet facing the sink to fill and drain a Coffield had 752 how long? Sweating and peeing are water bottle a few times. Otherwise, I confirmed positive cases, nice, though. existed entirely on the floor as COVID- 19 kicked the life out of me. according to the Texas Did COVID-19 win? No. Did I win? I’m just glad to be alive. Two sick call requests I’d submitted Tribune. Almost 20 Plea one. COVID-19 is serious! It can early into the ordeal haven’t garnered a percent of the prison reply. Nurses had stopped coming onto hurt you to a point where you’d accept the housing lines except to deliver med- population in Texas’ death just for relief. It can kill you. ications ordered and abruptly leave. Or largest prison. Please wear your masks, wash your when a medical emergency broadcast hands, and practice all reasonable pre- on the radios required them to show up cautions. Any alleged leader who says somewhere. Guards started doing The steering wheel wobbled com- precautions are unnecessary is a fool, a counts by tapping on cell doors, and if pletely loose in my hands. I held it selfish soul, or worse. Ignore that non- a fellow showed any sign of movement momentarily. A sense of doom settled sense! Be blessed, be safe. the guard moved to the next cell. A few in, I released it and watched it drift Plea two. We stand at the precipice prisoners died, including one on the casually around the capsule. of advancing the light of equality in housing line next to mine. “Okay, God, I’m done. I’m a many ways right now. Us versus them Fever deliriums became a source of Quaker. I don’t even know how to be a is not how we win, it’s the problem relief and amusement from my miser- warrior anymore. COVID-19 wins. itself. We must stand together and able state. For a while, my cell was a Whatever, you drive. I’m just going to demand systemic change in the interest spacecraft orbiting too close to the sun. stare out the window and enjoy the of equality for one and all. We must I couldn’t steer the capsule away from scenery. You let me rejoin humanity stand together until that change hap- the heat. after I’d been a monster, God. Creation pens. Now is the time, friends. Stand as Guards I enjoy good rapport with and evolution are both beautiful! It’s one humanity, please. would offer encouragement. “Hang in been a wild ride. Thank you!” there, Quaker,” “Fight, brother, you The spacecraft crashed or melted. can beat this.” One peered into my cell It’s nowhere to be seen. I wake up in a Write to: and queried, “Man, are you going to swamp. On Mercury. Science can fig- Christopher Dye, 805217 live?” I laughed. “Do I look like I have ure that out eventually. My body feels 2661 FM 2054 any f-ing answers right now?” COVID- like it took the full impact of the crash. Tennessee Colony, Texas 75884 19 couldn’t beat my dark sense of I’m sprawled face down in a swamp. (No adhesive labels, white stationary only.)

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 59 History, Great Britain, and Julian Assange By Clifford D. Conner

Below are comments made at a ing names. Ellsberg pointed out that —Dianne Feeley for The Editors, September 8, 2020 press conference in when he leaked the Pentagon Papers, he Against the Current front of the British consulate in New York did not redact a single name. Comments by Clifford D. Conner City. Conner is an historian and author Assange’s lawyer has since informed the I am here at the British Consulate today of Jean Paul Marat: Tribune of the London court that in 2017 former Republican French Revolution and The Tragedy of to protest the incarceration and mistreat- U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher and ment of Julian Assange in Belmarsh Prison American Science: From Truman to Charles Johnson, a far-right political activ- Trump. The court in Britain is holding in Great Britain, to demand that you ist, relayed Trump’s offer to pardon Assange immediately release him, and above all, to hearings on the Trump administration’s if he provided the source for the hacking of request to have Julian Assange, the demand that you NOT extradite Julian Democratic National Committee emails. Assange to the United States. Australian editor, publisher and founder This was described to Assange as a “win- of WikiLeaks, extradited. Assange would win” situation for all involved. As a historian who has written exten- be tried in a Virginia court on 17 counts sively on the case of the most persecuted of espionage and one count of conspiracy journalist of the 18th century, Jean Paul to commit a computer crime. If convicted, Marat, I am in a position to make his- he could face up to 175 years in prison. History will certainly torical comparisons, and in my judge- In 2010 Assange had the audacity to absolve Julian Assange, ment, Julian Assange is both the most post a video showing a U.S. Apache heli- and it certainly will not unjustly persecuted journalist of the 21st century and arguably the most copter indiscriminately murdering a absolve his persecutors. dozen civilians and two Reuters’ jour- important journalist of the 21st century. nalists in the streets of Baghdad. Julian Assange is being hounded Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers A National Committee to Defend and harassed and threatened with life whistleblower, testified in court on Assange and Civil Liberties, chaired by in prison by the United States govern- September 16 that Assange could not Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, and ment because he dared to publish the receive a fair trial in the United States. Alice Walker has been set up. For further truth about American war crimes in When he pointed out that the Collateral information, go to: www.facebook.com/ Iraq and Afghanistan for the whole Murder video was clearly a war crime, CommitteeToDefendJulianAssange. The world to see. This persecution of Julian the prosecution maintained that Assange press conference was organized by the Assange is an assault on the fundamen- was not wanted by Washington for it but New York City Free Assange Committee: tal principles of journalistic freedom. for publishing documents without redact- NYCFreeAssange.org The sociopathic Donald Trump and his accomplice, Attorney General William Barr, are demanding that you deliver Assange to them to face false charges of espionage. Every honest observer in the world recognizes Trump and Barr as utterly incapable of acting in good faith. If they succeed in suppressing Julian Assange’s right to publish, it will be a devastating prece- dent for journalists and publishers of news everywhere—and above all, for the general public, who will lose access to the information necessary to main- taining a democratic society. If you allow yourselves to become co- conspirators in this crime, History will not look kindly on Great Britain for that. Julian Assange

60 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 slope to punishing any journalist the Trump administration chooses to deride as ‘fake news’.” And I stand with the ACLU, which said: “Any prosecution by the United States of Mr. Assange for WikiLeaks’ publishing operations would be unprec- edented and unconstitutional and would open the door to criminal inves- tigations of other news organizations.” History will not only record the names of the countries that collaborate in this travesty of justice, but also the names of the individuals—the judges, the prosecutors, the diplomats, and the politicians—who aid and abet the crime. If you, as individuals, choose to ally yourselves with the likes of Donald Last November, more than 60 doc- So, I join together today with human Trump and William Barr, be prepared tors from all over the world wrote an rights advocates and advocates of jour- for your names to be chained to theirs open letter to the British government nalistic freedom around the world. in infamy, in perpetuity. saying that Julian Assange’s health was I stand with the Committee to History will certainly absolve Julian so bad that he could die if he weren’t Protect Journalists, which declared: Assange, and it certainly will not moved from Belmarsh Prison, where “For the sake of press freedom, Julian absolve his persecutors. he was being held, to a hospital, imme- Assange must be defended.” diately. Your government chose to —Against the Current, November/ I stand with the Center for ignore that letter and he was not hospi- December 2020 talized, then or later. History will not Constitutional Rights, which said that look kindly on Great Britain for that. the attempt to prosecute Julian Assange https://againstthecurrent.org/history- is “a worrying step on the slippery great-britain-and-julian-assange/ Of all crimes against humanity, the most unforgivable is torture. No nation that perpetrates torture has the right to call itself civilized. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, has unequivocally character- ized Julian Assange’s treatment in Belmarsh Prison as torture. History will neither forget nor forgive that ter- rible moral transgression. Furthermore, the exposure of the widespread use of torture by the United States military and the CIA at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, at Guantánamo Bay, and at so-called “black sites” all over the world, absolutely disqualifies the United States from sitting in moral judgement of anybody. If you deliver Julian Assange into the hands of tor- turers, history will not look kindly on Great Britain for that.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 61 Julian’s Run By Mumia Abu-Jamal

For publishing documents that of the Black Panther Party and the trial embarrassed the United States, of the Panther 21, on trumped-up Assange, if convicted, faces over a cen- charges, also comes to memory. tury, in fact 175 years in prison. And, Julian Assange is a prisoner of a as a foreign national, the First political vendetta. Is he thus a political Amendment to the Constitution does prisoner? You damn betcha. not provide a defense. —Prisonradio.org, September 28, 2020 So, wait: The U.S. can invoke its criminal law for use worldwide; but the Bill of Rights doesn’t obtain to foreign- The “Populism” of ers? That sounds fair… The Iraq and Afghanistan wars are Pandemics now widely considered the biggest By Mumia Abu-Jamal blunders in U.S. foreign policy. For the For months now, the nation has wars of regime change floated into been battered by the ravages of being on a raft of lies and misinforma- Covid19: the coronavirus. Mumia Abu-Jamal tion. (Quick! Remember “weapons of mass destruction?”) How many thou- With millions of people infected, First things first: Who is Julian sands—and tens-of-thousands—died and over 190,000 people now dead, it Assange? And secondarily, why is his based on an American mirage. now turns out that from the very start, struggle of import to any of us? the U.S. President knew a great deal Assange, born in Townsville, about Covid19. Queensland, Australia in 1971, is the Julian Assange is a How? founder of the global online media ser- prisoner of a political China’s leader, XI Jinping, told him vice, known as WikiLeaks. As such, everything—in February 2020. Assange is a journalist. His group has vendetta. Is he thus a been a blockbuster, capturing and political prisoner? You For months now, President Trump passing on files and internal memos of called the emerging pandemic a “hoax,” and governments all around the world. damn betcha. heatedly blamed China and its leader, for not informing Americans about the disease. For this, he has been hounded, tar- geted and jailed, now serving over 50 Assange, through his journalistic He called it “Kung Flu”—remember? weeks for allegedly jumping bail in revelations, helped awaken generations Instead, it burned across the coun- Britain, to avoid extradition to the to the elements of Imperial wars. He try like wildfire, leaving sickness and U.S., which seeks to imprison him for wasn’t spying. Spies work for govern- death in its wake. violating the U.S. Espionage Act. ments and militaries. Journalists work Not since the influenza epidemic of As shown earlier, Assange, born to inform people; to broaden the 1918 has the nation seen such loss of life. reaches of democracy. into a British Commonwealth State And it’s not over; COVID-19 con- (Australia) is not an American, and In the not-so-recent past, the U.S. tinues to stalk the land, causing death owes it no fealty. But the U.S. Empire Empire used its tools of repression to and destruction all over the world. rules the world, not just U.S. territory. silence its opponents—even when they Sad to say, it ain’t over—by a long shot. On July 25, 2010, WikiLeaks pub- were allegedly U.S. citizens. lished on its website some 75,000 doc- The targeting of Julius and Ethel Write to Mumia at: uments on the Afghanistan War. These Rosenberg comes to mind; they were Smart Communications/PADOC documents presented a damning por- called spies, and subsequently electro- Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335 trait of the U.S. Empire at work. But cuted. The cases for Sacco and Venzetti, SCI Mahanoy when you attack the Empire, the immigrants from Italy, comes to mind. P.O. Box 33028 Empire strikes back. The targeting of the New York branch St. Petersburg, FL 33733

62 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6

Book Review Review The Tragedy of American Science A Review by Nayvin Gordon, M.D.

presented on how the financial elite, the conflicts of interest has a corrupting one percent, fund and create front effect on governmental agencies such groups, and think tanks. For example, as the Centers for Disease Control the Koch brothers, in their need to deny (CDC) and the Food and Drug the science of global warming, spent Administration (FDA). In the words of over $100 million on such groups as the a recent New York Times editorial, Cato Institute and the Heritage “The Food and Drug Administration is Foundation. The book is rich with clear no stranger to political interference. well documented examples from the Special interests have played as much food industry to the pharmaceutical of a role as actual data in the approval industry, from tobacco to lead, from of questionable cancer drugs and faulty nuclear power to contaminated water. medical devices for almost as long as the agency has existed.”2 Replacing the market Section two: the militarization of science economy with a socialist Here the author details the “militari- planned economy must zation of American science.” After World be accompanied by War Two the U.S. secretly hired Nazi scientists to help build a permanent The Tragedy of American Science: From Truman democratic control of military economy, assisted both overtly to Trump, By Clifford D. Conner production and and covertly by the RAND think tank. I highly recommend this short book, political life. The U.S. government subsidizes the mil- The Tragedy of American Science: From itary industrial complex by providing Truman to Trump, by Clifford D. more than half of all discretionary fed- Conner, 2020. This is an easy to read, The author presents excellent docu- eral spending on a war machine, which concise and well documented analysis mentation of crimes against the work- amounts to over $1 Trillion a year, or of how U.S. science has been affected by ing class and the environment. An $40,000 a second. This massive spending the capitalist economy since World War important part of the book clearly is designed to maintain U.S. imperial- Two. The author does not hold back reveals how the billionaires’ money has ism’s domination over the planet. This from placing the origin of the tragedy at also corrupted academic research to deadly spending is described in the book the feet of U.S. Imperialism. This is a create “the Academic Industrial as “science harnessed to the Chariot of must read for everyone starting with Complex.” The billionaires have given Destruction.” An exhaustive presenta- high school students. The book is bro- millions of dollars to think tanks whose tion of the ways in which science has ken into three major sections. propaganda floods the mass media and been militarized to increase its ability to academia with science deniers to cause death and destruction is detailed: Section one: the privatization of deceive and manipulate the people. From Hydrogen Bombs, to missiles, science Corporate money creates mass pro- from non-nuclear technologies of death, This section clearly demonstrates paganda, “founded on dishonesty and to the latest developments in autono- that the corporatization and privatiza- ignoble lies.” In the words of the mous weapons, and cyber warfare. tion of science is designed to serve pri- famous scientist Naomi Oreskes, “we This section concludes with the his- vate profit not public interests. The have broad evidence that the interests tory of the post-World War II CIA’s profit driven system involves scientific of funders often influence the work continued involvement in Nazi torture denial, deception, manipulation, fraud done” by scientists.1 Furthermore, this experimentation on humans. Evidence and collusion. Clear documentation is influence of money combined with of complicity in torture by the American

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 63 Psychology Association (APA) is syphilis and synthesize human insulin. The concluding chapter concerning revealed in a 2015 report. International China also eliminated the widespread the Covid-19 pandemic explains how geopolitical tensions and conflicts are parasitic disease schistosomiasis, and “the assault on science has put us all at increasing the possibility for war. The freed millions from drug addiction. As risk.” Failure to heed the years of warn- U.S. Empire is encountering more a result of socialist health science, Cuba ings from the World Health competition from countries around the has the lowest infant mortality rate in Organization (WHO) and scientific world. In response the U.S. military is the Western Hemisphere. More exam- experts about the increasing risk for a expanding its ability to militarize space, ples of the success of these revolutions new pandemic threatens us all. and use newer nuclear weapons. would have made this section richer. The author explains how the eco- Section three: science for human nomic system created the breeding needs ground for new viral epidemics, and We face “Socialism or how the for-profit healthcare system The final section concerns the Dystopia”—science for has resulted in massive cuts and col- important question: “Is a science for lapse of the public health infrastruc- human needs possible?” Here is a dis- life and public health or ture over the last four decades. cussion regarding replacing capitalism for war and destruction. with a system motivated by human The greed of the capitalist system set needs rather than private profits. The the stage for the Covid-19 pandemic. author discusses the Russian, Chinese The chapter ends with a list of essen- The lies and persistent attacks on the and Cuban Socialist revolutions and tial elements the author believes are science of infectious disease is part of their effects on science and social needed for the public to control and the deliberate plan to allow the virus to needs. The strengths and weaknesses of regain scientific integrity. Replacing spread through the country, sickening these revolutions are analyzed. I would the market economy with a socialist and killing millions. The relentless have preferred more examples of the planned economy must be accompa- defunding of oversight and regulations health and scientific successes resulting nied by democratic control of produc- of the CDC, EPA and FDA is also from these revolutions, particularly tion and political life. The historical detailed. during the first few decades after the experience of post capitalist societies The capitalist system is at the root of takeover of power, when the working gives relevant historical evidence which all our social problems. We face and peasant classes had a dominant “indicates that science motivated by “Socialism or Dystopia”—science for influence over political and economic human needs rather than private profit life and public health or for war and decisions. For example, China was the is not a utopian fantasy but a demon- destruction. first country in the world to conquer strable reality.” The need to replace the global eco- nomic system of competition and exploitation that serves private interest with one that is cooperative and serves the public interest, the common good, and social needs is more urgent than ever. Our lives depend on taking action now to fight for an egalitarian world. This book is an excellent reference and a must read for all. —September 23, 2020

1 “Tainted Money Taints Research,” Scientific American, September 2020, 2 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/opin- ion/trump-fda-coronavirus.html?auth=linked- google

64 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6

Letters to the Editors LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Dear Socialist Viewpoint, Recognize that we control the means of but enough to sell the sickness, have I really want to say, I’m very grateful production and deserve to live fruit- been taught to equate success with to be alive, and have ’hella love in my fully not just merely exist. money or their status in life, the need to heart and soul for people in general We don’t need a ruling class exploit- feel you are top human in life. and appreciate the community here ing and oppressing us. What we need is I know they will put this off on and recognize respect and acknowl- liberation from capitalism. When we being racist. But, how else can anyone edge the revolutionary communities work towards a real solution, symp- explain the election of the “virus” and community activists fighting for toms of a false sense of power like rac- named Trump? And now, like all change and justice. ism, sexism, child exploitation, pollu- plagues, the virus has white-Black and I wish I could participate in every tion and poverty will be under light of other—no special color and all of us action and movement to uplift people exposure to properly address. are infected now. and tear down oppression. Also, being It’s all tied together and derives One of the hardest things to admit considered an essential worker I’m from the capitalist quest for more. This when you make a mistake as big as this exposed to a lot, between COVID-19 is what we addicts refer to as the dis- one is to look inward and say, “I fucked and toxic materials at work there’s a lot ease of addiction. And we do recover. up!” Everyone around this “virus” of days I don’t feel well, not having a Peace and Power to the People! Trump has lost their self-respect. Look spleen makes me high risk. at them! Everyone around this virus —Johnny Gould, Follow @tandi- has lost any and all credibility, if they I still haven’t received any unem- no415 on Instagram ployment insurance for the month- had any to begin with. Even religious and-a-half I was off, so I have no choice leaders bow to the virus like it’s God. but to get up every day before sunrise The virus Trump has made cowards and hit the ground running. This makes out of most of Americans and even it very difficult for me to relax because worse, the scab has been pulled off for Dear Editors, I live in survival mode. And today I feel all to see, and they still bow down to Pharaoh Trump, the virus. sick. I hope it’s not this shit going The making of the virus named around, it could be from the toxic Pharaoh Trump —Major Tillery materials at work, either way on the day Let’s make America white again. I could either be relaxing or demon- Oh! I mean great again. Black people, strating, instead, I’m inside trying to Write to Major Tillery at: whether they admit it or not, believe recoup to do it all again next week. Smart Communications/PADOC they don’t deserve to be treated equal Major Tillery AM-9786 This is just another example of how with whites. SCI Chester the system of capitalism forces people to The proof: Look how many years we P.O. Box 33028 place the value of material wealth over have accepted being treated like shit, St. Petersburg, FL 33733 the value of life itself. I’m just venting begging for peo- and appreciating people for the work ple to recognize and sacrifices it takes to take care of our- our humanity. selves and families. I just wish some day The truth is, no we, as a society, could learn to cooperate one can take that and build each other up instead of com- humanity from peting and tearing each other down. us. You have to The reason it’s this way is to keep give that up. But the people from realizing the power in first you have to unity so we will keep participating in recognize that our own exploitation/destruction you deserve under the illusion that we can’t do any- respect like any thing about it. other human Together we are not powerless. We being. But white are the driving force of society. people—not all—

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 65 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

EDITORS Carole Seligman, Bonnie Weinstein

GRAPHIC & WEB DESIGN BUSINESS MANAGER Mykael Carole Seligman

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 revolutionaries who share a common political out- Marxism. Within this context the editors will consider for publication articles, reviews or comments. The editors may look stemming from the old Socialist Workers Party of James publish comments to accompany these articles. Photographs P. Cannon, and Socialist Action from 1984 through 1999. and cartoons will be appreciated. After being expelled from Socialist Action in 1999, we Socialist Viewpoint reprints articles circulated on the formed Socialist Workers Organization in an attempt to Internet when we deem them of interest to our readers. carry on the project of building a nucleus of a revolutionary No limitation will be placed on the author(s) use of their party true to the historic teachings and program of Marx, material in their subsequent work provided acknowledg- Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. ment is made of its publication in Socialist Viewpoint. The What we have found is that our numbers are insuffi- Socialist Viewpoint Publishing Association retains for itself rights to reprint articles as collections, educational bulletins, cient for this crucial project of party building. This prob- and similar uses. With the inclusion of an acknowledgment lem is not ours alone; it is a problem flowing from the and a notice of the copyright ownership, permission is division and fragmentation that has plagued the revolu- hereby given educators to duplicate essays for distribution tionary movement in capitalist America and the world gratis or for use in the classroom at cost. The author(s) since the 1980s. retain all other rights. What we intend to do is to continue to promote the idea Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of of building a revolutionary Marxist working class political Socialist Viewpoint. These views are expressed in editorials. party through the pages of Socialist Viewpoint magazine. We Socialist Viewpoint is printed by members of Local 583, continue to have an optimistic outlook about the revolu- Allied Printing Trades Council, San Francisco, California. tionary potential of the world working class to rule society in its own name—socialism. We are optimistic that the working class, united across borders, and acting in its own Special Introductory Subscription Offer! class interests can solve the devastating crises of war, pov- One year of Socialist Viewpoint for $20.00, erty, oppression, racism, sexism, and environmental Bargain rate: $35.00 for two years; destruction that capitalism is responsible for. (Regular rate: $30.00/International Rate: $50.00) We expect that revolutionaries from many different Make your check payable to: Socialist Viewpoint, & mail to: organizations, traditions, and backgrounds will respond to S o c i a l i s t V i e w p o i n t the opportunities that will arise, as workers resist the attacks 60 29th Street, #429 of the capitalist system and government, to build a new San Francisco, CA 94110 revolutionary political party. Just as we join with others to Please include your name, address, city and zip code. build every response to war and oppression, we look for- To help us know who our subscribers are, please tell us your occupation, union, school, ward to joining with others in the most important work of or organization. building a new mass revolutionary socialist workers’ party as it becomes possible to do so.

66 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 6 Jalil Muntaqim Released Former Black Panther, Jalil Muntaqim, had been in prison for more than 50 years By Ed Pilkington

We are thrilled to announce that former Panthers, quickly going on to join the convicted of the killing of a police offi- Black Panther and respected and beloved armed and clandestine BLA. He said cer in Omaha, Nebraska, marked his 50 elder, Jalil Muntaqim, was released on that in his many years behind bars he years in a prison cell in August. October 7, 2020 surpassing fifty years in had matured from the revolutionary Others have been released on parole prison since this article was writte. position that he adopted in 1971, in recent months. The surviving seven A former Black Panther who has though he remained committed to the members of the Move 9, Black libera- been in prison for almost half-a-centu- cause of racial equality and justice. tion and environmental radicals from ry has finally won his decades-long “I now take the ‘r’ off the word and Philadelphia who were arrested follow- battle for freedom after a New York make it ‘evolutionary’,” he said. ing a police siege of their communal parole board ordered his release. “Revolution for me is the evolutionary home in 1978, were all released on Jalil Muntaqim, AKA Anthony process of building a higher level of parole over the past two years. Bottom, has been in unbroken custody consciousness in society at large. I’m One of the seven, Delbert Africa, for more than 49 years having been an evolutionary revolutionary.” died in June just five months after he arrested and later convicted of the 1971 Muntaqim’s release has been viru- was set free. murders of two police officers in Harlem. lently opposed by the New York police Muntaqim had two co-defendants Under the terms of his parole he must union, the PBA, and by the widow of at trial for the killings of the police offi- be released from the maximum-security one of the murdered police officers, cers in Harlem, when they each received Sullivan correctional facility in upstate Diane Piagentini. In a statement she sentences of 25 years to life. Albert New York by October 20. said: “We are heartbroken to see “Nuh” Washington died in prison in At a hearing earlier this month—at another of Joe’s killer set free by poli- 2000, and Herman Bell was released on least his tenth such panel appearance tics. But more than anything else, we parole in April 2018. are angry.” since he became eligible for parole in —The Guardian, September 24, 1998—Muntaqim expressed his Muntaqim was one of a dwindling 2020 remorse for the killings of Joseph number of Black liberation radicals who Piagentini and Waverly Jones. The were incarcerated during the heyday of https://news.yahoo.com/former- officers had answered what they the Black Panthers and who have been Black-panther-released- believed was a domestic dispute call locked up ever since. Edward Poindexter, more-122912231.html but were then ambushed and shot. The two parole commissioners on the panel accepted his expression of remorse as genuine. Muntaqim, 68, was the subject of a Guardian profile in 2018 as part of a series that looked at Black liberation radicals incarcerated for decades in the wake of political and racial turbulence in the late 1960s and ’70s. At the time of the Harlem incident he was a clan- destine member of the underground wing of the Panthers, the Black Liberation Army. In the course of a three-hour filmed interview with the Guardian in Sullivan, Muntaqim described how he was only 18-years-old when he signed up for the Jalil Muntaqim, AKA Anthony Bottom was in prison for more than 50 years.

Vol. 20, No. 6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 67 Red dots mark coastal “dead zones” where oxygen has plummeted to two milligrams per liter or less. Blue areas in the open ocean have the same low-oxygen levels. Source: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Read The Ocean is Losing Its Breath on page 44.

On the Front Cover: Climate protest in Australia, 2020. s Read Cruelty of Capitalism on page 4.

The famous wall dividing Charborough House and its estate from the open countryside beyond. CREDIT: John Palmer/CC Artwork by Kevin “Rashid” Johnson Read How the Read A Very English Theft on page 28. Pigs Abuse “Gang” Labels on page 20. « « « Attention Prison Mail Room: « « « Prisoners retain their free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That means you cannot legally suppress the expression and consideration of ideas. Prison walls do not form a barrier separating prisoners from the protection of the Constitution, according to the Turner v. Safley ruling. [482 U.S. 78, 107 Sct 2245 (1987)] If you exclude printed matter on an improper basis, or give a false pretext or rationale for its exclusion, because of the ideas expressed in it, you are breaking the law. The prisoner denied access to material he wants to read can bring a civil rights lawsuit against you with cause for seeking punitive damages. In the case of Police Department Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 95, 92 Sct 2286, 2290 (1972) the court found that “[A]bove all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, subject matter or content.”