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H The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. —Karl Marx H SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 VOL. 20 NO. 5

Renters facing risk of evictions and their supporters protest as they demand developer Geoffrey Palmer to cancel their rent on July 31, 2020 in Los Angeles. Read All Evictions are Violent on page 29. On the Front Cover: s Screen shot of New York Times video report on Port- land protest showing “Wall of Moms” carrying banner declaring "No War but Class War," July 23, 2020. Read Symptoms of Terminal Capitalism, on page 4.

Wrecked framework of the Museum of Science and Industry in Hiro- shima, Japan. This is how it appeared shortly after the dropping of the Larkspur, CA — August 2, 2020: Over 700 demonstrators march down Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Larkspur, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 2, first atomic bomb, on August 6, 1945. (Shutterstock) Read Another Symptoms of Terminal Capitalism - Page 4 Hiroshima is Coming on page 10. 2020, from the Larkspur Ferry parking lot to the state prison closing down Sir Francis Drake Blvd to road traffic. Read 30 U.S. Prisons: Mass Releases Demanded on page 57. Year of the Plague - Page 6 « « « Attention Prison Mail Room: « « « The Attack on Science - Page 14 - Page 19 Prisoners retain their free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That means you cannot Huge New Military Budget 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.” Vote Socialist in 2020

sustainable energy and seizing the oil and coal companies to stop fossil fuel pollution, are urgent steps needed to reverse climate change. Ultimately, only the socialist reorganization of society can assure the future of the people and the planet. 3. End racism, police brutality, mass incar- ceration-Pay reparations to the African American community. Mass incarcera- tion and racist policing are symptomatic of the 400 years of brutal repression meted out to African-descended peoples in the U.S. and the genocide committed Gloria La Riva against the Native nations. Reparations Sunil Freeman must be paid to the African American and Gloria La Riva for President Native communities! More than 2.2 mil- 6. Honor Native treaties. Free Leonard lion people are behind bars in the largest Peltier now. Both major parties have Longtime San Francisco labor and continued to allow the destruction of antiwar activist prison complex in the world. End mass incarceration of oppressed and all work- Native lands by mining and corporate agricultural interests in blatant disre- Sunil Freeman for Vice President ing class people. Fully prosecute all acts of police brutality and violence. Free gard of indigenous sovereign rights. Anti-racist and disability rights Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal and 33% of Native children live in poverty advocate all political prisoners! and many of America’s poorest coun- ties are reservations. The crisis of Socialist Campaign Program 4. Full rights for all immigrants. Abolish all missing and murdered Indigenous 1. Make the essentials of life into consti- anti-immigrant laws. Stop the raids and women and the over-incarceration of tutional rights. The U.S. has more deportations and demonization of immi- Native peoples shows the bankruptcy than enough so that all the essentials of grants. Shut down ICE and the concentra- of capitalism from its earliest incep- life—food, housing, water, education, tion camps and reunite families. The gov- tion in the Americas until today. healthcare and a job or basic income ernment’s war on immigrants must end. 7. Full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexu- can be guaranteed rights—rather than The border wall must be dismantled. al, transgender and queer people. distributed only for profit. Create a Amnesty and citizenship for those without Fight back against anti-LGBTQ dis- completely free and public healthcare documents. Full rights for all! crimination and violence. Defend system. Make education free—cancel 5. Shut down all U.S. military bases marriage equality. Full equality in all all student debt. Fully fund rebuilding around the world—bring all the matters governed by civil law, includ- of the infrastructure in transport, water troops, planes and ships home. U.S. ing employment, housing, healthcare and utility systems. Stop all foreclo- foreign policy uses the pretext of and education. No to “religious sures and evictions. End all discrimina- national security to enforce the impe- exemption” laws that allow discrimi- tion based on ability/disability. rialist interests of the biggest banks nation against LGBTQ people! 2. For the Earth to live, capitalism must and corporations. That is what is 8. Equality for women and free, safe, be replaced by a socialist system. behind the endless wars and occupa- legal abortion on demand. Stop the Global warming, pollution, acidified tions. Use the $1 trillion military bud- attack on women’s reproductive rights and depleted oceans, fracking, critical get instead to provide for people’s and defend Roe v. Wade. Women must drought, plastics choking the seas, needs here and worldwide. Abolish have the fundamental right to choose & nuclear weapons and waste—it is clear nuclear weapons. Stop U.S. aid to control their own bodies. Women still that capitalism and production for Israel. Self-determination for the earn 22 percent less than men, and the profit are destroying the planet and Palestinian people, including the right gap is even more severe for Black and threatening all life. The crisis is already of return. End the U.S. blockade of Latina women. Close the wage gap and here, with the most vulnerable and Cuba and sanctions against Venezuela, end the gender division of labor. oppressed areas of the U.S. and Global Iran and all countries. Independence South bearing the brunt. Using truly for Puerto Rico and cancel its debt! Continued on page 67

2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 SocialistViewpointSOCIALIST VIEWPOINT September/October 2020 Vol. 20, No. 5 www.socialistviewpoint.org CONTENTS email: [email protected] (415) 824-8730 U.S. and World Politics Police Don’t Belong in the Labor Movement . . . .42 Vote Socialist in 2020 ...... 2 By Kim Kelly Symptoms of Terminal Capitalism ...... 4 Secret Police Deployed in Portland ...... 44 By Bonnie Weinstein By Jake Johnson Year of the Plague ...... 6 Military’s Role in Civil Unrest ...... 46 By Chris Kinder By Jeff Paterson Another Hiroshima is Coming ...... 10 Dictatorship of (White) Capital ...... 47 By John Pilger By Glen Ford The Attack on Science ...... 14 Immigrants are Dying in Detention ...... 49 By Dr. Nayvin Gordon By Bianca Sierra Wolff and Lisa Knox When America Bombed Itself ...... 17 UK Compensation to Slave Traders ...... 50 By Joshua Wheeler By Jack Peat Huge New Military Budget ...... 19 Palestinian Day of Rage ...... 50 By Glen Greenwald By Jessica Corbett Inhumane at Any Time ...... 21 How Israel Shaped U.S. Policing ...... 52 By Eoin Higgins By Sheren Khalel The Two-Headed Hydra ...... 22 By Behrooz Ghamari Tabrizi Environment The Disproportionate Blues ...... 25 Microplastics Falling from the Sky ...... 56 By Kevin Cooper By Scott Hershberger Remaking the World ...... 27 By Amna A. Akbar Incarceration Nation U.S. Prisons: Mass Releases Demanded! ...... 57 “All Evictions are Violent” ...... 29 By Chris Kinder By Emma Ockerman Racism and Murder Against Black Lives ...... 58 Cell Phones, Not Guns in Today’s Protest Movement .30 By Shakaboona By Tina Jenkins-Bell No Slavery! No Exceptions! ...... 61 Suicide or Lynching? ...... 32 By Shaka Shakur By Ezra Brain Punished for Being Sick at San Quentin ...... 62 “Please Forgive Me” ...... 34 By Juan Moreno Haines By Abby Zimet The Perils of Reform ...... 63 Breonna Taylor: Victim of Gentrification . . . . . 35 By Mumia Abu-Jamal By Phillip M. Bailey and Tessa Duvall Children of the Corn ...... 64 Portland Mom Speaks Out! ...... 37 By Mumia Abu-Jamal Statement by Maureen Healy America: Rogue Nation? ...... 64 Freedom or Freedom of Assembly? ...... 38 By Mumia Abu-Jamal By Daniel Villarreal Portland Dads with Leaf Blowers ...... 39 ...... 65 By Chris Walker Letters to the Editors Terror Tactics in Portland ...... 40 Eight Minutes Forty-Six Seconds ...... 67 By Kenn Orphan By Rickie Richburg

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Vol.Vol.Vol. 20, 20,3, No.No. 255 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 3

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

Symptoms of Terminal Capitalism It’s time to pull the plug By Bonnie Weinstein

The President of the United States That’s what defines capitalist par- Meanwhile, we are experiencing a has sent armed Federal Police agents ties—their unequivocal support of capi- huge increase in COVID-19 infections, into cities and threatens to send them talism. That’s why Democrats over- deaths and an ever-increasing rate of across the country to suppress the mas- whelmingly passed the new Pentagon unemployment with no end in sight. sive protests against police violence in budget—a $740 billion “defense” bill as The Democratic Party has proven response to the murder of George Floyd part of the 2021 Appropriations Minibus itself incapable of solving even the sim- and many other Black men and women. which includes four Fiscal Year 2021 plest tasks of overriding Trump’s indif- On July 17, 2020, after Trump sent spending bills: State-Foreign Operations, ference to the needs of those on the bat- Federal troops to Portland, Oregon to Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA, tlefront of this pandemic and making suppress the ongoing protests there, Interior-Environment, and Military sure the government is providing enough Nancy Pelosi tweeted: Construction and Veterans Affairs.1 Personal Protective Equipment to hospi- “Unidentified stormtroopers. In a July 31, 2020 article in Common tals and ensuring enough testing to dis- Unmarked cars. Kidnapping pro- Dreams titled, “Inhumane at Any Time,” cover the real scope of the infection rate. testers and causing severe injuries in by Eoin Higgins about the House approv- Both parties have proven incapable response to graffiti. These are not al of a new $740 billion Pentagon budget: of slowing down the virus, stopping the actions of a democratic republic. @DHSgov’s actions in Portland “The bill passed the House on police murders, saving public educa- undermine its mission. Trump and Friday by a 217 to 197 margin….Only tion, providing universal healthcare, his stormtroopers must be stopped.” 12 Democrats voted against the mea- reducing homelessness, poverty, unem- sure while 217 voted in favor. … ployment, illegal detention of undocu- She sounds horrified but makes no House Democrats have decided to mented adults and children and the mention of what she and the rest of the once again couple passage of a bill that deterioration of our infrastructure. Democratic Party are going to do about fuels militarism abroad with bills that it—because they will do nothing—as fund our priorities at home, forfeiting While some capitalists claim they usual. That’s because they support cap- the ability to challenge the former are opposed to all these injustices both italism more than they dislike Trump. without undermining the latter.” capitalist parties and the class they rep- resent are responsible for them all. What this government—both Democrats and Republicans togeth- er—have been able to carry out is more military and police repression at home and abroad while boosting the profits of U.S. corporations. Competition or cooperation? In the face of the COVID-19 virus, instead of collaborating with scientists and researchers all over the world to find a cure or vaccine, they encourage secrecy so that U.S. pharmaceutical cor- porations will profit the most if they do come up with something useful. And if some other country seeks scientific information that might help them find a cure—it’s called criminal espionage.

4 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 Meanwhile, the U.S. companies in property of the rich and to keep us have not been able to make ends meet. search of a vaccine (and profits) have enslaved and in their service on the For the vast majority of workers of the found a way to make billions before job—if we’re lucky enough to have a job. world, capitalism has never been great! they even develop one. Its aim is to keep the entire world’s The way forward, cooperation vs. According to a July 25, 2020 New working class working for as little competition York Times article by David Gelles and money as they can possibly get away Jesse Drucker titled, “Corporate with while ensuring ever-increasing In order to survive capitalism’s pan- Insiders Pocket $1 Billion in Rush for profits for themselves. demic of disease and police and mili- Coronavirus Vaccine:” tary repression, we, the world’s work- Their problem is, however, that they ing class, are going to have to find a way “Well-timed stock bets have gen- can’t keep squeezing workers for to cooperate with each other to end erated big profits for senior execu- money we don’t have. Even the most capitalism and its unnecessary waste of tives and board members at compa- powerful capitalists can’t get blood out nies developing vaccines and treat- human life and resources in order to of a stone! And so, they’re coming to keep a tiny group of rich people rich. ment. …Executives at a long list of an end and risking the survival of companies have reaped seven- or humankind as well. We need to organize eight-figure profits thanks to their work on coronavirus vaccines and The question is, will we end? Or will We need to build our own demo- treatments. …The race is on to we end capitalism? cratic organizations independent of the develop a coronavirus vaccine, and parties of the capitalist class. We need some companies and investors are Terminal capitalism to develop our own program of how to betting that the winners stand to The profit motive inevitably forces make the world better for everyone. earn vast profits from selling hun- capitalists to continuously compete with Only we workers have the power and dreds-of-millions—or even bil- each other for the greatest amount of the knowhow to actually achieve this. lions—of doses to a desperate public. profits they can squeezefrom the work- We do the work, why not make the Across the pharmaceutical and med- ing class. They must compete for decisions on what work we need to do, ical industries, senior executives and resources and the labor power needed to and how to equally distribute the board members are capitalizing on extract them and turn them into profit. wealth our work produces? that dynamic. They are making mil- Without labor power there is no profit. lions of dollars after announcing positive developments, including But capitalism has finally extracted The worker’s movement must support from the government, in more resources than they can profit remain independent of capitalists their efforts to fight Covid-19. After from. It’s come to the end of the road We can’t let capitalists have a say in such announcements, insiders from and now that road is being cut short by our independent democratic structures, at least 11 companies—most of them a pandemic. our demands, or our strategy for victo- smaller firms whose fortunes often ry. That must be up to us, the entire hinge on the success or failure of a There’s a glut in oil. They can’t even working class, to decide democratically single drug—have sold shares worth give it away. And no one has money to well over $1 billion since March…” spend on new trinkets and gadgets. and in our own interests—because we are the majority. We do the work. Hundreds-of-millions have no Capitalism is a dictatorship of the money for rent or utilities and even less The fight against capitalism is the wealthy over the poor money for food. The stores are going ultimate life and death struggle if Instead of prioritizing the world’s out of business because no one has humanity is to survive. health and wellbeing, the capitalists money to spend. And, of course, this We must build the unity and soli- invest in war so they can continue to leads to even more unemployment and darity capable of stopping capitalist fund the weapons production indus- to a speedier, downward, spiral-to-the- war, to prevent their use of nuclear tries and rule the world. death for capitalism. weapons, to prevent the military and Capitalism must deny even the Unemployment, starvation, homeless- police dictatorship of our communities most basic necessities of life for the ness is rampant everywhere except in the and our workplaces, and help to free overwhelming majority of humanity in most affluent little pockets of the world. the whole world that capitalism has enslaved for centuries. order to increase profits and maintain The standard of living of workers its dominion. has been going down steadily every- It will take great organizational That’s what the military and the where. Even in the best of times, most efforts to unite the world’s working police are for—to protect the wealth and workers—especially workers of color— Continued on page 10

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 5 Year of the Plague The danger of war By Chris Kinder

There have been as many plagues as ize leftists and Black Lives Matter protes- million new cases in the U.S., for a total wars in history, yet always plagues and tors of police brutality and murder. now of over five million! All of Europe wars take people equally by surprise. “The virus will just go away” gained slightly less than 300,000 in July. Japan had under 22,000, and —Albert Camus While the ruling capitalist class South Korea had 1,400. The U.S. also might not be unanimous for Trump There are many dangers facing work- displayed its racist structure: Black and (he’s made lots of enemies,) he is still ing people and poor in the U.S. in 2020. Latinos contracted the virus at roughly their chief executive, despite his obvious While the Covid-19 pandemic is the cur- three times the rate of whites. crimes. And when it comes to the virus, rent, and very serious condition affecting Meanwhile China, the country where his ignorance is showing to an extreme. all of us, the real plague is capitalism. the virus may have started, conquered His blundering performance has This plague is world-wide, but the domi- it months ago in fast community emerged as a clear threat to his reelec- nant imperialist power, the U.S., is lead- action, and now has only some small tion, along with the necessary shut- ing the pack in the downward spiral of localized cases. China, after some ini- down of the economy, which he ordered exploitation, racist oppression and tial missteps, used shut-downs where way too late. Besides ordering a prema- impoverishment of the masses. needed, and promoted unity of pur- ture reopening of business, thus encour- The story begins with the U.S., already pose across the country.1 in the grip of a huge wealth gap between aging the population to defy protective the working masses and the billionaire measures, such as wearing masks, etc., Trump has a problem club at the top of the ruling class, being Trump insisted that the virus “will just Largely because of his buffoonish saddled with a know-nothing moronic go away!” And—in what is seen as the mishandling of a deadly virus, and with idiot and white supremacist in the White stupidest statement ever made by any his poll numbers dropping, Trump’s House. Installed in a rigged election in president he said—“worried about the policies have threatened the healthcare 2016, this president has secured the sup- virus? Just stop the testing,” (a para- of millions by strangling the Affordable port of the very rich with tax breaks, and phrase, but yes, he said that.) Care Act; and this during a pandemic! conned a section of the white population Now, in the second half of 2020, the This no-nothing has proposed delay- into supporting him, including by pro- U.S. has by far the most uncontrolled ing the election, something he has no moting white racists, many of whom epidemic of any country in the world. authority to do. He also questioned have mobilized in armed bands to terror- In the past month (July,) there were 1.9 whether he would leave upon losing the election. Is he grasping at straws to save his re-electability? Perhaps, but this serial cheater has some plans. First of these is: rig the election. Trump has the well-established Republican Party voter suppression machine to fall back on. This conspiracy dates back to the “Southern Strategy,” in which Republicans took over from the Democratic Party “Dixiecrats” in the South after the successes of the Civil Rights movement. Since then, the GOP has focused on seizing statehouses, and rigging elections with intense gerryman- dering, which has resulted in Republican- controlled states ready to expand use of this rigging. This achieved the election of G.W. Bush over Al Gore in 2000, in which U.S. Far East Air Forces Bomber Command bomb North Korean enemy supply centers. Over the course Gore gave up the fight oh so conveniently. of the Korean War, B-29s flew 20,000 sorties. (Shutterstock).

6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 The election-rigging miasma Birth of a Nation, a three-hour long Sound familiar? As Blacks were sys- Next came a whole slew of tech- movie, pioneered never-before used tematically prevented from voting in niques going well beyond the “hanging cinematic techniques to send out its this period, the idea that they were chad” nonsense in Florida. There are racist message. The plot involved fraudulent voters was pumped into false accusations of fraudulent voting, depiction of two families, allegedly racist peoples’ consciousness. Today’s which have been used to require i.d. based on real people, who were on voter suppression—including its which is often expensive for poor peo- opposite sides in the Civil War, but “Proud Boy” and “Boogaloo” thugs, ple, and not really necessary. Kansas who come together in the cause of assertions of fraudulent ballots, and Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who white supremacy. In the course of the current obliteration of the rights of launched the “cross check” plan to elim- movie, images of Blacks who were Black voters—dates back to the KKK, inate voters who allegedly voted twice in elected to state legislatures in the earli- its “Aryan” movie, and Reconstruction. different states, and fraudulently caused est years of Reconstruction after the millions of voters to be removed from war, behaving in stereotypical manners The U.S. is not a democracy the rolls because they had the same such as drinking beer, putting feet up That the U.S. is not a democracy is name as someone in another state. on desks, and eating fried chicken. It amply illustrated by an article in also shows Blacks stuffing ballot boxes, Newsweek by Colorado Senator Tim Then there is the “people who have and whites not being allowed to vote! Worth, and Tom Rogers, a journalist, moved” scam. Officials send a postcard titled, “How Trump Could Lose the which looks like junk mail, and if the Election—And still Remain President.” recipient fails to reply, then “poof” The scenario starts with Trump losing their right to vote is gone, without any ...the U.S., is leading the the popular vote to Biden, including in notice that they are no longer regis- pack in the downward the swing states. Trump then declares tered. Similar idea with mail-in ballots: spiral of exploitation, that the election was rigged, and you request one, and it never arrives. declares that fraudulent mail-in bal- Or maybe it is rejected because of racist oppression and lots, and Chinese hacking of the elec- minor complaints, such as the signa- impoverishment of tion are responsible. Trump then ture doesn’t match, or the boxes were the masses... invokes emergency powers and not filled in properly.2 demands an investigation, the legal See the KKK about those “fraudu- justification for which has already been lent ballot” lies Racism ran rampant in the early developed by Attorney General Barr. This accusation is widely used to jus- 20th century The investigation then ticks down to tify voter suppression, such as removing The film castigates Blacks who pur- December 14th, the date each state’s Blacks and Latinos from the rolls by sue white women, and city officials Electoral College electors must be various means, and sabotaging mail-in passing laws to allow inter-racial mar- appointed. This is what the Supreme balloting, and strangling the Post Office riage. A Black man is shown perusing a Court harped on in Bush v. Gore, to pre- to make it unable to handle mail-in bal- white woman, who kills herself to avoid vent further counting of Florida ballots. lots. There is no evidence for fraudulent him, and shows his subsequent lynch- Republican-controlled swing states then ballots, yet they keep popping up in the ing by the Klan. Toward the end, the refuse to allow the Electoral College del- dialogue of the liar-in-chief and his film shows two families, former egates to be certified until the “investiga- cohorts. What is the deep source of this Confederates and Union supporters, tion” is completed. The Democrats will particular lie? Look no further than the coming together around white suprem- have by then have filed a legal action Ku Klux Klan, and its modern-day apes. acy. An intertitle says, “The former demanding that the pro-Biden delegates In 1915, more than 100 years ago, enemies of North and South are united be certified in the swing states. The issue the Klan produced a silent movie called again in common defense of their then goes to the Supreme Court, which Birth of a Nation. This was in the era just Aryan birthright.” (emphasis mine) may not rule for the Republicans, but after the official inauguration of U.S. The final scene shows an election instead could demand that the Electoral imperialism, with the Spanish-American day in which hooded KKK members College vote takes place. War, and the brutal colonization of the mobilize successfully to intimidate and This unresolved clash could, accord- Philippines. The early decades of the deter Blacks from voting. This film ing to the Constitution, result in the 20th Century represent perhaps the prompted a big revival of the Klan, decision being sent to the House of most racist period in U.S. history. South and North.3 Representatives, which must vote on

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 7 the basis of one state, one vote. With 26 foreign policy of the United States, Pacific theater on hold, for a war to states remaining in Republican con- from the Middle Eastern/European prevent revolution in China. U.S. trol, and only 24 states under sphere to Asia, principally the coun- troops rebelled against this in mass ral- Democratic control, Trump could tries bordering on the East and South lies demanding to be sent home. The retain the presidency. “Is this nuts? Is it China Seas. Trump is now expanding Revolution succeeded in China in possible? Yes, given who and what on this playbook, by sending warships 1949, but the U.S. never gave up its Trump and Barr are, it may well be.”4 into the South China Sea, which the goal of military control of the Pacific. U.S. has no business being in, and by The danger of war from Trump, enlarging the military budget, already Background to the cold war: Korea and Democrats bloated beyond belief, to build more The little-known (outside of Korea) While this possibility of election steal- war ships for this purpose. Trump is history of the Korean experience at the ing is real, it is just one example of how using U.S. imperialism to his personal end of World War II demonstrates the the U.S., born in state’s-rights for slave- advantage, which is the kind of thing U.S. designs graphically. Soon after the holders, is not a democracy. A bigger all emperors and dictators do. Japanese abandoned their 40-year col- danger right now might be war. If Trump onization of Korea, resistance forces is not convinced that he can win through who had been fighting for Korean anti-democratic surreptitious tactics While this possibility independence began to set up thou- such as outlined above, he might just sands of revolutionary committees start a war. Despite his low poll numbers of election stealing is throughout Korea. Communists were currently, a war could reverse that. A real, it is just one the majority in these committees, but major advantage to that is that the example of how the U.S., other forces were also involved. A rep- Democratic party is just as, if not more, resentative assembly of these commit- warmongering than the Republicans. born in state’s-rights for tees representing all of Korea met in There may well be objections to, and slave-holders, is not Seoul on September 6th, set up a protests against such an action, just as a democracy. Peoples Republic, and declared a pro- there was against the Iraq War of G.W. gram, including unification, land Bush who is remembered as the “village reform, ousting the Japanese collabo- idiot,” who had gone missing from a The “pivot” to Asia dates back to rators, wide extension of suffrage, and town in Texas in 2003. Over ten million when the U.S. took over British, and the formation of cooperatives. hit the streets around the world, includ- European aspirations to colonize China.5 “If the Peoples Republic exhibited ing a huge protest of a quarter-of-a- During World War II, the U.S. saw the radical tendencies, it only reflected million in San Francisco. The slogans “Pacific Theater” as part of its expan- with reasonable accuracy the views of included “Earth to Bush, No Iraq War!” sionist property in the New American the Korean majority”—so said a mem- The war went ahead as planned. Century (although the document by that ber of the soon to be established U.S. name had yet to be written.) 6 The Democrats would be disarmed by military government of Korea. At the end of the war, after the hor- such an action by Trump, and the right The U.S. moves in wing would be mobilized. Trump is rific and inexcusable atomic bombings In agreements made at Cairo, Yalta already laying the basis for a shooting war of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—which and Potsdam by the allies during the on China by escalating a cold war attack were bombed to declare to the Soviet war, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were with sanctions, bans on Chinese-based Union that there would be U.S. control to occupy South and North Korea electronic outfits, such as Huawei, “Tik over the Pacific—the U.S. ruling class respectively after the war, dividing the Tok” and now “WeChat,” and especially was already gunning for a war against country at the 38th parallel. This was denying the visas of Chinese graduate the Chinese resistance forces who had not meant to be permanent; it was a step students in U.S. universities. Joe Biden been the only real fighters against the toward Korean unified independence. It and the Democrats are unable to object to Japanese in China. The U.S. wanted to did not say that the occupying partners any of this, because of their well-estab- support the Kuomintang Chinese would set up governments on their sec- lished complicity with U.S. imperialism. Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek, who had collaborated with the Japanese tions. But the U.S. had other plans. The “pivot” to Asia is nothing new against the communist revolutionaries, Just days after the Peoples Republic Democratic President Barack and who were now facing two armies was formed, U.S. troops landed and set Obama announced a “pivot” to Asia in of revolutionary resistors. To do so, the up their military government. The first 2012. This represented a shift in the U.S. tried to keep its troops in the act of this “government” was to reject

8 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 the legitimacy of the Peoples Republic, lies. The U.S. Secretary of State Dean with a landing at Inchon, and drive and instead proclaim itself as the only Acheson spilled the beans when he said them back to the 38th parallel. government of Korea. These military that, “North Korea attacked without South Korean troops were put officials had no Korean speakers among warning [after a] provocation.” The under U.S. command, and one of the them. They based their support on big war started at the time that the Chinese most vicious bombing campaigns in landlords, Japanese collaborators, and were getting set to liberate Formosa, world history leveled every structure in other rightists. Liberals refused to par- which had been occupied by the reac- the North, to the point that U.S. pilots ticipate. A puppet named Syngman tionary Kuomintang of Chiang Kai- complained: there weren’t any more Rhee was brought in from the U.S., shek, which had been unceremoniously targets for them to bomb! Thirty to 40 where he had lived for 37 years, as the driven out of mainland China. Formosa percent of Koreans in the North were head of this fictional state. had been promised to the Chinese in killed, and people were living in caves.8 international agreements including the A set-up for war U.S., but that was then for the imperial- U.S. troops invaded almost to the Not so the Soviets. In the North, the ists. Now Formosa was targeted for Yalu River border with China, at which Russians stayed in the background, “protection” against the communists.7 point the Chinese, well drilled in while supporting the Peoples Republic, opposing imperialists, entered the war, and working with Kim Il-Sung, a lead- and drove the U.S. back to the 38th ing Korean Communist, and a leader As the U.S. spreads parallel. MacArthur had wanted to take of the anti-Japanese resistance over all the war into China, and atom bombs Korea. Kim’s government carried out a barbarism throughout were proposed to be used against the major land reform in 1946, which the world, and Trump Chinese advance. solidified support for the government. infects everything just “Pivot to Asia:” more Two years later, in 1948, the U.S. like the plague, the left imperialist crimes puppet government in the South car- The much more well-known ried out a fraudulent “land reform” that must come to grips with American War in Vietnam was in many required payment and left big landlords the fact that there is no ways an updated re-run of the “Korean in power to evict small farmers from War.” Napalm was tried out in Korea their plots. Two rebellions broke out in electoral solution to the and used massively in Vietnam. Also the same year. Villages were razed and imperialism, racism note the parallel of the U.S. denial of civil liberties were abolished in their and exploitation of the country wide elections, and thus the wake. Also, the U.S. sabotaged the sabotage of Vietnam reunification, as Korean unity negotiations between the ruling class. they knew that Ho Chi Minh would win U.S. and the Soviets and forced elec- the vote in a landslide. The resistance- tions to be held separately. In the South, hardened Vietnamese were also used to the election was rigged in Rhee’s favor. War atrocities living underground, not so much caves, Only the rightists supported this, and all As the war began in 1950, thousands but tunnels, which date back to the of these measures sealed an anti-Ameri- of members of the afore-mentioned resistance against French imperialism. can sentiment throughout the South. committees were taken out and shot in Both U.S. capitalist parties are tied into The Rhee government was hated, and the South. But that didn’t stop the these crimes of imperialism. its prisons were stuffed with the sup- Koreans. As the North invaded the porters of the original committees South, many soldiers for the South As the U.S. spreads barbarism formed right after World War II. deserted to their comrades, with whom throughout the world, and Trump they had fought in the resistance. And infects everything just like the plague, The cold war became hot in Korea only about ten percent of the people in the left must come to grips with the fact Korea shows how the cold war could Seoul evacuated as the North advanced that there is no electoral solution to the become hot, as the U.S. ramped up its with little opposition. Before they got imperialism, racism and exploitation of campaign for “full spectrum domi- to the southern tip of the country, a the ruling class. Many left-leaning folks nance.” The U.S.-backed regime in the U.S. army under Douglas MacArthur, who plan to vote Democratic to Dump South began conducted provocations a notorious militarist and veteran of Trump are well-intentioned, but oblivi- toward the North, at least a year before the brutal U.S. suppression of the ous to the equal involvement of both the onset of the war. The story that the nationalist rebellion in the Philippines, capitalist parties in all the crimes of U.S. North invaded the South is a pack of managed to outflank the North’s forces imperialism. A revolutionary workers

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 9 party and a socialist revolution: that is Another Hiroshima is Coming the only solution. By John Pilger 1 Statistics from New York Times, “U.S. Is Alone Among Peers In Failing to Contain Virus,” August 7, 2020. (About the virus starting When I first went to Hiroshima in 1945. Sitting in the rubble with his in China; it may have actually started in Europe, 1967, the shadow on the steps was still Baby Hermes typewriter, he described but that is another story.) there. It was an almost perfect impres- hospital wards filled with people with 2 See How Trump Stole 2020, by Greg Palast, sion of a human being at ease: legs no visible injuries who were dying from Seven Stories Press, 2020, or go to gregpalast. splayed, back bent, one hand by her side what he called “an atomic plague.” com for much more info on voter suppression, as she sat waiting for a bank to open. and how to steal your vote back. For this, his press accreditation was 3 Details from The Birth of a Nation on Wikipedia. At a quarter past eight on the morn- withdrawn, he was pilloried and 4 A summary of this Newsweek article is at: ing of August 6, 1945, she and her sil- smeared. His witness to the truth was www.emptywheel.net/2020/07/03/maybe- houette were burned into the granite. never forgiven. trump-really-is-never-going-to-leave/ I stared at the shadow for an hour or The atomic bombing of Hiroshima 5 In the nineteenth and early twentieth cen- more, then I walked down to the river and Nagasaki was an act of premedi- turies, European powers maintained colonized where the survivors still lived in shanties. tated mass murder that unleashed a enclaves along the East Coast of China weapon of intrinsic criminality. It was 6 E. Grant Meade, American Military Gov- I met a man called Yukio, whose ernment in Korea, 1951, quoted in David chest was etched with the pattern of justified by lies that form the bedrock Horowitz, The Free World Colossus, 1965, p. 115. the shirt he was wearing when the of America’s war propaganda in the 7 The Acheson quote is from an interview on atomic bomb was dropped. 21st century, casting a new enemy, and Flashpoints, KPFA radio, with K.J. Noh, a long-time target—China. He described a huge flash over the activist and teacher, who writes for Counterpunch. During the 75 years since Hiroshima, 8 K.J. Noh interview, op cit. city, “a bluish light, something like an electrical short,” after which wind blew the most enduring lie is that the atom- like a tornado and black rain fell. “I ic bomb was dropped to end the war in Continued from page 5 was thrown on the ground and noticed the Pacific and to save lives. class into one great force for peace and only the stalks of my flowers were left. “Even without the atomic bombing justice and to finally bring an end to Everything was still and quiet, and attacks,” concluded the United States capitalist oppression and war every- when I got up, there were people Strategic Bombing Survey of 1946, “air where. This is our power and strength. naked, not saying anything. Some of supremacy over Japan could have exert- them had no skin or hair. I was certain ed sufficient pressure to bring about The future of the world is at stake I was dead.” unconditional surrender and obviate Building working-class unity and Nine years later, I returned to look the need for invasion. “Based on a cooperation is necessary to survive beyond for him and he was dead from leukemia. detailed investigation of all the facts, capitalism—to finally pull the plug on this and supported by the testimony of the despotic capitalist system of rule by vio- “No radioactivity in Hiroshima surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is lence and oppression that threatens the ruin” said The New York Times front the Survey’s opinion that…Japan would destruction of the planet itself. page on September 13, 1945, a classic have surrendered even if the atomic of planted disinformation. “General Together we workers can create the bombs had not been dropped, even if Farrell,” reported William H. Lawrence, Russia had not entered the war [against socialist world we all want—free of “denied categorically that [the atomic war, racism, bigotry, pollution and Japan] and even if no invasion had been bomb] produced a dangerous, linger- planned or contemplated.” poverty—a healthy world of human ing radioactivity.” democracy, equality, peace and justice The National Archives in for all. We have nothing but war and Only one reporter, Wilfred Burchett, Washington contains documented poverty to lose and a shared world of an Australian, had braved the perilous Japanese peace overtures as early as peace, justice and plenty to gain. journey to Hiroshima in the immediate 1943. None was pursued. A cable sent aftermath of the atomic bombing, in on May 5, 1945 by the German ambas- defiance of the Allied occupation author- sador in Tokyo and intercepted by the 1 “House to Consider Four-Bill Appropria- ities, which controlled the “press pack.” tions Minibus Next Week,” July 16, 2020 U.S. made clear the Japanese were des- https://appropriations.house.gov/news/press- “I write this as a warning to the perate to sue for peace, including releases/house-to-consider-four-bill-appropria- world,” reported Burchett in the “capitulation even if the terms were tions-minibus-next-week London Daily Express of September 5, hard.” Nothing was done.

10 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 The U.S. Secretary of War, Henry was pushed. The sun, which had risen, “human beings exposed to the radia- Stimson, told President Truman he rose again and vaporized an entire tion of a nuclear weapon.” was “fearful” that the U.S. Air Force island in the lagoon, leaving a vast The Marshall Islanders I met in would have Japan so “bombed out” black hole, which from the air is a 2015—like the survivors of Hiroshima that the new weapon would not be able menacing spectacle: a deathly void in a I interviewed in the 1960s and 70s— “to show its strength.” Stimson later place of beauty. suffered from a range of cancers, com- admitted that “no effort was made, and The radioactive fall-out spread monly thyroid cancer; thousands had none was seriously considered, to quickly and “unexpectedly.” The offi- already died. Miscarriages and still- achieve surrender merely in order not cial history claims “the wind changed births were common; those babies who to have to use the [atomic] bomb.” suddenly.” It was the first of many lies, lived were often deformed horribly. Stimson’s foreign policy col- as declassified documents and the vic- Unlike Bikini, nearby Rongelap leagues—looking ahead to the post- tims’ testimony reveal. atoll had not been evacuated during war era they were then shaping “in our Gene Curbow, a meteorologist the H-Bomb test. Directly downwind image,” as Cold War planner George assigned to monitor the test site, said, of Bikini, Rongelap’s skies darkened Kennan famously put it—made clear “They knew where the radioactive fall- and it rained what first appeared to be they were eager “to browbeat the out was going to go. Even on the day of snowflakes. Food and water were con- Russians with the [atomic] bomb held the shot, they still had an opportunity taminated; and the population fell vic- rather ostentatiously on our hip.” to evacuate people, but [people] were tim to cancers. That is still true today. General Leslie Groves, director of the not evacuated; I was not evacuated… I met Nerje Joseph, who showed me Manhattan Project that made the The United States needed some guinea atomic bomb, testified: “There was a photograph of herself as a child on pigs to study what the effects of radia- Rongelap. She had terrible facial burns never any illusion on my part that tion would do.” Russia was our enemy, and that the and much of her was hair missing. “We project was conducted on that basis.” Like Hiroshima, the secret of the were bathing at the well on the day the Marshall Islands was a calculated bomb exploded,” she said. “White dust The day after Hiroshima was oblit- experiment on the lives of large num- started falling from the sky. I reached erated, President Harry Truman voiced bers of people. This was Project 4.1, to catch the powder. We used it as soap his satisfaction with the “overwhelm- which began as a scientific study of to wash our hair. A few days later, my ing success” of “the experiment.” mice and became an experiment on hair started falling out.” The Marshall Islands “experiment” The “experiment” continued long after the war was over. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States exploded 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific: the equivalent of more than one Hiroshima every day for 12 years. The human and environmental consequences were catastrophic. During the filming of my documenta- ry, The Coming War on China, I char- tered a small aircraft and flew to Bikini Atoll in the Marshalls. It was here that the United States exploded the world’s first Hydrogen Bomb. It remains poi- soned earth. My shoes registered “unsafe” on my Geiger counter. Palm trees stood in unworldly formations. There were no birds. I trekked through the jungle to the concrete bunker where, at 6:45 on the Wrecked framework of the Museum of Science and Industry in Hiroshima, Japan. This is how it morning of March 1, 1954, the button appeared shortly after the dropping of the first atomic bomb, on August 6, 1945. (Shutterstock)

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 11 Lemoyo Abon said, “Some of us The only people who might have Whereas Clinton never concealed were in agony. Others had diarrhea. seen the sign were Indigenous her warmongering, Obama was a mae- We were terrified. We thought it must Australians, for whom there was no stro of marketing. “I state clearly and be the end of the world.” warning. According to an official with conviction,” said the new presi- U.S. official archive film I included in account, if they were lucky “they were dent in 2009, “that America’s commit- my film refers to the islanders as “amena- shooed off like rabbits.” ment is to seek the peace and security ble savages.” In the wake of the explosion, Today, an unprecedented campaign of a world without nuclear weapons.” a U.S. Atomic Energy Agency official is of propaganda is shooing us all off like Obama increased spending on seen boasting that Rongelap “is by far the rabbits. We are not meant to question nuclear warheads faster than any presi- most contaminated place on earth,” add- the daily torrent of anti-Chinese rheto- dent since the end of the Cold War. A ing, “it will be interesting to get a measure ric, which is rapidly overtaking the tor- “usable” nuclear weapon was devel- of human uptake when people live in a rent of anti-Russia rhetoric. Anything oped. Known as the B61 Model 12, it contaminated environment.” Chinese is bad, anathema, a threat: means, according to General James American scientists, including medi- Wuhan…Huawei. How confusing it is Cartwright, former vice-chair of the cal doctors, built distinguished careers when “our” most reviled leader says so. Joint Chiefs of Staff, that “going small- studying the “human uptake.” There er [makes its use] more thinkable.” they are in flickering film, in their white The target is China. Today, more coats, attentive with their clipboards. The atomic bombing of than 400 American military bases When an islander died in his teens, his Hiroshima and Nagasaki almost encircle China with missiles, family received a sympathy card from was an act of premedi- bombers, warships and nuclear weap- the scientist who studied him. ons. From Australia north through the tated mass murder that I have reported from five nuclear Pacific to South-East Asia, Japan and “ground zeros” throughout the world— unleashed a weapon of Korea and across Eurasia to Afghanistan in Japan, the Marshall Islands, Nevada, intrinsic criminality. and India, the bases form, as one U.S. Polynesia and Maralinga in Australia. strategist told me, “the perfect noose.” Even more than my experience as a war A study by the RAND Corporation— correspondent, this has taught me about The current phase of this campaign which, since Vietnam, has planned the ruthlessness and immorality of great began not with Trump but with Barack America’s wars—is entitled War with power: that is, imperial power, whose Obama, who in 2011 flew to Australia to China: Thinking Through the cynicism is the true enemy of humanity. declare the greatest build-up of U.S. Unthinkable. Commissioned by the naval forces in the Asia-Pacific region U.S. Army, the authors evoke the infa- Ground zero in Australia since World War Two. Suddenly, China mous catch cry of its chief Cold War This struck me forcibly when I was a “threat.” This was nonsense, of strategist, Herman Kahn—“thinking filmed at Taranaki Ground Zero at course. What was threatened was the unthinkable.” Kahn’s book, On Maralinga in the Australian desert. In a America’s unchallenged psychopathic Thermonuclear War, elaborated a plan dish-like crater was an obelisk on view of itself as the richest, the most suc- for a “winnable” nuclear war. which was inscribed: “A British atomic cessful, the most “indispensable” nation. weapon was test exploded here on What was never in dispute was its Pompeo and the unthinkable October 9, 1957.” On the rim of the prowess as a bully—with more than 30 Kahn’s apocalyptic view is shared by crater was this sign: members of the United Nations suffering Trump’s Secretary of State Mike WARNING: RADIATION HAZARD American sanctions of some kind and a Pompeo, an evangelical fanatic who Radiation levels for a few hun- trail of the blood running through believes in the “rapture of the End.” He dred meters around this point may defenseless countries bombed, their gov- is perhaps the most dangerous man be above those considered safe for ernments overthrown, their elections alive. “I was CIA director,” he boasted, permanent occupation. interfered with, their resources plundered. “We lied, we cheated, we stole. It was For as far as the eye could see, and Obama’s declaration became known like we had entire training courses.” beyond, the ground was irradiated. Raw as the “pivot to Asia.” One of its prin- Pompeo’s obsession is China. plutonium lay about, scattered like tal- cipal advocates was his Secretary of The endgame of Pompeo’s extrem- cum powder: plutonium is so dangerous State, Hillary Clinton, who, as ism is rarely if ever discussed in the to humans that a third of a milligram WikiLeaks revealed, wanted to rename Anglo-American media, where the gives a 50 percent chance of cancer. the Pacific Ocean “the American Sea.” myths and fabrications about China are

12 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 standard fare, as were the lies about the face and a Chinese couple racially Concept for China”—ASB—blocking Iraq. A virulent racism is the sub-text of abused in a supermarket. Between April sea lanes in the Straits of Malacca and this propaganda. Classified “yellow” and June, there were almost 400 racist cutting off China’s access to oil, gas even though they were white, the attacks on Asian-Australians. and other raw materials from the Chinese are the only ethnic group to Middle East and Africa. Racism have been banned by an “exclusion act” “We are not your enemy,” a high- It is fear of such a blockade that has from entering the United States, because seen China develop its Belt and Road they were Chinese. Popular culture ranking strategist in China told me, “but if you [in the West] decide we are, Initiative along the old Silk Road to declared them sinister, untrustworthy, Europe and urgently build strategic “sneaky,” depraved, diseased, immoral. we must prepare without delay.” China’s arsenal is small compared with airstrips on disputed reefs and islets in An Australian magazine, The America’s, but it is growing fast, espe- the Spratly Islands. Bulletin, was devoted to promoting cially the development of maritime mis- In Shanghai, I met Lijia Zhang, a fear of the “yellow peril” as if all of Asia siles designed to destroy fleets of ships. Beijing journalist and novelist, typical was about to fall down on the whites- of a new class of outspoken mavericks. only colony by the force of gravity. “For the first time,” wrote Gregory Kulacki of the Union of Concerned Her best-selling book has the ironic As the historian Martin Powers Scientists, “China is discussing putting its title Socialism Is Great! Having grown writes, acknowledging China’s mod- nuclear missiles on high alert so that they up in the chaotic, brutal Cultural ernism, its secular morality and “con- can be launched quickly on warning of an Revolution, she has travelled and lived tributions to liberal thought threat- attack…This would be a significant and in the U.S. and Europe. “Many ened European face, so it became nec- dangerous change in Chinese policy…” Americans imagine,” she said, “that essary to suppress China’s role in the Chinese people live a miserable, Enlightenment debate….For centuries, repressed life with no freedom whatso- China’s threat to the myth of Western Between 1946 and 1958, ever. The [idea of] the yellow peril has superiority has made it an easy target never left them…They have no idea for race-baiting.” the United States there are some 500 million people In the Sydney Morning Herald, tire- exploded 67 nuclear being lifted out of poverty, and some less China-basher Peter Hartcher bombs in the Marshall would say it’s 600 million.” described those who spread Chinese Modern China’s epic achievements, influence in Australia as “rats, flies, Islands in the Pacific: its defeat of mass poverty, and the pride mosquitoes and sparrows.” Hartcher, the equivalent of more and contentment of its people (mea- who favorably quotes the American than one Hiroshima sured forensically by American poll- demagogue Steve Bannon, likes to sters such as Pew) are willfully unknown interpret the “dreams” of the current every day for 12 years. or misunderstood in the West. This Chinese elite, to which he is apparently alone is a commentary on the lamen- privy. These are inspired by yearnings In Washington, I met Amitai table state of Western journalism and for the “Mandate of Heaven” of 2,000 Etzioni, distinguished professor of the abandonment of honest reporting. years ago. Ad nausea. international affairs at George China’s repressive dark side and To combat this “mandate,” the Washington University, who wrote what we like to call its “authoritarian- Australian government of Scott Morrison that a “blinding attack on China” was ism” are the façade we are allowed to has committed one of the most secure planned, “with strikes that could be see almost exclusively. It is as if we are countries on earth, whose major trading mistakenly perceived [by the Chinese] fed unending tales of the evil super- partner is China, to hundreds-of-bil- as pre-emptive attempts to take out its villain Dr. Fu Manchu. And it is time lions-of-dollars’ worth of American mis- nuclear weapons, thus cornering them we asked why: before it is too late to siles that can be fired at China. into a terrible use-it-or-lose-it dilem- stop the next Hiroshima. The trickledown is already evident. In ma [that would] lead to nuclear war.” —CounterPunch, August 4, 2020 a country historically scarred by violent In 2019, the U.S. staged its biggest racism towards Asians, Australians of single military exercise since the Cold Chinese descent have formed a vigilante War, much of it in high secrecy. An https://www.counterpunch. group to protect delivery riders. Phone armada of ships and long-range bomb- org/2020/08/04/another-hiroshima-is- videos show a delivery rider punched in ers rehearsed an “Air-Sea Battle coming-unless-we-stop-it-now/

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 13 The Attack on Science Part of the deadly class war on workers’ health and environment By Dr. Nayvin Gordon

The application of scientific knowl- profit motive today provides seventy employers’ need for profit,” as stated in edge has been embraced by industry as percent of science research funding. Occupational and Environmental a means of enriching owners for over On the other hand, when it comes Health by Levy and Wegman, 1988. two-hundred-years. Science is knowl- to the science of the common good, This is an “iron rule of capitalism.” edge of the natural and social world science is attacked. Science is denied, Lower profits occur when there are gained through observation and exper- dismissed, and disregarded when it government regulations requiring safe imentation based on evidence. points to the health of the work site working conditions, clean environ- The Industrial Revolution of the and environment. The war on the sci- ments, and safe disposal of toxic chem- 18th century had a profound impact ence that benefits workers has a long icals. Corporations generally refuse to on workers’ diseases. Rapid techno- history. The Roman scholar Pliny in test chemicals for safety and prefer to allow toxins to escape into the work- logical progress and industrial growth the 1st century CE, described mercury place air and water, letting “society” led to crowded, unsanitary working poisoning as a disease of slaves because worry about the clean-up and cost. and living conditions, with a rise in the mines contaminated by mercury vapor There is a well-documented history of number of accidents, and exposure to were considered too unhealthy for industrialists continuously resisting toxic contamination at work and the Roman citizens and thus were worked attempts to protect the work site, the environment. Science became increas- only by slaves. environment and the climate. ingly important to owners of industry Business owners are driven by the in the 20th century and proceeded to drive to maximize profits. They are For over one-hundred-and-fifty- rapidly expand into the entire corpo- promoters of “free markets,” the pri- years workers have placed a high prior- rate world. Science has allowed for vate sector, and limited government. ity on safe working conditions and corporate capitalism to make profits In most countries the responsibility for their environment. There is a rich his- from pens to bombs and from com- health and safety at work is placed on tory of this struggle. From 1880 work- puters to organ transplants. There are the employer. “The workers desire for ers organizations such as the Knights of museums and organizations dedicated comfort, income, safety and leisure is Labor pushed for safety laws in all the to science and technology. Industry’s continually counterbalanced by the major industries. For decades workers struggled against accidents, deaths, dis- ease, dust, toxins, fires, mine collapse and explosions. Workers were jailed, beaten, shot or burned to death in work site fires or crushed in mines, and still the employers denied demands for improved working and living condi- tions. There was the Triangle Fire of 1911, which killed 145 women garment workers in a sweat shop, then the Ludlow Massacre of 1914 where the National Guard killed 21 coal miners and their children. (Labor’s Untold Story, Boyer and Morais, 1955.) The workers and their families were met by lockouts, police, violence and murder directed by the employers. It took decades of massive strikes in tex- tile, mining, steel and other industries including the great 1936-1937 General 1936-1937 General Motors sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan. Motors sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan to win any significant health

14 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 and safety protection. Even with pas- is heavily influenced by the political The denial that asbestos sage of The Public Contracts Act in power of corporations, bankers and the causes disease 1936 which required health and safety rich, has deregulated federal safety and By 1918 it was known that asbestos 1 standards, industrial accidents contin- health laws. The government has weak- causes lung cancer and other deadly ued to increase. ened OSHA, attacked OSHA whistle- diseases. For fifty-years the asbestos A coal mine exploded in 1968 kill- blowers, cut budgets, reduced the num- industry fought any sort of work-place ing 78 miners. Strikes and job actions ber of inspectors to weaken enforce- regulation and denied that asbestos resulted in the 1969 Coal Mine Health ment and substituted corporate “volun- causes cancer and other diseases. and Safety Act and in 1971 the tary” compliance. Denying, downplay- Millions have been sickened or died.3 Occupational Safety and Health Act ing and manipulating science that helps (OSHA). Despite the OSHA laws, in the 99 percent extends across the corpo- The denial of the science 1973 Shell Oil workers went on a five- rate world—from Exxon to Amazon, of global warming from Google to genetics, from plastics, month strike for health and safety In 1979 through 1983, major fossil pesticides and opioids, to DuPont issues. The Toxic Substances Control fuel companies, including Exxon, Chemical and nuclear power. They Act was finally passed in 1976. All of Mobil, Amoco, Phillips, Texaco, Shell, deny science and reason to protect prof- these laws have many partial regula- Sunoco, and Standard Oil of California its and because it points to the urgent tions, loopholes and weaknesses, allow- and Gulf Oil (two companies that need for radical social, economic, polit- ing for continued danger to workers became Chevron) met regularly as part ical and ecological transformation. and the general population. A coal of a task force to discuss the science Below are a few important examples of mine catastrophe in 2010 killed 29 and implications of climate change. the class war on the people’s health. miners in West Virginia and toxic The meetings were organized with the dumping into the environment by help of the American Petroleum industry has shown NO significant Institute. A document from one of the reduction over the last forty years. The business communi- meetings suggests that oil companies Beginning in the 1970s Industry ty has for decades knew that climate change was occur- mobilized and financed a propaganda pushed to privatize the ring, and that they would bear some responsibility for managing it. (Source: machine on the basis of misleading evi- hospital and healthcare dence about the science of workers’ Inside Climate News) systems, resulting in health. It was called The Business Round In 1989 Exxon and other fossil Table Corporate Action Committees, its profits and death not fuel companies create the Global avowed objective was to reduce govern- health and life. ment regulation, and stop the govern- Climate Coalition (GCC) ment from fixing the problem caused by The GCC is created to oppose man- datory reductions in carbon emissions the profit system. Continuing into the The denial that cigarettes cause 1980s, denial and uncertainty was pro- by obscuring the scientific understand- lung disease moted by industrialists, bankers and ing of fossil fuels’ impact on the cli- many politicians to deny and downplay The history of tobacco lawsuits in the mate. The GCC created a scientific science. Today, “Nearly all leading cor- U.S. dates back nearly 60 years. Tobacco “backgrounder” for lawmakers and porations are part of trade groups that companies hid the truth from the public journalists that claimed, “The role of lobby for pro-business positions, such with their denial and misuse of scientific greenhouse gases in climate change is as lower taxes… limited government, evidence and the recruitment of scien- not well understood.” tists by the tobacco industry.2 free markets…more than a dozen By 1992 Exxon has become a mem- groups promote half-truths and mis- The denial that lead is a poison ber of American Legislative Exchange representations, sometimes outright Lead, known as a poison for two Council (ALEC), which actively under- lies. The Competitive Enterprise thousand years, was banned from paint mines action on climate change at the Institute (CEI) has been directly by the League of Nations in 1922. U.S. federal and state levels. (Source: Union 4 involved in personal attacks on scien- industries continued to add lead to of Concerned Scientists) tists” (“Are Tech Firms Anti Science,” paint and gasoline and mounted cam- In 2005, NASA scientists were cen- Scientific American, July 2020) paigns to deny and distort science, sored by the White House to prevent As a direct result of the pressure while poisoning millions of adults and all NASA scientists from discussing from industry, the government, which their children. climate change.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 15 Under President Trump’s leader- testing, tracking and isolation, which is mystic swastikas, divine missions, ship, Federal agencies have taken more the only known method to contain and strong-man saviors and all the rest than seven deregulatory actions for eradicate the pandemic, they have of the nonsense through which every significant regulatory action. allowed a massive wave of disease and alone capitalism today can try to death to sweep across the nation. maintain its hold a little longer. ... President Trump’s deregulation There is a method to the madness. efforts have already reduced regulatory Trillions-of-dollars-worth of bail- For capitalism can no longer present costs by $50 billion and are on track to outs were given to Wall Street while any rational defense, any progressive reduce regulatory costs by at least that pennies were given for COVID-19 test- role, any ideal whatever to reach the much in fiscal year 2020 alone.5 ing. Billions-of-dollars have been given masses of the population.” All told, the Trump administration’s to pharmaceutical companies to profit A movement of millions, of and for environmental rollbacks could signifi- from a vaccine, while The Public the working class, dedicated to the cantly increase greenhouse gas emis- Health Service, the one major organi- needs of the 99 percent, can build a sions and lead to thousands of extra zation that could have protected the better, healthy world. We must break deaths from poor air quality each year, people from infectious diseases, was the deadly iron chains that bind us to according to energy and legal analysts.6 denied hundreds-of-billions-of-dollars capitalism, the chains of profit and in funding over the last few decades. death. To protect our health, life and COVID pandemic denials cause The business community has for climate, the times demand a mass health and economic catastrophe decades pushed to privatize the hospi- mobilization to fight for a militant The Trump administration has been tal and healthcare systems, resulting in egalitarian society—economic, social repeatedly denying Public Health sci- profits and death not health and life. and political equality for all. ence and lying about the COVID-19 History clearly shows that the scien- —August 12, 2020 Pandemic. They have also suppressed tific knowledge regarding the dangers the April 2020 CDC’s COVID-19 and diseases caused by production-for- Pandemic report, and have deliberately profit is viciously attacked, denied and underfunded testing, and prevented discredited by those responsible—the 1 https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/ accurate reporting of corona virus industrialists, corporations and their files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-test- cases and deaths.7 investors. Pro-business groups pro- ing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf “While many governments sup- mote profits above all else, workers 2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ press the virus, the U.S. suppresses lives and the planet itself are expend- PMC3490543/ information about the virus.”8 able objects. This is an “iron law of 3 https://www.thesunmagazine.org/ issues/291/an-epidemic-of-deception capitalism.” Our lives and those of our The Trump administration’s pat- 4 https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global- tern of sidelining science including children depend on abolishing this warming/exxon-and-the-oil-industry-knew- censoring scientific experts, disband- destructive political economy. The about-climate-change/exxons-climate-denial- ing scientific advisory committees, and COVID-19 catastrophe has made this a history-a-timeline/ suppressing scientific research has cre- matter of life and death. 5 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-state- ments/president-donald-j-trumps-historic-dereg- ated a medical and economic catastro- As authoritarianism gains power in phe that has cost almost 200,000 U.S. ulatory-actions-creating-greater-opportunity- the U.S., let us take note of a passage prosperity-americans/ lives to date, disproportionally affect- that could have been written today in 6 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/ 9 ing Black and Brown populations. Fascism and Social Democracy, by climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html In July 2020 the White House Press Palme Dutt, 1934: 7 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ Secretary said, “We will not let science “The revolt against science, jul/29/trump-coronavirus-science-denial-time- line-what-has-he-said stand in the way of opening schools.” which bourgeois society encourages Vice President Mike Pence also said, today in the ideological sphere, at 8 https://www.commondreams.org/ news/2020/07/15/warnings-possible-cover-prog- the same time that it uses science in “We don’t want the guidance of the ress-trump-orders-hospitals-stop-sending-coro- Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to practice, is not only the expression navirus 10 of a dying and doomed class; it is an be a reason schools don’t open.” 9 https://blog.ucsusa.org/anita-desikan/ essential part of the campaign of The free-market fundamentalists trump-administration-has-hindered-ability-to- reaction. This is the basis which respond-to-coronavirus have refused to accept a significant role helps to prepare the ground for all for government in constraining the 10 https://www.theguardian.com/us- the quackeries and charlatanisms of news/live/2020/jul/16/coronavirus-us-covid- corona virus epidemic. By refusing to chauvinism, racial theories, anti- donald-trump-anthony-fauci-joe-biden-live- support a national strategy of mass Semitism, Aryan grandmothers, updates

16 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 When America Bombed Itself By Joshua Wheeler

When America detonated the tioned precaution of breathing through previous years, spiked. It increased by world’s first atomic bomb at 0529 a slice of bread. Others were sent out as much as 52 percent in 1945, with the hours on July 16, 1945, it was an attack with Filter Queens, a popular vacuum highest increase occurring in August on American soil. cleaner, in a futile attempt to suck up through October, the months immedi- The blast melted the sand of south- the fallout as though it was nothing ately after Trinity. Recent research sug- ern New Mexico and infused it with more than household dust. gests that when America detonated the the bomb’s plutonium core—80 per- In short, the Army was woefully world’s first atomic bomb, its first vic- cent of which failed to fission—scatter- unprepared and even willfully negli- tims were American babies. ing radioactive material across the des- gent about the fallout of its first atomic Though there is no conclusive data ert. The first atomic bomb was both a bomb. It warned no residents. It about the rise in cancer rates after feat of engineering and, by today’s ordered no evacuations. It maintained Trinity—largely because of a lack of standards, a crude dirty bomb. that the area around Trinity was abso- government funding for such stud- After riding the fireball over seven lutely safe, even when it knew it was ies—stories collected by the Tularosa miles into the sky, as much as 230 tons not. So, Americans went on living in Basin Downwinders Consortium of radioactive sand mixed with ash and the fallout, working in the fallout, eat- reveal generations ravaged by nearly caught the breeze of a cool summer ing from the dirty American soil. every imaginable cancer. morning. It floated 15 miles northwest Downwind of the blast, the local An Army doctor later wrote about to the Gallegos Ranch, where it fell and infant mortality rate, after declining in Trinity: “A few people were probably bleached the cattle. The dirty ash float- ed 20 miles northeast to the M.C. Ratliff Ranch, where that family would spend days cleaning it off their roof, off their crops and out of their water cis- tern. Thirty-five miles southeast at the Herreras’ home in Tularosa, the radio- active soot stained the white linens drying on the clotheslines. The fallout from that detonation— code-named Trinity—floated over a thousand square miles and exposed thousands of families to radiation lev- els that “approached 10,000 times what is currently allowed,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the hours after the explosion, 185 Army personnel chased the fallout to monitor its extent. They chased it so far that their communications radios stopped working. Some who were sta- tioned a few miles north of Trinity looked anxiously at their whirring Geiger counters and decided to bury their now-irradiated breakfast steaks. Those soldiers had been given respi- rators, but at least one forgot his and Jesse Auersalo was forced to take the officially sanc-

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 17 overexposed, but they couldn’t prove it Congress is now so concerned that more radioactive waste to the contro- and we couldn’t prove it. So, we just Democrats in the House have pro- versial storage site already in existence assumed we got away with it.” posed a bill that would prohibit Energy near Carlsbad. It has been 75 years and the Department funds from being used for This is further evidence of what’s American government still refuses to nuclear weapons testing, while the been called radioactive colonialism, admit that the detonation of the “gad- Senate has moved to make any nuclear where minority and impoverished get,” as the Trinity bomb was called, testing require a joint resolution. communities are forced to suffer the was a nuclear disaster. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of costs of the nuclear industry. Nevada said, “The decision to conduct Aboveground nuclear testing was an explosive nuclear test should not be Henry Herrera, whose family’s dry- halted in 1963. Underground testing, made without congressional approval ing linens were stained by the fallout which is comparably safer but still ter- and should never be made by a presi- on that July morning in 1945, told me: rifying, was stopped in 1992. But today dent hoping to gain political points.” “We were lab rats. That ought to make the Trump administration is floating us hero patriots or something. Which the idea of resuming such testing— we are. But nobody gives a damn.” Mr. despite the fact that America is, after Recent research Herrera, his brother and his two sisters more than 1,000 tests, already the most all had cancer. nuclear-bombed country in the world. suggests that when If Congress truly wants to awaken “We maintain and will maintain the America detonated the Americans to the dangers of nuclear ability to conduct nuclear tests if we see world’s first atomic testing, it should start by finally telling any reason to do so, whatever that rea- the truth about the disaster at Trinity. son may be,” President Trump’s nucle- bomb, its first victims Bills to acknowledge and compensate ar negotiator said last month. were American babies. Mr. Herrera and other Trinity down- Mr. Trump campaigned in 2016 winders have lingered in legislative purgatory for over a decade. Passing saying he wanted to be “unpredictable” But the decision to resume explo- with nuclear weapons. He went on to them would help establish what should sive nuclear tests should never be made be obvious: The shameful legacy of antagonize North Korea in 2017 by at all. We can and do perform success- tweeting, “My first order as President nuclear weapons testing is something ful tests in virtual-reality chambers we should never attempt to revive. was to renovate and modernize our using advanced supercomputers. nuclear arsenal.” According to Axios Explosives tests of any kind carry mag- Joshua Wheeler is the author of the he suggested “multiple times” the use nitudes more risk, and the consequence essay collection “Acid West.” He teaches of “nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes of that risk has historically fallen on the in the creative writing program at from hitting the United States.” He most vulnerable Americans. Louisiana State University. withdrew from many arms agreements, —New York Times, July 15, 2020 including the Iran nuclear deal, the It should come as no surprise that https://www.nytimes. Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces the downwinders of Trinity were large- com/2020/07/15/opinion/75-anniversa- Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty. And ly impoverished agricultural families, ry-trinity-nuclear-testing. he raised the budget of the National mostly Hispanic and Native. New html?searchResultPosition=1 Nuclear Security Administration by Mexico, one of the poorest states in the more than 50 percent. nation, is the only one with a cradle-to- grave nuclear industry, where weapons What’s next? An explosive nuclear are designed, uranium mined, and test can be orchestrated in as little as six waste stored. After a recent study from Any explosive months. And with a president whose the Nuclear Regulatory Commission nuclear test is lust for nuclear weapons is as evident raised no concerns, the federal govern- as his lust for showmanship, that ment looks poised to finalize Holtec an escalation should terrify all of us. Resumed explo- International’s bid to store nuclear sive testing, even underground, will waste between the New Mexico towns toward global undoubtedly encourage other nations of Hobbs and Carlsbad, despite vehe- to follow suit. ment objections from the governor annihilation. Any explosive nuclear test is an and many residents of the area. And escalation toward global annihilation. any resumed nuclear testing would add

18 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 Huge New Military Budget How the House Armed Services Committee, in the middle of a pandemic, approved a huge military budget and more war in Afghanistan By Glen Greenwald

While the country is subsumed by Perhaps most remarkable is the op-ed pages and especially 24-hour both public health and an unemploy- amount of the military budget itself. It is cable news are obsessed with triviali- ment crisis and is separately focused on three times more than the planet’s sec- ties: Trump’s latest tweet or offhand a sustained protest movement against ond-highest military spender, China; it is remark in a rally; symbolic culture war police abuses, a massive $740.5 billion ten times more than the third-highest distractions in which Congress plays military spending package was approved spender, Saudi Arabia; it is 15 times more little role; the offensive remarks of last week by the Democratic-controlled than the military budget of the country people who wield little power. As a House Armed Services Committee. The most frequently invoked by Committee result, what the U.S. government really GOP-controlled Senate Armed Services members as a threat to justify militarism: does—in the bowels of the Congress Committee will almost certainly send Russia; and it is more than the next 15 and in the underbelly of sub-commit- the package with little to no changes to countries combined spend on their mili- tee proceedings—receives little sub- the White House for signing. tary. They authorized this kind of a bud- stantive attention. get in the midst of a global pandemic as As we reported last week, pro-war This media dynamic is exacerbated tens-of-millions of newly unemployed and militaristic Democrats on the by the journalistic practice of obsessing Americans struggle even to pay their rent. Committee joined with GOP on the areas where the two parties Representative Liz Cheney and the pro- squabble, while steadfastly ignoring the war faction she leads to form majorities Pro-war Democrats very consequential and numerous which approved one hawkish amend- areas where they find full agreement— ment after the next. Among those wield all the power such as approving close to a trillion amendments was one co-sponsored by for military and foreign dollars in military spending and ensur- Cheney with Democratic Representative ing the oldest war in U.S. history con- Jason Crow of Colorado that impeded policy because that is tinues without end. When the two attempts by the Trump administration who House Democratic parties are in agreement, as they so to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, leadership selects. often are, this is boring from a media and another amendment led by perspective, so it is typically ignored. Representative Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., This has the dual-propagandistic effect and Cheney which blocked the White of creating the appearance that the two House’s plan to remove 10,000 troops Why? parties never agree when they in fact stationed in Germany. How does this happen? How do agree constantly, while also suppress- Democrats succeed in presenting an While those two amendments were ing those vital policies which receive image of themselves based on devotion designed to block the Trump adminis- overwhelming bipartisan consensus. tration’s efforts to bring troops home, to progressive causes and the welfare of In reporting on the approval of this this same bipartisan pro-war faction the ordinary citizen while working with military budget last week, I watched all defeated two other amendments that Liz Cheney to ensure that vast resourc- 14 hours of the committee proceed- would have imposed limits on the es are funneled to the weapons manu- Trump administration’s aggression and facturers, defense sector and lobbyists ings. It was remarkably revealing about militarism: one sponsored by Democratic who fund their campaigns? Why would how the U.S. government really func- Representative Tulsi Gabbard to require a country with no military threats from tions, who the culprits are, what their the Trump administration to provide a any sovereign nation to its borders motives are in pursuing policies that so national security rationale before with- spend almost a trillion dollars a year for blatantly have no benefit for the people drawing from the Intermediate-Range buying weapons while its citizens linger they pretend to represent, and the vast Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, signed without healthcare, access to quality gap between the image they create for with the Soviet Union in 1987, and schools, or jobs? Who are the people in themselves and the reality of what they another to impose limits on the ability of Congress doing this, and why? really do in Washington. the U.S. to arm and otherwise assist These are questions that are rarely It is, of course, impossible to under- Saudi Arabia to bomb Yemen. examined in media venues. News sites, stand how the Congress works without

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 19 understanding those who wield power Democrats wield all the power for But as these little-discussed proceed- in it. The chair of the House Armed military and foreign policy because ings demonstrate, when they return to Services Committee selected by Nancy that is who House Democratic leader- Washington, what they really do is Pelosi and her caucus is the obscure ship selects. spend their time collaborating with but powerful Representative Adam lobbyists for weapons manufacturers Smith of Washington. He has a long to ensure that as much taxpayer money record of supporting pro-war policies, ...what they really do is as possible is diverted away from social from the invasion of Iraq to numerous programs and into the coffers of the Bush/Cheney war on terror transgres- spend their time collab- “defense” industry. sions to blocking reform of the NSA orating with lobbyists There is a pocket of anti-war and after the Snowden reporting to for weapons manufac- anti-imperialism resistance on the denouncing the Obama administra- turers to ensure that as committee and in the broader tion’s efforts to reduce the troop pres- Congress, particularly on the left and ence in Afghanistan. much taxpayer money as to some extent on the isolationist right. When Smith had a progressive chal- possible is diverted away But, as the House Armed Services lenger in 2018, who criticized him for Committee hearing of last week proves, this militarism, the defense industry, as from social programs they are outnumbered by the Adam my colleague Lee Fang reported, poured and into the coffers of Smiths, Jason Crows, and Liz Cheneys money into his coffers to ensure their the “defense” industry... who work in bipartisan tandem to loyal pro-war servant kept his perch as ensure their defeat and maintain a path chair of this crucial committee. of endless war for the United States. A similar episode occurred the same When these committee members And it is impossible to overstate the year when a progressive challenger return to their blue districts, they talk central role which the concocted, wild- emerged to run against the former endlessly about topics such as the NRA, ly exaggerated “Russia threat” plays in Marine and Iraq War veteran Jason LGBTs, and reproductive rights— all of this. Over and over, the pro-war Crow. House Majority Leader Steney issues on which many do little work committee members from both parties Hoyer, as Fang also revealed by pub- and over which they wield little influ- invoked the scary threat of Moscow lishing a secret recording, tried to bully ence—in order to manufacture brands and the Kremlin to justify this bloated his opponent out of the race. Crow for themselves as good, caring progres- budget of imperialism and aggression. now joins with Liz Cheney to continue sives, which is how they are reelected —The Intercept, July 9, 2020 the war in Afghanistan. Pro-war over and over from very blue districts. https://theintercept.com/2020/07/09/ how-the-house-armed-services-commit- tee-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic- approved-a-huge-military-budget-and- more-war-in-afghanistan/?

Representative Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. smiles as she arrives for a news conference on January 15, 2019, in Washington, D.C.

20 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 Inhumane at Any Time House approves a $740 billion Pentagon budget during pandemic By Eoin Higgins

Win Without War was among the tary spending by ten percent and this Appropriations bill is a reminder anti-war voices on Friday issuing blis- whether or not to allow the Pentagon that there remains much to be done,” tering condemnations of the passage in to continue using video game stream- said Miles. “We are also disappointed the U.S. House of a $740 billion defense ing platforms to recruit impressionable that House Democrats have decided to bill as part of the 2021 Appropriations children. Both measures failed. once again couple passage of a bill that Minibus. fuels militarism abroad with bills that “A $740 billion Pentagon budget is fund our priorities at home, forfeiting inhumane at any time,” said the “We are also disappoint- the ability to challenge the former with- group’s executive director, Stephen ed that House out undermining the latter.” Miles. “In the midst of a pandemic—as Democrats have decided Miles did point to what he called people across the country struggle to “bright spots” in the bill, including two make rent, to pay their bills, to survive to once again couple provisions from Representative Barbara a deadly disease—it should be unthink- passage of a bill that Lee (D-Calif.) that repeal the 2001 and able. Once again, the House has voted 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military to put the interests of weapons manu- fuels militarism abroad Force and require congressional facturers and war hawks over the well- with bills that fund our approval before going to war with Iran being of people here and abroad.” priorities at home, for- and an amendment from Representative Jackie Spier (D-Calif.) banning the The bill passed the House on Friday feiting the ability to by a 217 to 197 margin, largely along Department of Defense from using party lines, with 16 members not vot- challenge the former funds to implement a ban on transgen- ing. Only 12 Democrats voted against without undermining der Americans in the military. the measure while 217 voted in favor. —Common Dreams, July 31, 2020 the latter.” All Republicans in the House either https://www.commondreams.org/ voted against the bill or did not vote. news/2020/07/31/inhumane-any-time- 1 Read the full roll call here. “Though last week’s votes on wheth- during-pandemic-house-approval- The bill’s passage came after a vigor- er or not to cut the Pentagon budget by 740-billion-pentagon-budget ous debate over recent weeks that ten percent were hopeful signs of the included votes on whether to cut mili- shifting tides on Pentagon spending, 1 http://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2020178

U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the Hudson River during a military flyover as part of July 4th celebrations on July 04, 2020 in New York City.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 21 The Two-Headed Hydra Racism and imperialism By Behrooz Ghamari Tabrizi

Black Lives Matter (BLM) has raised and imperialist wars that the United The concomitant rise of liberal mass consciousness against the institu- States has raged around the world. The political philosophy and modern colo- tion of police violence and the brutality two heads of the hydra of imperialism nialism is an established historical fact. it inflicts on Black communities around and racism stem from the same body of One might still question whether colo- the country. The movement has placed the political order that defined this nialism and the atrocities through the question of police brutality at the imperialized nation from its inception. which it expanded ought to be regarded top of the political and juridical reform So long as the American war machine as an aberration in liberal thought or as agenda. The naked display of the oppres- runs on high gear, leaving destruction, an inherent feature of its worldview. sive state apparatus has now forced devastation, and death around the But one thing is clear, the British and everyone, from the fascist residents of world, here at home, Black Americans American founding fathers of liberal- the White House to the liberal demo- will not be treated as equal citizens. ism did not understand democracy and crats of the House, politicians speak of Drone attacks overseas are inherently colonialism in mutually exclusive the need to reform policing—more linked to the murderous impulse of the terms, both were understood to be dif- training, more screening, more record- police against Black Americans. ferent elements of the same civilizing keepings, judicial vigilance, and other project. Far from contradicting liberal haphazard sutures for the centuries-old tenets, writes Uday Mehta, imperialism wounds. Many observers have pointed The two heads of the in fact stemmed from liberal assump- out the depth of this chronic pain and hydra of imperialism tions about reason and historical prog- different ways it might be remedied. ress. Evoking the same sentiment, more and racism stem from than a century ago, Jamal al-Afghani Here I would like to propose that (1838-1897), the anti-colonial Muslim this acutely American dilemma needs to the same body of the transnationalist, ridiculed the seeming- be viewed and explicated in close rela- political order that ly incongruous attitude of British colo- tion to U.S colonialism and imperial- defined this imperialized nialists in India: “They drew their ism. Race relations in the U.S. and the swords to cut the throats of the Muslims, violence with which the country oper- nation from its while weeping for them and crying: ‘We ates has always been accompanied by inception. kill you only out of compassion and the civilizing logic of colonial expansion pity for you, and seeking to improve you and make your life comfortable.’” Liberal political thought and colo- nial expansion No other liberal philosopher has articulated and justified this contradic- tion better that J. S. Mill. His philosophy made clear the entanglement of liberal political thought with colonial expan- sion. John Stuart, like his father James, Mill was an employee of the British East India Company. But economic interest alone cannot explain his ideological commitment to the idea of progress and the higher civilization that the British afforded the backward Indians. He believed that the transmission of civiliza- tion to colonized subject could only materialize through a benevolent despo- Photo by Nathaniel St. Clair

22 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 tism. “England,” J. S. Mill believed, “had same generals who led the American ing political order. The growing Black a right to rule despotically because it conquest of the Philippines in 1898- population in Europe, Afro-Caribbean, brought the benefits of higher civiliza- 1902 fought the wars of annihilations North African, and South Asians among tion.” In a chilling assertion in his against American Indians at home. others, forced European states to face the Principles of Political Economy, he One of them, Brigadier General Jacob consequences of their colonial past on declared that “the question of govern- H Smith, explicitly stated in his order the streets of Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, ment intervention in the work of to the troops that “I want no prisoners. and London. What the authors of The Colonization involves the future and I wish you to kill and burn. The more Empire Strikes Back wrote almost forty permanent interests of civilization itself.” you kill and burn the better it will years ago about the United Kingdom There is no doubt that the plunder of please me.” More than 200,000 civil- eerily resonates today with Trump’s human and natural resources of the ians were massacred during the war. America that “the construction of an colonies shaped imperial expansions. During a Senate hearing on the atroci- authoritarian state in Britain is funda- But the reality that the inhabitants of ties in the Philippines, General Arthur mentally intertwined with the elabora- Africa, Asia, Oceana, and South America MacArthur (father of Douglas) referred tion of popular racism.” The kind of were all subjected to these atrocities has to the “magnificent Aryan peoples” he racism that has historically been exer- roots in a racialized worldview that gave belonged to and the “unity of the race” cised through colonialism, slavery, segre- legitimacy to Europeans to situate he felt compelled to uphold. gation, ghettoization, militarized border themselves on top of the racial hierar- At the end of both world wars, sus- controls and mass incarceration. chy as the torch bearers of reason and taining the purity of whiteness and progress. The light of the world was the racial boundaries became increasingly Europeans’ gift to all nations to over- challenging. The world wars shook the Drone attacks overseas come their superstitions, ignorance, tyr- old structure of colonialism to its core. are inherently linked to anny, and backwardness. The light was But that did nothing to change the colo- the murderous impulse lit by prey and pray, by plunder and nial powers’ perception of racial superi- proselytizing, by power and pauperiza- ority. Learning from the experiences of of the police against tion, and by pots and pans. the two wars, the emerging superpow- Black Americans. ers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Despite her own prejudicial views entered a “Cold War” that meant that on race, in The Origins of Totalitarianism, superpowers ought not to fight their Racism was and is not about an atti- Hannah Arendt highlights that it was wars in the European theater. Cold War tude. Rather, it is the problem of a European imperialists who initially was a misnomer. Proxy wars raged political order that sustains and perpet- reordered “mankind into master and around the world and claimed more uate that attitude through a complex slave races, into higher and lower than 20 million lives from 1946 to 1989. system of legal and economic institu- breeds, into colored peoples and white The old colonial structures had col- tions at home and around the world. men” during their conquest and lapsed, but the propagated racialized Black Lives Matter protests has now exploitation of much of Asia, Africa ideology that peoples of Asia, Africa, razed or forced the local and federal and America. That is how the ruling Latin and Central America were inca- agencies to remove monuments that classes “imperialized the nation,” by pable of exercising the right of self- celebrated the legacies of slavery, lynch- expanding and acquiring new territo- determination persisted. ing, and segregation. Corporate America ries abroad and by solidifying and now “recognizes” the pandemic of rac- policing racial hierarchies at home. Racism and the atrocities of the ism. Nike employees were offered a paid Expressed in no ambiguous terms by American superpower holiday on Juneteenth. The same goes Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. president As the atrocities of American super- for workers at Twitter, Target, General during the Great War, the goal was power proliferated around the world, Motors, the National Football League clear, “to keep the white race strong” Black Americans struggled for recogni- and a variety of other businesses. and to preserve “white civilization and tion of political rights and social justice at JPMorgan, Chase, Capital One and its domination of the planet.” home. Despite legal gains, the ideology other banks will close branches early. The eugenicist structure of the white that incentivized the U.S. to commit All those institutions that maintain and supremacy that motivated great mass murder around the globe, disincen- perpetuate the dominance of racism European and American ruling classes tivized it to put in place meaningful and imperialism are at work hard to operated with great consistency within structural changes that would recognize coopt the movement. Centuries of rac- and outside national boundaries. The racial hierarchies that informed the exist- ism in the Untied States will not wane

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 23 by bringing down statues or tearing Suharto to power are not yet released, I do not intend to provide an down monuments, despite their signifi- those declassified documents show exhaustive list of atrocities committed cant symbolic values, or having a half- how the CIA operatives provided the by the United State around the world day off at JPMorgan. The entire names of the unionists and members of in the name of democracy, in defense American political order, economic the Indonesian Communist Party to of freedom. I bring this up to insist that organization, and social hierarchies are death squads for extermination. Black American will not be recognized informed by the question of race and a According to more conservative esti- as equal citizens so long as people of commitment to white supremacy. The mates between 500,000 to one million color around the world remain sub- veneer of great American ideology of people were massacred during the jected to the brutality of imperialized meritocracy and opportunity is crum- coup. More than one million were sent nations such as the United States of bling. America needs that ideology, the to concentrations camps many of America. The drones that kill the Iraqi, “American dream,” a myth that turned whom vanished. Later it became evi- Yemeni, Pakistani, Somali civilians, the the land of slavery and indigenous anni- dent, as Bivens discloses, that it wasn’t bombs, the fighter jets, the missiles and hilation into the land of milk and honey. only U.S. government officials who guns that are sold to the tyrants, they “This mythology is not benign,” as handed over kill lists to the Army. are all parts of the same system of Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor explores, “it Managers of U.S.-owned plantations oppression that brutalizes Black serves as the United States’ self-declared furnished them with the names of Americans. The Palestinians know the invitation to intervene militarily and “troublesome” communists and union meaning of ghettoization in American economically around the globe.” The organizers, who were then murdered. cities. The immigrants who are dehu- United States needs to conceal its racial manized by ICE understand the depth injustices at home in order to advance of police brutality and the meaning of and legitimize its imperialist ambitions Expressed in no ambigu- murder with impunity. These voices around the globe. ous terms by Woodrow need to hear one another. Black America has given voice to a global Police brutality and the military Wilson, the U.S. presi- movement. industrial complex dent during the Great —CounterPunch, June 25, 2020 Police brutality is inextricably linked War, the goal was clear, https://www.counterpunch. to the military industrial complex. This org/2020/06/25/the-two-headed-hydra- link is not only through the sales of “to keep the white race of-racism-and-imperialism/ surplus hardware, uniforms, and other strong” and to preserve equipment. Yes, the military leadership stood firm against Trump’s recent “white civilization and transgressions and reminded him that its domination of the “I want no the military cannot get involved in planet.” suppressing the right of protest for prisoners. I wish American citizens. But since its incep- tion, the same military has operated as What Bivens uncovers is that the you to kill and burn. the instrument of imperialist projects extermination project in Indonesia, that carried out mass murders and became a model for the U.S. covert The more you kill subjugated people of color around the operations in Latin and Central and burn the better world. In his recent book, Jakarta America. “Jakarta,” the capital of Method: Washington’s anti-Communist Indonesia, in this new sinister vocabu- it will please me.” Crusade & the Mass Murder Program lary of political oppression became the That Shaped Our World, Vincent code word for massacre of civilians. In More than 200,000 Bivens shows how the U.S. master- Brazil, Operação Jacarta became the minded the project of annihilation of modus operandi of the military junta. civilians were mas- communists and members of labor In 1971, in eastern parts of Santiago, unions in Indonesia during the 1965 up in the hills where many supporters sacred during coup against the nationalist leader of President Allende lived, a short mes- Sukarno. Although all the documents sage was plastered on the walls. “Jakarta the war. about the CIA involvement in the coup se acerca” (“Jakarta is Coming!”) Or that brought the tyrannical regime of sometimes, simply, “Jakarta.”

24 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 The Disproportionate Blues By Kevin Cooper

Here in the year of 2020 of the 21st This modern-day coronavirus pan- yet no matter what state you go to we are century, we descendants of the people demic is just the latest example of how the majority of the people who are dying who created and first started singing the much times have not changed. Just as from this coronavirus, except in certain blues set to music, way back in the 19th former President George W. Bush did parts of New York where Latinos are the century, are still singing the blues today. not care about Black people during majority, and on reservations where Those people who historically gave us the Hurricane Katrina, as rap and hip-hop Native Americans are the majority. reasons to write and sing the blues because artist Kanye West stated back then, this It appears that in every positive of our ill treatment and overwhelming present-day President Donald J. Trump index in America, Black people are at oppression could not truly understand, doesn’t care about Black people either the bottom of the list, from jobs to appreciate or relate to our historical or before, during and after this Covid-19 home ownership, to wealth, to life present-day pain and suffering. pandemic. The exposure to this pan- expectancy, to healthcare access, to We African Americans have often demic is one more spot on a long list of college or higher education and more. been told that times have changed. We examples of just how vulnerable Black people are to dying from lack of access Yet we are always at the top of the have been told by the powers that be list when it comes to negative things in throughout this country’s history and to healthcare, as has been true through- out our history in this country. this country: mass incarceration, the our existence to stop crying, to get death penalty, lack of healthcare, his- over it, to move on, and for the most torical racism and injustice, genera- part we have tried to do so. We have tional poverty, institutional racism, tried to stop complaining and crying “If Black Americans had discrimination that is built into all about our collective pains, and that is died of Covid-19 at the public and some private policies, police why the blues was created. It was the same rate as white brutality, and just about everything only form that Black people could use else negative in this country. to express the pain and seemingly Americans, about 9,000 never-ending suffering that we were Yet, it is we who are blamed by and still are experiencing. of the nearly 15,000 those in power and their supporters for Black residents who our own demise and ill treatment. We It was the only form that we could are blamed for having to eat processed use that would not get us murdered by have died in these states foods and cheap foods, for having to those in power who wanted us to be would still be alive.” live in food deserts. We are blamed for content enough to not stand up and being overweight, for having diabetes speak out against everything negative and hypertension. We are blamed for that was happening to us. Our tortured history has shown over all the underlying healthcare or medi- We are tired of pretending that time that healthcare, or lack thereof has cal problems that we as poor and mar- times have changed and hearing how played a pivotal part in our lives, and ginalized people have. We are blamed much times have changed because in more important, our deaths, especially in for living in rat-and-roach-infested reality the times have not changed all preventable deaths. But America as a ghettos because of social or economic that much in certain aspects of whole is not about prevention, it is about pressures out of our control. We are American life. We know this from the reaction. Well, preventable deaths for the blamed for being Black, for all the brutal killing of George Floyd by a rich and powerful is a given, but for the negative things that happen to us white policeman in front of the eyes of rest of us, especially we Black, Brown and because of the color of our skin. Native Americans, it sometimes seems as the world. We know this when certain This is why we are still singing the catastrophic events happen that reveal though our deaths are welcomed by the healthcare system which is an arm of the blues, as this is our past, present and just how times have not changed, probably future in the good ’ol US of A. events like Hurricane Katrina or other rich. Neither cares about us, and if they natural and man-made calamities that can’t make money off of us and our suf- Prison warehouses have exposed the truth about this fering, then the hell with us. The modern-day plantation/prison country’s treatment or lack thereof African Americans make up on 13 system in this country is having its own concerning Black and Brown people. percent of the population in this country, problems with the coronavirus pan-

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 25 demic. This is because historically Here are some examples of the dif- Republicans don’t care about speaking, the prisons have been used to ferent types of blues that we sing, Black people blues. warehouse its unwanted and expend- although our blues are close to what • White supremacy is still alive able people: Black people. Inside these many others are experiencing at this and well in America blues. modern-day plantations, real health- point in history. Still, in disproportion- care is virtually non-existent. There is ate numbers are our pain, suffering • I experience racism and dis- no social distancing, and depending on and deaths. crimination blues. • what state you’re in, there is no hand • The Depression blues We have lead in our drinking sanitizer or anything else. But this is water blues. • Another Black person was bru- just fine for most of Americans because • tally killed by a white cop blues. I got life in prison without they see Black people as a problem parole blues. people who should be locked up. • Police brutality blues. • I got the coronavirus blues. When a white person does some- • My loved one died from I could go on and on about why Black thing illegal, he or she is just one bad Covid-19 blues. people sing the blues, but my point has person. But when it’s a Black person, he • I ain’t got no healthcare blues. been made. That, along with this: or she is from a problem people, and all • I ain’t got no healthcare insur- According to the APM research lab staff’s problem people should be put away in ance blues. May 5, 2020 report, “If Black Americans cages or murdered. This is all part of had died of Covid-19 at the same rate as the history of Black people in all states, • I can’t get a doctor to treat me white Americans, about 9,000 of the especially in those ex-slave states like blues. nearly 15,000 Black residents who have Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, • I lost my job blues. died in these states would still be alive.” Florida, Georgia, Texas, and others, • I don’t have a job blues. that all now have Republican gover- These are states such as Kansas, nors, all voted for Trump, and all have • I need a job blues. Wisconsin, Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, disproportionate numbers of Black • I’m homeless blues. New York, Oregon, South Carolina and people who have suffered and died • others. I think it’s about time that we stop I ain’t got no money blues. singing the blues, and start crying the blues from coronavirus. Those are also the • states that did not and do not want My house was foreclosed on because this is a low down dirty shame! their residents to have Obamacare. So, in 2008 blues. —Sheerpost, June 24, 2020 • while in some cases chronic health con- I’m still called a nigger blues. https://scheerpost.com/2020/06/24/ ditions play a part in why Blacks are • I don’t have any food blues. the-disproportionate-blues/ disproportionately getting and dying • I can’t feed my children blues. Kevin Cooper is an innocent man on San from the coronavirus, the country’s • I’m still in prison blues. Quentin’s Death Row in California. He contin- historical treatment and social factors ues to struggle for exoneration and to abolish have a large part to play in this disaster. • I’m innocent on death row blues. the death penalty in the whole U.S. Learn more As was stated recently by Stephen • I was stopped while driving in about his case at: www.kevincooper.org. Thomas, professor of health policy and a white neighborhood blues. Write to: management director of the Maryland • I was stopped driving while Kevin Cooper #C-65304 4-EB-82 Center of Health Equity at the Black blues. San Quentin State Prison University of Maryland School of San Quentin, CA 94974 • Public Health: “The data is clear and I was arrested for walking www.freekevincooper.org has been clear for decades, African while Black blues. Americans, Latinos and other minority • They think I’m a criminal blues. groups live sicker and die younger.” He • I can’t even get welfare blues. also said: “We cannot close our eyes or • I’m followed around the store put up blinders to the disproportionate without getting service blues. impact of this disease on racial and FREE ethnic minority communities.” • I go to a segregated school blues. I say, “Nor can we close our ears as • I live in a segregated neigh- KEVIN to the real reason why Black people borhood blues. continue to sing the blues.” • Mitch McConnell and his COOPER

26 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 Remaking the World “Defund the police” and “cancel rent” aren’t reforms, but paths to revolution. By Amna A. Akbar

The uprisings in response to the damental critique of the status quo and its proponents argue—despite no sig- killing of George Floyd are far different a radical vision for the future. nificant evidence to back that up. from anything that has come before. Consider the appeal to defund and dis- Defunding suggests the problem is Not just because they may be the larg- mantle the police, championed by almost not isolated, nor is it a result of a few est in our history, or that seven weeks every major social movement organization officers’ attitudes. It challenges the in, people are still in the streets (even if on the left, from the Black Visions power, the resources and the enor- the news media has largely moved on.) Collective to Mijente to the Sunrise mous scope of the police. Whether But also because, for the last few years, Movement, and echoed on the streets. they are responding to a mental health organizers have been thinking boldly. emergency or deployed to a protest, They have been pushing demands— their training and tools are geared from “defund the police” to “cancel ...the people making toward violence. rent” to “pass the Green New Deal”— these demands want a The demand for defunding sug- that would upend the status quo and gests, as the police and prison aboli- redistribute power from elites to the new society... tionist Rachel Herzing often says, that working class. And now ordinary people the only way to reduce police violence are, too; social movements have helped Defunding, part of a strategy to is to reduce police officers’ opportuni- spread these demands to a public mobi- ties for contact with the public. The lized by the pandemic and the protests. eventually abolish the police, challeng- es the prevailing logic of police reform: protests have forced us to rethink state- These movements are in conversa- the idea that police brutality is caused sanctioned violence as our default tion with one another, cross-endorsing by individual bad apples acting with- response to social problems, to recon- demands as they expand their grass- out sufficient oversight and training. sider the hundreds-of-billions of dol- roots bases. Cancel the rent campaigns This idea undergirds the familiar pano- lars we have spent on prisons and the have joined the call to defund the ply of reforms: body cameras, commu- salaries of more than 800,000 sworn police. This month, racial, climate and nity policing, implicit bias workshops. law enforcement officers. economic justice organizations are If officers are properly equipped and The uprisings have also expanded hosting a four-day crash course on controlled, there will be less violence, the space for a reckoning with the fail- defunding the police. Each demand demonstrates a new attitude among leftist social move- ments. They don’t want to reduce police violence, or sidestep our envi- ronmentally unsustainable global sup- ply chain, or create grace periods for late rent. These are the responses of reformers and policy elites. Instead, the people making these demands want a new society. They want a break from prisons and the police, from carbon and rent. They want coun- selors in place of cops, housing for all and a jobs guarantee. While many may find this naïve, polls, participation in protests and growing membership in social movement organizations show these demands are drawing larger and larger parts of the public toward a fun- Adam Maida

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 27 ures of liberal reforms and with the pos- push to cancel rent. It asks the state to restoring and redistributing social sibility of doing things in radically dif- abolish tenants’ obligations to pay their wealth, as the Red Nation’s Red Deal ferent ways. Tinkering and training can- landlords each month. But rent is the puts it, to those who created it: “work- not fix our reliance on police officers to product of a private contract about ers, the poor, Indigenous peoples, the deal with routine social problems private property: the foundation of our global South, women, migrants, care- through violence and the threat of it. social, economic and political order. takers of the land, and the land itself.” The demand for defunding calls So when organizers make the Here, too, you see the connections— into question the fundamental premise demand to cancel rent, they are con- among Indigenous resistance, environ- of policing: that it produces safety. It juring up a state whose primary alle- mental justice and more. urges us to take collective responsibili- giance is to people’s needs instead of Leftist movements today see our ty for collective care, repair and redress. profit. The demand raises the possibil- crises as intersectional. Police violence, It shifts our vantage point on persistent ity of a world where housing is an global warming and unaffordable problems: for example, to guarantee entitlement rather than a commodity. housing are not disconnected, discrete housing for all rather than to continue It aims to shift power from landlords problems; instead, they emerge from to arrest and cage this country’s more to tenants, in the service of visions of colonialism and capitalism. Organizers than 567,000 homeless people. housing for all. recall these histories and tell stories of Or consider the environment. The freedom struggles. Green New Deal does not merely call for ...the only way to reduce less pollution. It requires that we restruc- police violence is to ture our economy so we can move to We have no clean, renewable energy sources and reduce police officers’ net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. guaranteed healthcare, opportunities for con- To get there, the Green New Deal wages, housing or tact with the public... calls for enormous investments in pub- lic transit, universal healthcare, free food; we can’t even public college tuition and millions of provide personal The call to defund the police is often high-wage green jobs. It emphasizes accompanied by a call to shift resources that everyone ought to carry out its protective equipment. elsewhere, to education, housing and projects, with a central role for work- These failures have healthcare. The pandemic has put on ing-class people of color. The bill’s display the spectacular contradiction vision is so counter to the actual prac- devastated Black com- such appeals reveal. We have no guaran- tices of the state, and to the talking teed healthcare, wages, housing or food; points of the Democratic and munities in particular. we can’t even provide personal protec- Republican Parties, you have to stretch tive equipment. These failures have dev- your imagination to understand it. astated Black communities in particular. And that is the point. And whatever you think of their demands, you have to be in awe of how But then, in response to Black Lives Organizers often call these demands they inaugurate a new political Matter protests, the police show up in “non-reformist reforms,” a term moment, as the left offers not just a high-tech gear and military-style vehi- coined in the 1960s by the French searing critique, but practical ladders cles to arrest, gas and bludgeon pro- socialist André Gorz. Reform on its to radical visions. These capacious testers, demonstrating where our tax own is a tired continuation of liberal demands create the grounds for multi- dollars have gone instead. The demand politics and legalism, expert-driven racial mass movements, our only hope for defunding shifts power and our and elite-centered. Even now, policing for a more just future. imaginations away from the police and experts are grasping to turn the energy toward a society rooted in collective around “defund” toward the same old Amna A. Akbar (@orangebegum) is a care for ordinary people. It brings into reforms, and mayors are endorsing professor at the Moritz College of Law at sharp relief who we have allowed our- superficial budget cuts, diluting the Ohio State University. selves to become and offers a vision for bold demands. —New York Times, July 11, 2020 who we could be. The way to respond is to stay focused https://www.nytimes. Taking money away from the police on building mass movements of ordi- com/2020/07/11/opinion/sunday/ is not the sole demand. Consider the nary people who are serious about defund-police-cancel-rent.html

28 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 “All Evictions are Violent” The tenant uprising is here, and it’s fierce By Emma Ockerman

In recent days, tenant activists have our society that let people like us fall to confront a landlord who had alleg- stormed courthouses in Kansas City through the cracks.” edly tried to force out his tenants, and New Orleans. They’ve crowded, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo according to Gothamist. chanting, into real estate law firms in extended the state’s eviction moratori- In Los Angeles, activists blocked a New York City. They’ve protested out- um until September 4 this week, just moving van from removing a tenant’s side a mayor’s home in Los Angeles and before it was scheduled to expire. belongings after their landlord had marched with signs through another The demonstrations are an extension changed the locks on their apartment, mayor’s neighborhood in Milwaukee. of the organizing that led to rent strikes according to the Real Deal, a media com- Their message to landlords and gov- and the formation of tenant unions pany covering real estate. A contractor ernment leaders: Don’t allow evictions across the country earlier this year, armed with a power drill got the door to occur during a global pandemic. when activists warned that the country open so the tenant could move back in. Tenant activists are worried about the would face widespread homelessness And the protests aren’t just happen- millions of unemployed Americans who without significant government action. ing at homes but on the doorsteps of now stand on the edge of an unprece- While states and municipalities city and court officials. Perhaps most dented housing crisis that could leave as enacted eviction moratoriums in remarkably, anti-eviction protesters many as 40 million people facing evic- response to their pleas, many of those gathered outside a New Orleans court- tion by the end of the year. protections have expired or weakened house in such great numbers last week “We are standing up to put a stop to in recent weeks, as the pandemic has that they effectively walled off entranc- this,” Iris Butler told the Denver Post grown worse. A moratorium on evict- es, leading cases to be rescheduled. Thursday, August 6, 2020, when about two ing tenants from federally backed That same day, Kansas City tenant dozen protesters demonstrated in front of properties expired last month, right organizers rallied outside a courthouse, the Webb Municipal Building to demand around the time an extra $600 weekly while some protesters took turns enter- the restoration of Colorado’s eviction mor- benefit for unemployed workers lapsed. ing courtrooms. In doing so, one activ- atorium, which expired in June. And Congress has yet to come to an ist, Jenay Manley, was arrested after she Cops in SWAT gear later told the agreement on another relief package. chanted “All evictions are violent” anti-eviction protesters to disperse or With its increasing urgency, the ten- before a judge, disrupting proceedings, face arrest, according to the Denver Post, ant movement now echoes the wave of according to NBC News. so the group moved closer to the street. demonstrations that occurred in the —Vice News, August 7, 2020 1930s during the Great Depression, Nearly 1,700 miles away, about 50 https://www.vice.com/en_us/ when some New York City activists not anti-eviction protesters also gathered article/7kpdyq/the-tenant-uprising-is- only withheld rent but fought the police outside a courthouse in Ithaca, New here-and-its-fierce York on Thursday. They brought and landlords who couches and shopping carts into the tried to evict them. driveway of the Ithaca Police So-called “evic- Department and court building to rep- tion blockades,” licate the scene of an evicted home, in which activists according to the Ithaca Voice. personally protect “During the pandemic when all of tenants from us got laid off from our jobs and we removal, have also can’t fight for higher wages anymore, resurfaced with we had to turn to fighting to stay in force during the homes,” Genevieve Rand, an organizer pandemic. for the Ithaca Tenants Union said dur- Activists gath- ing the protest, according to the Ithaca ered outside a Renters facing risk of evictions and their supporters protest as they demand Voice. “The pandemic has exposed Brooklyn apart- developer Geoffrey Palmer to cancel their rent on July 31, 2020 in Los down to the cracks, all the breakage in ment last month Angeles.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 29 Cell Phones, Not Guns in Today’s Protest Movement By Tina Jenkins-Bell

violence against African Americans in legacy from which modern law enforce- part by protecting Oakland’s Black ment in America derived its overarch- communities with armed organized ing purpose, the protection of property patrols. At the time, California resi- and wealth, not people—especially not dents were legally allowed to carry Black people.” weapons openly. After the Panthers While the Black Panthers worked to began to take advantage of this law, the connect history to the realities of police state Legislature passed a law banning violence and structural discrimination the open carry of loaded weapons by they faced, they gained widespread anyone outside of law enforcement or notoriety—and support from activ- others with explicit authorization to do ists—when armed members marched so. The National Rifle Association, into the California state Capitol to which vehemently opposes gun con- protest the bill that later became the trol, supported the law. Mulford Act, banning the open carry Former Black Panther Henry “Hank” Jones says Today’s activists need patience, said of weapons. Black Lives Matter protesters have avoided some of the mistakes made by the Panthers. Courtesy Jones, who at 85 doesn’t expect to see These days, Black Lives Matter Henry Jones radical change in his or possibly in his activists and their allies are using grandchildren’s lifetimes. “We were At a Blacks Lives Matter protest, a phones instead of firearms, recording trying to make a revolution in our life- videos of police killings and other bru- young woman stares boldly into the time,” he said. “You can’t rush things.” camera’s lens, hoisting a sign that reads, tality that have gone viral repeatedly. “George Floyd isn’t a wake-up call. The Other former Black Panther Party The resulting waves of outrage, ampli- same alarm has been ringing since 1619. members similarly connected the dots, fied by immediate access to millions of Y’all just keep hitting snooze.” outlining how the Black Lives Matter viewers via social media, culminated in protests against police brutality serves as the current movement of daily protests The last time the alarm rang this an extension not just of their own strug- that have spread around the world over loudly may have been when the Black gle in the 1960s and ’70s, but also of the last month. Panthers built a nationwide movement. struggles stretching much farther back. From “Pony Express” to social What distinguishes the Black Lives “We have all been encouraged by media posts Matter movement from the Black the energy of the Black masses and our Panther Party, which brought national allies in protesting the murder of “Back then, we didn’t have the tech- attention to police brutality and racial George Floyd, but as each of you are nology that Black Lives Matter has,” injustice more than half-a-century ago, well aware the murder and brutality said Jones. “Our news and information is widespread appeal, said one early visited upon our people is nothing were transmitted by Pony Express. You member of the Black Panthers. His aberrational or new,” said 17 former couldn’t flick your finger across a simple advice for the younger genera- party members in an open letter to screen and have information immedi- tion: Stick with it. hip-hop artists published June 10. ately at your disposal.” “I see Black Lives Matter trying to “The butchering, torture, and dehu- Today’s activists—including one in my avoid the mistakes we made,” said Henry manization of Black people extends to own family—recognize the huge advan- “Hank” Jones, who was active in the San the bullwhips, castrations, and mass tage modern organizing tools give them to Francisco chapter starting in 1968. “We rape on the plantations of America’s control and distribute their message. allowed ourselves to be marginalized. European ‘founding fathers’ and con- “One of the big issues of the late ’60s We had ego issues, went to the gun too tinues to this day,” said the letter from and ’70s was limited opportunities to soon, and allowed the government to the party members, including Kathleen present themselves to the country,” label us as gun-crazy criminals.” Cleaver, former communications sec- said Kamel Jacot-Bell, a San Francisco- The Black Panther Party for Self- retary and organizer of the campaign based activist who is also my nephew. Defense, as it was initially known, was from 1968 to 1970 to free co-founder His understanding of how the Black founded in 1966 to challenge police Huey Newton from jail. “This is the Panthers worked and how they com-

30 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 pare with the current movement come fed more than 20,000 children in 1969. The power of multiracial cam- in large part from his father, Herman From storefronts, trailers and tenu- paigns and modern tools Bell (my brother-in-law), a former ously constructed shacks, their People’s Black Lives Matter protests have member of the Black Liberation Army Free Medical Center offered screenings taken a different tack, shutting down and the Black Panther Party, who for high blood pressure, lead poison- major business and retail districts, served almost 45 years in prison after ing, tuberculosis, diabetes and cancer, blocking traffic on major throughways being convicted in the killings of two physical exams, immunizations and in major U.S. cities and bleeding over New York City police officers. other primary care services. These cen- from primarily minority communities “They had the Black Panther Party ters predated President Bill Clinton’s into integrated and predominantly Newspaper, but that had a limited cir- attempt at universal healthcare and white communities as well. culation,” said Jacot-Bell. “They had President Barack Obama’s affordable healthcare program. With mass mobilization reminis- few other tools to get their message out cent of the civil rights era, the move- beyond television, which was owned by ment’s far-reaching, influential social the corporate structure and the state media awareness-building campaigns who distorted their intentions.” “We were about nation and largely peaceful protests have suc- While some former party members building for Blacks,” ceeded in changing the national con- laud the “wonderful consciousness” Jones said. “That meant versation and spurring progress. they see behind the current protests, you didn’t call the police After worldwide demonstrations, all they also question whether the Black four officers involved in Floyd’s death Lives Matter movement will have stay- when you had an issue. were arrested and charged. Charges ing power without a set platform, pro- People called the Black against Derek Chauvin, the police offi- gramming and goals. cer seen with his knee on Floyd’s neck, “Black Lives Matter has adopted Panther Party to settle were upgraded from third—to second- some of the same policies the Black their issues.” degree murder. Afterward, Minneapolis Panther Party put forth as far as police announced plans to disband its police community review boards, observers department. Several other cities, includ- and calling for the dismantling of the Other programs included the ing New York and Los Angeles, have police,” Jones said. But their methods People’s Free Ambulance Service, a food announced plans to redirect part of their might need more “teeth” or strategies pantry for the poor and the Black police departments’ budgets to youth for community building beyond the Student Alliance, which provided men- and social services. San Francisco Mayor protests, he added. toring and support for Bay Area college London Breed on June 11 announced a students. The mission of the latter pro- plan to redirect some police funding to The Black Panthers, co-founded by gram can be seen in modern day Black Newton and Bobby Seale, developed a the African American community and male and minority mentoring programs institute other police reforms. ten-point program articulating their at universities. Finally, the Black Panther demands and philosophy. It declared Party newspaper kept the community Louisville’s Metro Council is consid- their independence from a racist soci- apprised of the party’s initiatives, issues ering a law, named in honor of Breonna ety and outlined ideals, modes of oper- and ideologies as well as struggles affect- Taylor, to limit the use of “no knock” ation and organizational structure. ing the Black community. search warrants. Taylor was shot and killed in her home by Louisville police Community building as social and “We were about nation building for after they used a no-knock warrant to political strategy Blacks,” Jones said. “That meant you enter her apartment. Elsewhere, statues Though they are often remembered didn’t call the police when you had an of racists and Confederate monuments for their gun-toting activism and were issue. People called the Black Panther are being torn down. Even popular depicted in mainstream media as a Party to settle their issues.” Members racecar circuit NASCAR will now pro- Black militant militia, the Black Panthers were known to carry guns in one hand hibit the display of the Confederate flag created more than 60 programs to aid and a law book in the other to protect at its events. the community, some of which have and advise Black people who had been “The next step is for people to orga- been emulated by governmental, pri- stopped or harassed by the police. nize within themselves in various vate and nonprofit organizations. “There was ownership in the com- aspects, like providing actionable steps The Black Panthers sponsored a free munity,” he added. “You didn’t have to defund the police, creating alternative hot breakfast program in 19 cities that to call in outsiders.” options for security and safety in our

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 31 community, economic blocs and ways Suicide or Lynching? to create ownership and equity within our communities,” Jacot-Bell said. Five people of color found hanged in less than a month Despite their achievements, all revo- By Ezra Brain lutions or movements have arcs that can go from success to dormancy if partici- Across the country, Black bodies are A week earlier and only 50 miles pants are not careful, some former Black being discovered hanging in trees and away, another Black man, Malcolm Panthers said. To avoid that, they said the police are dragging their feet on the Harsch, was discovered hanging from a long-range planning is essential. investigations. From California to Texas tree across from a library. Police also to New York City, more and more ruled Harsch’s death a suicide despite Jones emphasized the importance of Black people are being discovered the fact that there was blood on his continued pressure to eliminate struc- hanged in the midst of a national upris- shirt, possibly indicating a struggle, tural racism. “This generation is amaz- ing against police brutality, and anti- and Harsch’s family initially insisted ing. It’s the generation after the Black Black racism. In each case, the police that he was not depressed, and that Panther Party who dropped the ball,” have labeled these deaths a suicide with suicide was “not plausible.” Yet anoth- he said. “They thought they were free. little to no investigation. That the police er example comes from this past week They thought hard work and following are doing this—and often disregarding after Dominique Alexander, a Black the rules would gain acceptance. the victims’ families assertions that they man from the Bronx, was discovered Racism knocked that out.” were not suicidal—is both outrageous hanging from a tree in upper Now that the movement has spread and offensive because it assumes that Manhattan. Also, in New York City, around the globe, it’s important to Black people across the country are nooses appeared in a city park the think ahead and be deliberate, he sug- suddenly choosing to take their own night before Juneteenth. Again, the gested. “Black Lives Matters has to be lives in a way that very specifically NYPD was uninterested in investigat- in this for the long haul.” evokes the racist violence of the KKK in ing. Since May 27, at least five people —San Francisco Public Press, June the Jim Crow era. No, the much more of color have been discovered hanging 23, 2020 likely scenario is that these men were in trees across the country. murdered as retaliation for the mass https://sfpublicpress.org/news/2020- History textbooks and pieces of art protests against police violence and that 06/Black-panthers-see-echoes-in- will often try to portray the violence of the police are helping to cover it up. todays-protest-movement-with-focus- the Jim Crow era as something that on-cell-phones-not-gun Public outcry has been quick and happened in the past, something we loud. Parents and loved ones have have moved on from, but anyone who largely denied that these could have has been paying attention knows that is been suicides, and activists have called a lie. The hundreds of police murders “Back then, we didn’t for more investigation. In response to of Black men this year and the very- have the technology these pressures, as well as the pressure real possibility that we are in the midst of the ongoing protests, some police of a modern resurgence of lynching that Black Lives Matter departments have begun to re-examine show that vile ideology of white has,” said Jones. “Our their initial claims; but it is very clear Supremacy is still a very real threat to that the state is perfectly happy for Black communities. American capital- news and information these victims to remain nameless Black ism is built upon anti-Blackness and were transmitted by bodies. But they do have names. These cannot survive without it. Because of victims of what are very possibly mod- this, violence will always be used to Pony Express. You ern day lynchings include Robert Fuller, continue the racist system. Often this couldn’t flick your fin- a Black man who was found hanging violence will be from agents of the state from a tree in Los Angeles where the themselves, as we saw in the murder of ger across a screen and coroner declared his death a suicide, a George Floyd and so many others. But ruling that is now being walked back this violence can and does often come have information after mass public outrage. Just a few from racist vigilantes, such as in the immediately at your days after Fuller’s body was found, offi- murder of Ahmaud Arbery. These vigi- cers from the LA sheriff’s office shot lantes are not always explicitly in league disposal.” and killed his brother, in an incident with the state, but they serve the same that there is no video evidence of. purpose. That is why, in the midst of

32 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 the largest uprising against racist vio- As the movement develops, protesters https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/oluwatoyin-salau-dead- lence in a generation, many are wor- must raise the names of these new vic- aaron-glee.html ried that we are seeing a return of tims of racist violence in their calls for 2 “Oluwatoyin Salau, Missing Black Lives Matter Activist, Is Found Dead” lynching. Because by challenging the justice. We must demand justice not Ms. Salau, 19, was found dead along with a 75-year-old woman, existence of the armed force of the state only for George Floyd and Breonna Victoria Sims, in Tallahassee, Florida, the police said. A suspect in and the racism that sustains it, protest- Taylor but also demand full investiga- their deaths has been charged with murder and kidnapping. ers are coming very close to challeng- tions for Robert Fuller, Malcolm https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/oluwatoyin-salau-dead- ing the full system itself. It is no won- Harsch, Tete Gulley, Dominique aaron-glee.html der then that vigilantes are taking it Alexander, and everyone else who has upon themselves to attack protesters— been murdered by racists. Politicians, be it by driving their car into protests seeking to co-opt and contain the move- or by a possible return to the murder- ment, are trying to claim that the minor ...the much more ous intimidation tactics of lynching— reforms they are offering represent jus- likely scenario is and it is unsurprising that the police tice for Floyd. But even if they were aren’t investigating. enough—and, of course, they aren’t— that these men In several states, videos from pro- we must still fight justice for these other tests have emerged of police officers victims. As the chant goes, no justice, no were murdered as actively collaborating with armed peace. The state cannot give us justice, members of the Far-Right. In one so let us give them no peace. retaliation for the video, an officer warns the right wing- —Left Voice, June 20, 2020 mass protests against ers, who are all toting guns, that they https://www.leftvoice.org/suicide-or- are about to gas the unarmed protest- lynching-six-people-of-color-found- police violence and ers but that he couldn’t do it publicly hanged-in-less-than-a-month because he didn’t want it to look like that the police are the police were “playing favorites.” This video was a visceral example of 1 “Oluwatoyin Salau, Missing Black Lives Matter Activist, Is helping to cover Found Dead” what we already knew: the far-right Ms. Salau, 19, was found dead along with a 75-year-old woman, it up... and the police are on the same side. Victoria Sims, in Tallahassee, Florida, the police said. A suspect in This is why it took so long to arrest their deaths has been charged with murder and kidnapping. the men who murdered Arbery. This is why these deaths are being labeled sui- cides without investigation. This is why the mysterious deaths of Black Lives Matter activists in Ferguson were never investigated. This is why public outcry about the murder of Oluwatoyin Salau1 is so important. Because the police cover up racist murders, even when they don’t commit them themselves. They do this because white vigilantism provides another form of intimidation that continues the oppression of the Black working class. Just as the KKK served to target Black activists who were fighting state repression in the 1960s, white vigilantes are serving the same purpose now. They are trying to scare people off the streets. So far protesters remain undaunted and these heinous murders are only fueling the anger of the mobilizations. Robert Fuller’s sister, Diamond Alexander, speaking at a demonstration in Palmdale, CA

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 33 “Please Forgive Me” Elijah McClain’s plea as three cops murdered him By Abby Zimet

June 26, 2020—Another one. This was on his way home from a nearby also cited unclear (though sickening) week, three Aurora, Colorado cops convenience store to buy an iced tea video footage and autopsy findings were removed from active duty and the for his brother when officers Nathan that noted “the decedent’s physical state’s governor announced a new Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt and exertion (may have) contributed to investigation into the death last year of Randy Roedema confronted him; death.” Recently, amidst nationwide Elijah McClain, a slight, gentle, quirky, though the caller had said he wasn’t protests against such police atrocities, vegetarian, 23-year-old massage thera- armed and had committed no crime, pressure has been building to bring pist with “a child-like spirit” who was one of the three cops put McClain in a McClain’s killers to justice. On walking home listening to music when Thursday, almost a year later, after the cops stopped, choked and killed millions of people signed an online him for looking “suspicious,” also “I’m sorry” (as he petition, thousands called local and Black. On Aug. 24, police got a call vomits,) “I’m just differ- state officials, and many posted their about a young man waving his hands outrage on social media, Governor (see “music”) and wearing a ski mask, ent,” “Please forgive Jared Polis announced he’s appointing reportedly because he often got cold me,” “I love you.” a special prosecutor to re-investigate from his anemia and, as an introvert, a and possibly prosecute those who mask helped with his social anxiety— killed McClain. After a year, the three an affliction that also led him to visit carotid hold, which cuts off blood to the cops have also finally been removed shelter cats and dogs on his lunch brain, because a 5-foot-6-inch, 140- from regular duty; police will be barred break to play violin for them in hopes pound young man with “crazy strength” from using carotid holds, and dis- it would soothe them. That night, he “resisted contact,” cop-ese for “was ter- patchers will curb calls on “suspicious rified out of his mind.” Due to his “agi- persons.” Still, the story horrifies. So tated mental state,” does the video, however murky, with they then called med- McClain’s frantic, frightened last ics to inject McClain words: “I’m sorry” (as he vomits,) “I’m with ketamine to just different,” “Please forgive me,” “I sedate him. En route love you.” When the governor to the hospital, he announced his action, he said he’d suffered two heart been moved by Elijah’s mom describ- attacks; when he was ing “a responsible and curious child... taken off life support who could inspire the darkest soul.” a few days later, his One of Elijah’s friends likewise recalls family said he was “the sweetest, purest person I have ever brain dead and cov- met...a light in a whole lot of dark- ered in bruises. ness.” So yes, he was all that. But The officers were nobody should have to be any of that subsequently cleared to not be murdered by cops—because, of wrongdoing after one more bruised and furious time, his the DA concluded Black life mattered. they had “lawful rea- —Common Dreams, June 26, 2020 son” to assault McClain and the https://www.commondreams.org/ force they applied further/2020/06/26/please-forgive-me- was “consistent with said-elijah-mcclain-three-cops-mur- training;” officials dered-him

34 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 Breonna Taylor: Victim of Gentrification By Phillip M. Bailey and Tessa Duvall

Louisville, Kentucky, July 5, 2020— the city’s work to support $1 billion in In the affidavit seeking the no- Breonna Taylor’s shooting was the result capital projects there over the past few knock search warrant for Taylor’s of a Louisville police department opera- years, including a new YMCA, the Springfield Drive apartment, Detective tion to clear out a block in western city’s foundational $10 million grant to Joshua Jaynes wrote that he had seen Louisville that was part of a major gentri- the Louisville Urban League’s Sports Glover leave Taylor’s apartment in fication makeover, according to attorneys and Learning Complex, the Cedar January with a USPS package before representing the slain 26-year-old’s family. Street housing development, new busi- driving to a “known drug house.” Lawyers for Taylor’s family allege in nesses, down payment homeownership The detective wrote he then verified court documents filed in Jefferson assistance, and of course, the remaking “through a U.S. Postal Inspector” that Circuit Court Sunday that a police of the large Beecher Terrace initiative.” Glover had been receiving packages at squad—named Place-Based Louisville Metro Police did not Taylor’s address. Investigations—had “deliberately mis- respond to Courier Journal requests for A U.S. postal inspector in Louisville, led” narcotics detectives to target a comment Sunday night. however, told WDRB News that LMPD home on Elliott Avenue, leading them to didn’t use his office to verify that believe they were after some of the city’s Glover was receiving packages at largest violent crime and drug rings. When the layers are Taylor’s apartment and that a different The complaint—which amends an peeled back, the origin agency had asked in January to look earlier lawsuit filed by Taylor’s mother of Breonna’s home being into whether Taylor’s home was receiv- against the three Louisville officers who ing suspicious mail. The office had fired their weapons into Taylor’s raided by police starts concluded it wasn’t. home—claims Taylor was caught up in with a political need to Jaynes is now on administrative a case that was less about a drug house clear out a street for a reassignment until questions about on Elliott Avenue and more about “how and why the search warrant was speeding up the city’s multi-million large real estate approved” are answered, interim dollar Vision Russell development plan. development project... Louisville Metro Police Chief Robert “The execution of this search war- Schroeder said last month. rant robbed Breonna of her life and It is that tenuous connection to Glover Accusations contained in lawsuits do not Tamika Palmer of her daughter,” that led police to Taylor’s apartment on constitute evidence in a court of law and Florida-based attorney Benjamin March 13, Aguiar and his co-counsel, represent only one side of the argument. Crump, who is representing the family, Lonita Baker, say in the complaint. told The Courier Journal on Sunday. Lawyer: Breonna Taylor’s death “Breonna’s home should never have “Its execution exhibited outrageous totally avoidable had police there in the first place,” the recklessness and willful, wanton, The warrants carried out in the nar- attorneys wrote in the filing. “When the unprecedented and unlawful conduct.” cotics investigation on March 13 were layers are peeled back, the origin of A spokeswoman for Mayor Greg meant to target one of the “primary Breonna’s home being raided by police Fischer said the allegations are “outra- roadblocks” to the development: A starts with a political need to clear out a geous” and “without foundation or man named Jamarcus Glover, accord- street for a large real estate development supporting facts.” ing to the complaint. project and finishes with a newly formed, rogue police unit violating all levels of “They are insulting to the neighbor- Glover rented a home in the 2400 block policy, protocol and policing standards. hood members of the Vision Russell of Elliott Avenue in the Russell neighbor- initiative and all the people involved in hood, the filing alleges, placing it squarely “Breonna’s death was the culmination the years of work being done to revital- in the area of the planned redevelopment. of radical political and police conduct.” ize the neighborhoods of west Glover is an ex-boyfriend of Taylor’s According to the police depart- Louisville,” Jean Porter said in a state- with whom she maintained a “passive” ment’s organization chart, the Place- ment. “The Mayor is absolutely com- friendship, Sam Aguiar, one of the Based Investigations (PBI) squad was mitted to that work, as evidenced by attorneys, has previously said. created to address “systemically violent

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 35 locations” and help existing crime Glover was arrested on Elliott Police found drugs and eight guns in deterrence efforts. Avenue that night for trafficking and the search, according to court documents. “PBI focuses on identifying and dis- firearm offenses. The case remains Officers wrote that he was seen driving rupting crime place networks,” the pending in Circuit Court. away as SWAT approached the home, police department’s website says. “These Glover, 30, has faced drug charges and Glover was subsequently arrested networks include crime sites, but also before and had pending drugs and related to the warrant on January 3. places used by offenders that do not weapons charges against him at the City purchases alleged drug typically come to the attention of police. time of the March 13 warrant. home for $1 PBI will collaborate with other govern- Jaynes also requested a warrant for The Jefferson County property ment and community partners to iden- the Elliott Avenue home on April 21, tify and eliminate violence facilitators.” value administrator’s website shows with Glover again listed as a target. after police arrested Glover the second Glover was arrested a second time on Narcotics targets were “not vio- time, the city moved to purchase the April 22 after the warrant was executed, property on Elliott Avenue. lent criminals,” lawyer says court records show, for additional drug Court records show Jaynes sought and trafficking charges. The detective The property’s deed—signed June five warrants on March 12, including signed off on the executed warrant as 5, which would have been Taylor’s one for Taylor’s apartment, a suspect- “J. Jaynes of the LMPD PBI.” 27th birthday—shows Louisville and ed drug house in the Russell neighbor- Jefferson County Landbank Authority The case remains pending. hood at 2424 Elliott Avenue, two bought the home for $1 in June. vacant homes nearby on Elliott Avenue The fair market value of the home, and a suspected stash house on West ...the public land bank however, was $17,160, according to the Muhammad Ali Boulevard. PVA (Property Valuation Administrator.) Glover and a man named Adrian has been acquiring prop- In a three-week span earlier this Walker were named on all five search erties through foreclo- year, eight homes on Elliott Avenue warrants and were among the night’s sure, donation, and were demolished by the city’s contrac- primary targets. tor, the complaint alleges. Only nine some sales... “The reality was that the occupants homes total had been demolished on were not anywhere close to Louisville’s Elliott Avenue in the past 16 years versions of Pablo Escobar or Scarface,” According to the complaint, combined, it says. the court complaint says. “And they LMPD’s Criminal Interdiction Division Fischer’s administration has been were not violent criminals. They were executed a search warrant on 2424 promoting “Vision Russell” since 2016 simply a setback to a large real estate Elliott Ave. and an adjacent home as a plan to stimulate affordable hous- development deal and thus the issue December 30, 2019. Both would be ing and economic growth in the West needed to be cleaned up.” searched again on March 13. End and bridge a racial and economic gap that has been Louisville’s defining divide for decades. His top economic development official called the accusations “a gross mischaracterization of the project.” “The work along Elliott Ave is one small piece of the larger Russell neigh- borhood revitalization and stabiliza- tion work we’ve been doing for years, including the transformation of Beecher Terrace through Choice neigh- borhoods grants,” Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, Louisville Forward chief said in a statement. “We have part- nered with a community organization 19-year-old Sean Ali Waddell, Muhammad Ali’s nephew, at a protest for Breonna Taylor, said a city to understand community needs and and a world that loves Ali so much should honor him by practicing what he preached.

36 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 wants, and the public land bank has Portland Mom Speaks Out! been acquiring properties through foreclosure, donation, and some sales; Statement by Maureen Healy less than half the homes there are occu- pied. We have also been in conversa- Professor Maureen Healy is the chair of By professional training and long tion with nonprofit housing interests the History Dept at Lewis and Clark College. years of teaching, I am knowledgeable about using the publicly acquired She teaches Modern European History, spe- about the historical slide by which seem- properties to create Louisville’s first cializing in the history of Germany and ingly vibrant democracies succumbed to community land trust to ensure invest- Eastern Europe (and the rise of fascism.) authoritarian rule. Militarized federal ment without displacement. Our goal She was shot in the head by federal agents troops are shooting indiscriminately is to provide a safe, clean, desirable, on Monday night in Portland and is recov- into crowds of ordinary people in our and affordable neighborhood for the ering from the injury and the concussion. country. We are on that slide. residents of Russell.” She’s given her permission to share this. It dawned on me in the ER, when I Louisville was among five finalist July 22, 2020—Since June, I’ve been had a chance to catch my breath (post cities that ultimately won a nearly $30 attending peaceful protests in Portland tear gas)—my government did this to million in federal grants in the final neighborhoods in support of Black me. My own government. I was not months of the Obama administration Lives Matter. I have gone with family shot by a random person in the street. to pay for the plan, which included and friends. I am a 52-year-old moth- A federal law enforcement officer demolishing the Beecher Terrace pub- er. I am a history professor. pulled a trigger that sent an impact lic housing development. I went downtown yesterday to munition into my head. Those funds were part of an overall express my opinion as a citizen of the After being hit I was assisted greatly $200 million pot raked in by the Fischer United States, and as a resident of by several volunteer medics. At least one administration from private, founda- Portland, Oregon. This is my home. I of them was with Rosehip Medic tion, nonprofit and public sources. was protesting peacefully. So why did Collective. To take shelter from the tear- City leaders have boasted about federal troops shoot me in the head gas I was hustled into a nearby van. how “Vision Russell” aims to bridge Monday night, July 20, 2020? Inside they bandaged my head and the divide between downtown and its I was in a large crowd of ordinary drove me several blocks away. From adjacent West End neighborhoods, folks. Adults, teens, students. Moms and there my family took me to the ER. I am where it was known to have low- dads. It looked to me like a cross-section grateful for the assistance, skill, and income and crime-scarred streets span- of the City. Black Lives Matter voices led incredibly kind care of these volunteer ning from Ninth to 32nd streets the crowd on a peaceful march from the medics. We must take this back to Black between Broadway and Market streets. Justice Center past the murals at the Lives Matter. Police brutality against “Life does not present us with many Apple store. The marchers were singing Continued on page 38 opportunities like this,” Fischer said in songs, chanting, and saying names of December 2016, “and it’s our duty to Black people killed by police. We make the most of it.” observed a moment of silence in front of Part of the larger “Vision Russell” [the] George Floyd mural. plan was a smaller project called the I wanted to, and will continue to, “‘Keeping It Real’ Elliott Street exercise my 1st Amendment right to Redevelopment,” according to previ- speak. Federal troops have been sent to ously released city plans, which is my city to extinguish these peaceful where the alleged Glover drug house protests. I was not damaging federal that the city bought is located. property. I was in a crowd with at least —Courier Journal, July 5, 2020 1,000 other ordinary people. I was standing in a public space. In addition to being a Portland resi- https://www.courier-journal.com/ dent, I am also a historian. My field is story/news/crime/2020/07/05/lawyers- Modern European History, with spe- breonna-taylor-case-connected-gentrifi- cialization in the history of Germany cation-plan/5381352002/ and Eastern Europe. I teach my students about the rise of fascism in Europe.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 37 Freedom or Freedom of Assembly? Jailed Portland protesters must agree to stop going to protests to be freed By Daniel Villarreal

At least 12 Black Lives Matter pro- Several of the orders had the condi- restrict them from attending Portland’s testers arrested during the ongoing tion written on it before being given to nighttime protests or are forbidden demonstrations in Portland, Oregon a magistrate for signing, according to from being within five blocks of the have been told not to attend protests as the investigative journalism nonprofit federal courthouse where the city’s a condition of their release from jail, ProPublica. nighttime protests are taking place. something which may be a violation of Some of the orders forbid defen- “The government has a very heavy their First Amendment rights to free dants from attending protests in all of burden when it comes to restrictions speech and assembly. Oregon, while others only forbid pro- on protest rights and on assembly,” “Defendant may not attend any tests in Portland or don’t specify any Jameel Jaffer of Columbia University’s other protests, rallies, assemblies or geographic area whatsoever, stating, Knight First Amendment Institute told public gathering in the state of Oregon,” “Do not participate in any protests, the nonprofit. “I don’t see that as con- states a document entitled “Order demonstrations, rallies, assemblies stitutionally defensible, and I find it Setting Conditions of Release.” The while this case is pending.” difficult to believe that any judge would document is given to arrested protesters Several protesters told ProPublica uphold it.” to sign before they’re allowed out of jail. that they felt they had to accept the Portland has become a center of Though the conditional release conditional release or else remain national focus during the ongoing orders were signed by Magistrate imprisoned indefinitely. Many of the racial justice protests sparked by the Judges John V. Acosta and Jolie A. protesters facing these conditional May 25 murder of Black Minneapolis Russo of the U.S. District Court for the releases were often charged with petty resident George Floyd by a white police District of Oregon, it’s unclear whether offenses such as “failing to obey a law- officer. the magistrates or Justice Department ful order” or “disorderly conduct.” More demonstrators have started officials added the condition forbid- Protesters not specifically banned attending Portland’s nightly protests in ding arrestees to attend future protests from protesting are either given 8:00 response to the U.S. government send- or public gatherings. P.M. or 10:00 P.M. curfews that would ing agents to protect the federal court- house where the protests occur. —Newsweek, July 28, 2020 https://www.newsweek.com/jailed- portland-protesters-must-agree-stop- going-protests-freed-1521178

Continued from page 37 Black people is the real subject of these peaceful protests that have been happen- ing in my city and across the country. What happened to me is nothing com- pared to what happens to Black citizens at the hands of law enforcement, mostly local police, every day. And that is why we have been marching. That is why I will continue to march. Please share this story widely.

Federal police confront protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown —Source: Shared on Facebook, July Portland on July 26, 2020. 22, 2020

38 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 Portland Dads with Leaf Blowers By Chris Walker

In response to the use of tear gas blowers as a means to dissipate clouds That prompted a number of being utilized by federal officers against of chemicals away from protesters. responses, some comical and some in demonstrators, including a group of Smaller leaf blowers were also used to disbelief, from users on social media moms, in an uprising in Portland, help get chemicals off people’s bodies, over that official’s bewilderment. Oregon, this week, a like-minded dads’ video also showed. A protester who goes by the alias group encouraged others to show up to A protester by the name of King “Doug Smith” and who spoke to Truthout the event with leaf blowers in order to Turner spoke to local news affiliate about the events in Portland also respond- dissipate the chemical agents. KPTV about the demonstrations, and ed to that DHS official’s complaints. Uprisings in Portland have hap- the federal government’s intrusion into “This dad expresses disdain for pened nightly since the end of May, in the events, suggesting that their pres- Trump using so-called ‘elite’ border response to police violence against ence, not the protesters’, escalated the patrol agents to brutally assault and Black Americans, including renewed situation. abduct peaceful American people in an attention to Jason Washington, a Black “I’ve just had enough. When they American city,” the protester said. resident of the city who was shot and started snatching people [off] the killed by police in 2018. Smith also explained that the use of street, it becomes apparent that the leaf blowers to counter the use of Tensions have escalated in recent federal government is just…not in chemical agents used against demon- weeks as federal officers began appear- check,” Turner said. “It was even tam- strators could be more effective, if even ing at the events. Last week, there were pering down, and then the feds get more protesters showed up with them. reports of agents in unmarked vans involved and lit it up. It’s like throwing “Honestly, I think you’d need scores stopping next to protesters, whisking gas on a fire.” them away in the vehicles without of leaf blowers with a phalanx of dads stated justification and without identi- After word reached the Department holding their ground under pretty per- fying who they were. Those actions of Homeland Security (DHS) about fect conditions to use them effectively prompted outcry from Portland resi- the use of leaf blowers against tear gas, in the dispersal of chemical agents,” he dents, and action from a group of an official within the department told said. “But they are an iconic symbol of mothers who appeared over the week- Washington Post reporter Nick Miroff a tool dads use to clean up messes.” end to protect demonstrators by stand- that they were frustrated with efforts —Truthout, July 21, 2020 ing between them and officers. by protesters to do so, and astonished that they’d return the chemicals back https://truthout.org/articles/port- Those individuals, known as the toward the federal officers who initially lands-wall-of-moms-joined-by-dads- Wall of Moms for their way of inter- fired them off. with-leaf-blowers-against-trumps-police/ locking arms as a means to protect protesters, were themselves attacked by officers with tear gas during their peaceful demonstrations. On Monday, several social media posts from the group known as “PDX Dad Pod” encouraged its members and others to appear with leaf blowers, even telling users who followed them on social media that it would be a great purchase to support local businesses. Video from confrontations between demonstrators and officers on Monday night into Tuesday morning highlight- ed how protesters used hockey sticks to scoot tear gas canisters back toward those who fired them, and the leaf Portland dads with leaf blowers to blow tear gas back to the Federal troops.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 39 Terror Tactics in Portland By Kenn Orphan

“There are decades where nothing state tactics of intimidation. Tear gas Thousands were never recovered as happens, and there are weeks where was employed, “non-lethal” muni- they were discarded in rivers and even decades happen.” —Vladimir Lenin tions, and the psychological terror of in the Pacific Ocean. Even today, fami- Between 1973 and 1990 scores of unmarked vans snatching protesters, lies await justice and the chance to people were disappeared by the U.S. and even those simply standing by, off bury their loved ones. the streets without arrest warrants and supported fascist regime of Augusto Forced disappearances Pinochet in Chile. They were incarcer- whisked off to undisclosed locations. Forced disappearances are a crime ated, tortured and thousands were The use of forced disappearance should against humanity according to the murdered. In fact, the official total of not be underestimated because it is, Rome Statute of the International those killed by the regime is just over perhaps, the most effective tactic at Criminal Court. And there is no statute 40,000. But some critics suggest it was crushing dissent and eliminating polit- of limitations on this crime. But, as we much higher. Pinochet was able to do ical rivals. have seen over the past few decades, all of this with the blessing of the CIA Under the fist of General Pinochet, the U.S. government and military cares who assisted him in the coup against the state became a ruthless force of ter- little for the international rule of law. the elected President, Salvador Allende, ror. In September of 1973, at least Indeed, it has enjoyed impunity for its and in his reign of terror afterward in 10,000 people, many of them students, atrocities while those who violate these Chile. The painful lessons of the activists and political dissidents, were statutes in the Global South are often Pinochet years have often been rounded up by the military shortly brought to trial and punished severely. obscured under neoliberal historical after he took the office of the presi- The U.S. invasion of Iraq, along with revisionism, but with what is currently dency by a U.S. supported and orches- the occupation and atrocities are clear unfolding in cities like Portland, trated coup. They were taken to the examples of this. And under Trump, Oregon, it is urgent to revisit them. National Soccer Stadium in Santiago the American Empire has divorced where they were subjected to torture or When Donald Trump’s federal itself even more from international were massacred outright. Thousands of agents rolled into Portland last week, bodies that seek at least some regula- bodies were buried in mass graves. they began to employ classic police tion of state excesses or the manage- ment of crises. His withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change and his recent withdrawal from the World Health Organization during a global pandemic point to a brazen dis- interest in engaging with the interna- tional community. Pinochet’s Chile was not alone in its use of forced disappearances. During the Dirty War in Argentina at least 30,000 people were disappeared and murdered by the U.S. backed, rightwing military junta. In fact, under the U.S. implement- ed and CIA backed and assisted “Operation Condor,” which targeted left- ist or socialist political activists, student organizers, and academicians, the entire South American continent became a kill- ing field from the 1970s well into the 1980s. Unsurprisingly, the genocidaire Henry Kissinger was deeply involved in Photo by Nathaniel St. Clair these atrocities in much the same way as

40 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 he was in Southeast Asia and on the And, of course, there are other The uprisings taking place across African continent. And he assisted in ingredients to this recipe for disaster. the U.S. are the stirrings of a global marrying federal agencies, surveillance Trump faces a weak candidate in Joe mass movement that shows great and state police, and paramilitary merce- Biden, who cannot seem to form a promise. That they are taking place in naries and death squads to one another in coherent opposition to his blatant fas- the most wealthy and powerful empire order to carry out the crimes successfully. cist impulses. If there is no meaningful on the planet is an indication that this It is not hyperbolic for there to be alternative that represents real change empire itself is beginning to unravel great alarm over Trump’s use of forced in ordinary people’s lives then, like it under the weight of its hubris and a disappearances. Although there have or not, the people will not bother to long legacy of cruelty, racism and bru- been no deaths because of it, his flouting vote. There is also the precarious eco- tality. But no one should underesti- of the rule of law and use of this tactic of nomic situation, the elephant in the mate the tremendous pain a wounded terror is not an accident. And the people room that few wish to acknowledge. giant can inflict as it falls. Its violence is under him have proven time and time With millions unemployed and facing unoriginal, but it will use the only tac- again that they are ever willing to carry eviction or foreclosure, the elements of tics it knows. And we should remem- out his orders. As the election looms in fascism may be coalesced even further. ber that it is quite familiar with atroci- November, we should not underesti- God help us if a climate change fueled ties because it has visited them fre- mate the timing of this either. Across the catastrophe comes this summer or in quently on the Global South for nation protests have arisen to confront the fall, because it will be the perfect decades. Portland is a portent. And, as the long legacy and continuing ruthless- storm for him to pull whatever levels Lenin inferred in the quote above, ness of racist, police state violence. The necessary for him to quell dissent and things can happen rapidly and in a rage has been simmering for a long time, remain in power. He has such mecha- short span of time. We would be wise and the murder of George Floyd ignited nisms at his disposal thanks to the to heed these urgent lessons before it is and galvanized millions to take a stand. Patriot Act and the NDAA (National too late. To Trump, who is one of the most Defense Authorization Act.) He can Kenn Orphan is an artist, sociologist, overtly racist presidents to have taken detain any U.S. citizen indefinitely by radical nature lover and weary, but com- office since Woodrow Wilson or Teddy merely labelling them a terrorist, mitted activist. thanks to legislation designed and Roosevelt, this represents the greatest —CounterPunch, July 21, 2020 threat to his legitimacy. endorsed by George W. Bush and Barack Obama. And he has already The U.S. is now leading the world in begun branding anyone who opposes cases of Covid-19 with over 140,000 his tyranny, like Antifa and Black Lives https://www.counterpunch. deaths. Indeed, the pandemic is cur- Matter, with that spurious charge. org/2020/07/21/the-tactics-of-terror/ rently wreaking havoc on an American healthcare system which was already suffering from disorganization and beholden to the whims and will of merciless capitalist predation. When Trump came in, he literally threw out the handbook on how to deal with global pandemics, so the ongoing pro- tests to police brutality provide him a perfect distraction from his colossal blundering and incompetence.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 41 Police Don’t Belong in the Labor Movement By Kim Kelly

Massive protests against police bru- job. If an ironworker bashed some- As author Kristian Williams explains tality, and in pursuit of justice for one’s head onto the concrete, or a retail in Our Enemies in Blue: Police and George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and all worker shot someone in the back as Power in America, police unions devel- the other Black lives that have been lost they were running away, or a graduate oped in relative isolation from the rest to police violence, have flooded cities student worker ground their knee into of the labor movement, and their reli- and towns in all 50 states, and calls to ance on institutional solidarity is vastly defund the police—or abolish the police different from the class consciousness altogether—have become a rallying cry. ...no other union mem- that powers the organizing of other As members of the police brutalize pro- bers hold the legal abili- workers. “The police are clearly part of testers on-camera and their leaders the managerial machinery of capital- defend their actions, police unions have ty to straight-up kill ism,” Williams writes. “Their status as also come under closer scrutiny from another human being ‘workers’ is therefore problematic. labor activists, rank-and-file union Second, the agendas of police unions members, and others concerned about while on the job... mostly reflect the interests of the insti- the power that these peculiar institu- tution (the police department) rather tions maintain. These associations play someone’s neck until they stopped than those of the working class.” a major part in upholding the evils of breathing, there would be consequenc- Williams argues that the shared police brutality, racism, and white es. Actually, police unions themselves workplace identity that makes up the supremacy, yet they are often tucked used to be illegal, because local govern- “thin blue line” mentality for cops into the background. It’s high time to ments worried about the consequences transcends other identity markers, and shine a spotlight on cop unions. of allowing armed state agents to orga- shows how they view themselves as Police unions have always been out- nize. And historically speaking, the police first, and everything else second. liers among organized labor, and there police have been no friend to workers, As such, police unions tend to keep are many reasons why the Industrial whether officers were shooting at the their distance from the rest of the labor Workers of the World (IWW) union families of coal miners during the Battle movement (unless they’re cracking its has long refused to allow cops (and of Blair Mountain, crushing the ribs of members’ skulls.) Even the basic ter- prison guards) into its organization. immigrant garment workers during the minology is different. These organiza- For one thing, no other union mem- Uprising of the 20,000, or teargassing tions are usually broken down into bers hold the legal ability to straight-up working-class protesters in Minneapolis “lodges” instead of “locals,” and are kill another human being while on the after police killed George Floyd. more often known as “associations” rather than unions. Some people balk at the thought of referring to police associations as “unions” at all, and it’s understandable why, though for the sake of this piece, we’ll hold our noses and use the more common term. Labor unions exist to protect people; police exist to protect property. They may carry their version of union cards and enjoy the benefits of collective bargain- ing agreements, but that’s about where the similarities between cops and unionized workers end. Collective bargaining agreements like the ones that protect many union- ized workers aren’t necessarily the problem; police are state employees, Timothy A. Clary, Teen Vogue and the contracts they work under are

42 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 not always entirely dissimilar from reinstatement of those who actually do for Trump’s reelection, becoming the those that protect public sector work- get fired or charged. As I wrote in the first—and still only—union to do so. ers. The agreements that are different, New Republic, when NYPD officer (In 2016, the country’s largest police though, are part of the reason it can be Daniel Pantaleo was finally fired for his union, the Fraternal Order of Police so hard to fire officers who have com- role in the 2014 death of Eric Garner, (FOP), and the National Border Patrol mitted even the most horrific abuses or the city’s police union immediately Council endorsed Trump, making up murder, and they allow police officers appealed for his reinstatement and his only union endorsements.) The privileges that go above and beyond threatened a work slowdown—a classic IUPA is the only law enforcement what a normal worker might expect. union tactic that the cops used here to union in the American Federation of Contracts that include so-called “Law try and strong-arm a killer back onto Labor and Congress of Industrial Enforcement Bill of Rights” language the force. Organizations (AFL-CIO), the coun- are even worse, giving cops extra pro- try’s largest and more influential labor tections when they face investigations federation, and the IUPA has had a over use of force; in Baltimore, for ...historically speaking, particularly acrimonious relationship example, these protections have been with its ostensible allies and a terrible blamed for getting in the way of prop- the police have been no record on social justice. In 2014, dur- erly investigating the 2014 death of friend to workers, ing the Ferguson uprising, the IUPA Freddie Gray. whether officers were clashed with the AFL-CIO over police brutality; more recently, it reposted a Contracts sabotage accountability shooting at the families May 27 article downplaying George Campaign Zero’s Check the Police of coal miners during Floyd’s death, even as many other initiative analyzed police union con- the Battle of Blair unions and the AFL-CIO itself released tracts in 81 major U.S. cities, and statements condemning police vio- found a number of dangerous com- Mountain, crushing the lence and affirming their solidarity monalities in how these contracts sab- ribs of immigrant gar- with Black Lives Matter. otage accountability. Many of these ment workers during the On top of that, a parade of police contracts protect police through mea- union officials have recently been sures designed to shroud investigations Uprising of the 20,000, caught spewing racist invective and in secrecy and discourage city govern- or teargassing working- inflammatory, misinformed rhetoric ments from taking action, including class protesters in about Black Lives Matter protesters. In preventing police officers from being May, as massive Black Lives Matter interrogated immediately after being Minneapolis after police protests roiled Philadelphia, the city’s involved in an incident, and, most killed George Floyd... police inspector Joseph Bologna was egregiously, limiting disciplinary con- caught on video beating multiple pro- sequences. It should be obvious by now testers and was subsequently charged why this is a problem—Derek Chauvin, Politically, police associations tend with aggravated assault. The politically the cop who killed George Floyd, had to skew much more conservative (or formidable president of Philadelphia’s 18 prior misconduct complaints, and full-on right wing) than most labor FOP Lodge, John McNesby, told his record is hardly unique. unions, which are usually more pro- reporters that he was “disgusted” by Contracts aside, the biggest prob- gressive, or at least in line with main- the fact that Bologna had been charged lem with police unions is the institu- stream Democratic policies. Virulent at all. The union is currently selling tional power they wield, and the ways racism and white supremacy are also “Bologna Strong” merchandise on its they choose to wield it. They’ve known to be a deadly problem within website; meanwhile, one of the people amassed enormous political capital the ranks of law enforcement. After a he attacked required staples and through lobbying and cultivating rela- flurry of Democratic candidates court- sutures. McNesby—who notoriously tionships with politicians, including ed the favor of police unions during referred to BLM protesters as “a pack President Trump. And all too often, the primaries, a number of major of rabid animals” during a 2017 press these apparent labor organizations unions have thrown their support conference—is now spending his time advise cops on how to avoid being rep- behind Joe Biden’s presidential bid, railing against a planned independent rimanded for misconduct, act as a but, in 2019, the International Union evaluation of the police department’s shield to prevent killer cops from fac- of Police Associations (IUPA) had use of force during the protests, during ing consequences, and try to force the already voiced its full-throated support which cops were caught on video

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 43 attacking protesters and teargassing a to cover protests—cheered on the if the AFL-CIO expelled every single crowd of people trapped on a blocked- move. “As long as police unions con- cop in every single one of its affiliate off highway. Circumstances like these tinue to wield their collective bargain- unions tomorrow, the cops themselves explain why so few people trust that ing power as a cudgel, preventing would be fine; they’d be welcomed police unions are capable of meaning- reforms and accountability, no one is with open arms into other indepen- ful reform, or of cleaning out all those safe,” the resolution read. The AFL- dent police associations. But the cogni- “bad apples” that have already spoiled CIO’s response was tepid, at best. In a tive dissonance that comes with know- the bunch. It’s also a major reason why statement that also called for the resig- ing that members of my union are so many labor activists and rank-and- nation of Minneapolis police union being beaten bloody and viciously file members have called on union president Bob Kroll, the AFL-CIO arrested by members of another union leadership to kick out the cop unions instead called for reform, insisting that that falls under that same AFL-CIO once and for all. the answer was to “engage [police] umbrella is sickening, as is the knowl- And yet, the thin hope of reform unions rather than isolate them.” edge that we will have to fight our own seems to be the party line even for leadership to force a change. But I nominally progressive labor leaders. It know that there are a great many of us is true that there are cops scattered Labor unions exist to who are up for the challenge, and this throughout the membership rolls of protect people; police battle is far from over. multiple major unions, and that excis- exist to protect property. As famed abolitionist and labor ing them would be a complex process. leader Frederick Douglass wrote so Critics argue that weakening or cutting cogently in 1857, “Let me give you a ties with police unions could have a word of the philosophy of reforms. The negative impact on public sector Meanwhile, smaller locals and whole history of the progress of human unions as a whole, and the AFL-CIO member unions have been making liberty shows that all concessions yet has been publicly resistant to the idea. their own stances clear and keeping up made to her august claims have been When the Writers Guild of America, the pressure. Rank-and-file members born of earnest struggle.… If there is East (for which I am a member and of various unions are brainstorming no struggle, there is no progress.” councilperson,) became the first AFL- ways to push their leadership into —Teen Vogue, June 25, 2020 CIO affiliated union to explicitly call action. And, to be clear, disaffiliating on the federation to expel the IUPA, from the IUPA is one small step toward many of its members—several of a much bigger goal, and is more a https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what- whom had been arrested while trying moral choice than a political one. Even to-know-police-unions-labor-movement

Secret Police Deployed in Portland By Jake Johnson

Video footage and first-hand accounts ed Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “That Department of Homeland Security of unidentified federal law enforcement is what a police state is all about. Now is (DHS) have reportedly been patrolling officials snatching up Black Lives Matter the time to defend our Constitution. downtown Portland in unmarked protesters in Portland, Oregon and Now is the time to come together and vehicles and detaining demonstrators throwing them into unmarked vehicles defeat Trump’s authoritarian policies.” without explanation since at least July 14 as protests sparked by the police drew nationwide attention and outrage Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Friday, July 17, 2020, with members of killing of George Floyd continue on a called the conduct of federal law enforce- nightly basis across the city. Congress, human rights groups, and ment “outrageous” and said the Trump journalists accusing the Trump adminis- administration “should not be using The Trump administration sent the federal officers to Portland to confront tration of deploying “secret police” to unidentified federal officers as a secret racial justice demonstrators earlier this crush dissent. police force to terrorize U.S. citizens and month against the wishes of Oregon “Unmarked federal agents in combat violate their constitutional rights.” Governor Kate Brown and Portland gear are pulling protesters off the street Federal law enforcement officials Mayor Ted Wheeler, both Democrats. and jailing them without charge,” tweet- from the U.S. Marshals Service and In a Fox News interview Thursday

44 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 night, Acting DHS Secretary Chad Mark Pettibone, a 29-year-old American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Wolf denounced Oregon officials for Portland resident, told the Washington warned that the Trump administration demanding the withdrawal of federal Post that he was detained, searched, may be using Portland as “a test case.” officials, saying, “That’s just not going and placed in a holding cell early “They want to see what they can get to happen on my watch.” Wednesday morning by men wearing away with before launching into other Journalists and demonstrators on military fatigues and no identifying parts of the country,” Khan told the Post. the ground in Portland have docu- information aside from “police” patch- —Common Dreams, July 17, 2020 mented numerous abuses by federal es on their uniforms. The officers, officials, including the indiscriminate according to Pettibone, drove an https://www.commondreams.org/ firing of rubber bullets and tear gas unmarked gray minivan. news/2020/07/17/after-trump-deploys- into crowds of protesters and conduct- “Pettibone said he still does not know secret-police-portland-imagine-what- ing arrests apparently without any who arrested him or whether what hap- happens-if-he-gets-four-more semblance of probable cause. Over the pened to him legally qualifies as an weekend, a federal agent fractured a arrest,” the Post reported. “The federal peaceful demonstrator’s skull with an officers who snatched him off the street “It’s possible that they impact munition. as he was walking home from a peaceful protest did not tell him why he had been are acting under the detained or provide him any record of Federal law enforcement an arrest...As far as he knows, he has not 2011 National Defense officials from the U.S. been charged with any crimes.” Authorization Act, Marshals Service and The Nation’s Jeet Heer wrote Friday that “on the face of it, what these fed- Department of eral officers are doing is illegal and signed by Barack Homeland Security unconstitutional.” Obama, which (DHS) have reportedly “It’s possible that they are acting under the 2011 National Defense legalized the detention been patrolling down- Authorization Act, signed by Barack town Portland in Obama, which legalized the detention of Americans unmarked vehicles and of Americans suspected of being terror- ists,” Heer noted. “If so, then the War suspected of being detaining demonstrators on Terrorism has truly come home.” terrorists,” without explanation Zakir Khan, a spokesperson for the since at least July 14... Oregon chapter of the Council on

“This is terrifying and outrageous,” tweeted Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “Secret police are the purview of authoritarians. Trump is doing this months away from the election because he thinks it helps him. But imagine what happens if he gets four more years.”

Secret police confront demonstrators as Black Lives Matter supporters demonstrate in Portland, Oregon on July 4, 2020.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 45 Military’s Role in Civil Unrest Mass people power mobilization key to military siding with democracy By Jeff Paterson

Recently, Democratic presidential Trump, on the other hand, has out. However, while members of the nominee Joe Biden grabbed national threatened to use the military to sup- military refusing illegal orders in order headlines by sharing that his greatest press domestic protests and citizens’ to side with democracy will be critical fear is that President Trump will “try to freedom of speech. On June 1, President to any resistance movement, I believe steal this election.” Trump ordered military and police to the actions of regular citizens will play Looking at Trump’s own comments, clear peaceful protesters from the front a crucial role in encouraging members it’s a legitimate fear. Trump has on many of the White House to make way for a of the military to do the right thing. occasions shown open admiration for photo op. They did so using dangerous We have seen already how this can rulers of countries known for suppress- rubber bullets, noxious gas, and flash work in the case of the Black Lives ing political opposition and violating bangs. According to The New York Matter protests. Following massive international human rights in their quest Times, Trump also wanted to invoke public outcry, prominent military per- to maintain power, including Vladimir the Insurrection Act to override objec- sonnel have been objecting publicly to Putin of Russia, Kim Jong Un of North tions of U.S. governors in deploying Trump’s use of the military to attack Korea and Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. active-duty troops to other states. peaceful protesters. Earlier this month, Trump has been a consistent advocate Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff If Trump loses, what will citizens for expanding the use of military on General Mark Milley apologized for like you and I do? U.S. soil, having already set a danger- appearing publicly next to President This raises the question: if Trump ous precedent by using the military for Trump during the June 1 event. tries to interfere with a fair election or civil law enforcement at the southern Ex-Defense Secretary and retired United refuses to leave office if he loses, what border. Who’s to say he might not try a States Marine Corps general James will citizens like you and I do? similar tactic to undermine our democ- Mattis condemned Trump’s actions racy around the election? These past few weeks, the Black and publicly voiced support for the Lives Matter protests have been a pow- We can’t just sit by and hope for goals of the Black Lives Matter protests. erful testimony to the impact of collec- the best And four-star General Robert Abrams tive action. Hundreds-of-thousands of As citizens, I’m afraid we can’t held a town hall with Black service people have filled the streets in cities afford to just sit by and see what hap- members called for action to address across the U.S. in response to the mur- pens next. The string of lies and cor- racism in the military’s own ranks. der of George Floyd to draw attention ruption that have been a hallmark of Refusing anti-democratic orders to systematic racism and call for this presidency reveal what is at risk. An increasing number of National reforms. In response to the public Biden has said that if Trump hesitates Guard members and other U.S. sol- pressure, the House of Congress has to leave office after losing the vote, he diers on the frontlines are expressing proposed a sweeping police reform bill. believes the military would escort him political objections to Trump’s anti- democratic actions as well. One National Guard member, who enlisted with hopes to help provide medical services in natural disasters, told Truthout, “I can’t do it. Even look- ing at my uniform is making me feel sick that I’m associated with this, espe- cially after [the National Guard unit] shot that man who owned that barbe- cue shop [in Louisville, Kentucky].” Another stated, “I feel that I cannot be complicit in any way when I’ve seen so many examples of soldiers and

46 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 police acting in bad faith,” and after court martial unless they have a message that can embolden more to expressed concern that “We have not strong political support on their side. take a moral stand in the future. had any training or conversation relat- Research shows military personnel can Additionally, civilians and veterans ing to de-escalation tactics.” play an important role in helping stop have an important role to prepare for. Yet another told Politico that “a lot authoritarianism, such as in Tunisia, We need to be ready for a “people’s of us are still struggling to process this, Egypt and Myanmar (Burma), but in eviction” if necessary. The military is but in a lot of ways, I believe I saw civil each case public pressure played a cru- much more likely to “do the right thing” rights being violated in order for a cial role in convincing members of the with tens-of-thousands surrounding photo op. What I just saw goes against military to break ranks. the White House and every county my oath.” While the U.S. may not be in as dire courthouse or city hall in America. The military oath of office says, “I, of a political crisis yet, it’s not out of If Trump tries to order the military [NAME], do solemnly swear (or affirm) the question that we could find our- to further degrade democracy, massive that I will support and defend the selves there soon. We have an adminis- nonviolent mobilizations are our best Constitution of the United States against tration that has succeeded in desensi- chance to create pressure for service all enemies, foreign and domestic.” tizing much of the public to regular members to stand down, and side with Articles by retired Chief of Staff at Special violations of previously valued norms the people and the Constitution Operations Command, Central, Andrew and civil rights. History in countries instead. around the world, from Nazi Germany Milburn on the U.S. Army’s own website Jeff Paterson is an Oakland, and elsewhere assert that “Any member to the Congo, tells us that given the right circumstances the slide from California-based peace and justice orga- of the military has a commonly under- nizer, and the director of Courage to stood obligation to disobey an illegal democracy to dictatorship can be quick and unexpected. Resist, an organization dedicated to sup- order” and that “As officers, our oath is porting U.S. military war objectors. In to the Constitution rather than to any This makes the actions of vigilant 1990,as a Marine artillery controller, individual or administration.” citizens and activists that much more Corporal Paterson publicly refused Gulf important. Courage to Resist has War deployment. “People’s eviction” may be already been raising funds for the legal required defense of National Guard members —Courage to Resist, June 22, 2020 However, we know that in practice, who refused to deploy against peaceful soldiers disobeying orders for consci- protesters. Supporting these brave ser- https://couragetoresist.org/if-trump- entious reasons often face punishment vice men and women is one way to send refuses-to-leave/

Dictatorship of (White) Capital By Glen Ford

Black politics does not exist in the our times—the Dictatorship of (White) humanity demanding profound chang- Democratic Party, because the duopoly Capital, from which all of the planet’s es in U.S. racial-economic realities is system serves only the corporate rulers. existential crises flow—is verboten, not considered “politics” by the corpo- haram (Arabic term for forbidden), rate media. Rather, it is categorized as What makes the U.S. “chattering unspeakable, most of what’s left to classes” so worthless is their refusal to “protest,” or simply “race”—but not busy the lips is mindless, meaningless talk about anything except those sub- politics, which is the domain of the chatter that is utterly useless to the task jects that are approved for public dis- Democratic and Republican Parties, of fixing what ails society. course by the Lords of Capital, as certi- whose legislative operatives will ulti- fied by the high priests of corporate The duopoly electoral system is a mately process the massed people’s media. If the chattering classes were crucial part of the infrastructure of the demands into oblivion. The duopoly permitted to discuss truly important Dictatorship of (White) Capital, ensures that nothing escapes those subjects—such as, Who Rules?—their monopolizing all political discourse so chambers that threatens the yammering might hold some social that the people believe that “politics” Dictatorship of the (White) Lords of value. However, the obvious fact of consists of voting for one of the two Capital. The people’s aspirations can- corporate dictatorship is also the great corporate brands every two or four not become “politics”—and, therefore, taboo. When the overarching reality of years. The huge recent outpourings of practical, doable and publicly discuss-

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 47 able projects—without the benediction call themselves Democrats? House Democrats as a whole, under of Democrats or Republicans: a core Supermajorities of Democrats also favor Nancy Pelosi’s whip. But this time the corporate position that has the force of a Green New Deal, a minimum living Black members lined up 58 percent for fact as long as the people believe it. wage, and free higher education, none military cuts versus only 40 percent That’s why I’ve chosen a long route of which is reflected in the party plat- among all House Democrats. Could it in getting to the subjects of this week’s form or Joe Biden’s campaign spiel. The be that the “Defund the Police!” column: the threat by dissident people make their policy preferences demands of street “non-politics” had Democratic convention delegates to clear in successive surveys, yet the some small influence on Black stage a Medicare for All revolt; and last Dictatorship of (White) Capital prevails Democrats? If so, it was far too weak a week’s U.S. House vote against cutting on every issue—thus proving that the response to overwhelming Black public Pentagon spending by ten percent. Dictatorship exists. To speak that truth, sentiment historically favoring domes- These are actually stories that affirm however, is haram, and a ticket to the tic spending over the military. the Dictatorship of (White) Capital— fringes where Greens and other loonies Please note the asterisks in front of but which the corporate media monop- howl majority sentiments at the Moon. Alma Adams (FL), Lisa Blunt Rochester oly crafts to prove that “the people” do Black Americans are historically the (DE), Andre Carson (IN), Steven not really want healthcare as a right most peace-minded major U.S. politi- Horsford (NV), and Brenda Lawrence and reject a less bellicose foreign poli- cal constituency, yet this is seldom (MI). These Black Representatives are cy. Otherwise, why would their elected reflected in the voting behavior of also members of the Progressive representatives and presidential nomi- Black Democratic legislators, who Caucus, but they voted to please the nees ultimately choose permanent apparently answer to a Higher Power Pentagon and to preserve domestic domestic austerity and endless war? (White Capital). Of the 48 full voting spending austerity—the policy pillars Somewhere between 700 (Forbes) House members of the Congressional of the Dictatorship of (White) Capital. and more than 360 Democratic dele- Black Caucus, 20 last week voted Nay Eighty percent of the Black Caucus gates (Politico) say they will register on a bill that would have cut Pentagon voted to continue the Pentagon’s pro- their discontent with the party’s failure spending by ten percent across the gram to militarize local police, in 2014, to endorse Medicare for All, by voting board—a modest and symbolic reduc- and 75 percent of Black House mem- against the party platform at the virtual tion. Listed below are the Twenty Black bers supported making police a “pro- convention, next month. The larger Legislative Minions of (White) tected class,” in 2018. The cops have figure is said to include some Biden del- Corporate Warlords: never been popular in Black America: egates that favor Medicare for All *Alma Adams (FL); Colin Allred 89 percent of African Americans told despite their candidate’s vow to veto the (TX); Sanford Bishop (GA); * Lisa pollsters that the criminal justice sys- legislation if it ever reaches his presiden- Blunt Rochester (DE) ; Anthony tem is unfair to Blacks in 2014, when tial desk. The real question: why are Brown (MD); G.K. Butterfield (NC); most of the Black Caucus supported *Andre Carson (IN) ; James E. only a fraction of the delegates to the militarized cops, and a phenomenal 97 Clyburn (SC); Antonio Delgado (NY); percent of Blacks feel victimized by the party’s convention willing to take even a Val Butler Demings (FL); * Steven symbolic stand for legislation that is Horsford (NV); * Brenda Lawrence “protected class” of cops, today. favored by 78 percent of the people that (MI); Al Lawson (FL); Lucy McBath Clearly, the Democratic Party is the (GA); Cedric mechanism that spawns and nurtures Richmond Black politicians answerable to the (LA); Bobby Dictatorship of (White) Capital. Scott (VA); The Black liberation movement David Scott ended half-a-century-ago with the cap- (GA); Terri ture of Black “politics” by the Democratic Sewell (AL); Lauren Party, and can only be revived when the Underwood Party is exposed and opposed as an (IL); Marc enemy institution in our midst. Veasey (TX) —Black Agenda Report, July 30, 2020 Usually, the Black Caucus vote closely fol- https://blackagendareport.com/black- Nancy Pelosi with the members of the Black Caucus. lows that of caucus-and-dictatorship-white-capital

48 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 Immigrants are Dying in Detention By Bianca Sierra Wolff and Lisa Knox

The spread of COVID-19 to immi- In addition to threats of violence which it does. ICE would rather facili- grant detention facilities poses a mortal against detainees, ICE has sought to tate mass deaths in its detention facili- danger to everyone who is unjustly undermine resistance in detention facili- ties than threaten the multibillion-dol- detained. For months now advocates, ties by making outlandish claims that lar detention infrastructure it has built. organizers and those detained have detainees have been coerced into hunger We condemn ICE’s retaliation urged elected officials and governmen- strikes or that advocacy on the issue against detainees who have organized tal agencies to take affirmative steps to “exploits the plight of detainees.” In recent in resistance and who continue to lead prevent needless deaths and suffering weeks ICE has blocked phone calls between a brave struggle to protect their lives inside immigrant detention facilities. local advocates and those in detention in and assert their humanity. We demand Despite the spread of COVID-19 in order to sever communication and coordi- that ICE cease all forms of retaliation these facilities, and the threat it poses to nation with the outside world. against those detained, restore phone those detained, facility staff, and sur- These actions are a blatant attempt access at the Otay Mesa detention facil- rounding communities, U.S. to silence the free speech and expression ity, and free all those who are unjustly Immigration and Customs Enforcement of those detained, and a cruel attempt to and needlessly detained. (ICE) has refused to exercise its legal sever the strong ties and solidarity that We call on elected officials to inter- discretion to release those detained and has developed between those in deten- vene to protect the civil and human rights save lives. By some estimates ICE has tion and their community of support- of those in ICE custody and demand a full chosen to release less than two percent ers. These cruel acts demonstrate just and independent investigation into the of those held in its inhumane jails. In how desperate ICE is to stamp out the cruel and inhumane actions that continue California the situation is compounded flames of organized resistance. to take place in these facilities. as the majority of those detained are The simple truth is that ICE will do Bianca Sierra Wolff is the Executive held in facilities operated by for-profit everything in its power to avoid admit- Director of the California Collaborative corporations with an egregious record ting the most basic truth, that its deten- for Immigrant Justice. of negligence and misconduct. tion system is unnecessary, unjust and Lisa Knox is the immigrant rights man- In an attempt to shed light on these inhumane. ICE’s unwillingness to aging attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza. horrific circumstances, immigrants in release individuals is based solely on detention in California have launched the fact that it does not want to —CounterPunch, June 30, 2020 coordinated hunger strikes, calling acknowledge that it has the power to https://www.counterpunch. attention to their plight, the death of do so, and has always had this power, org/2020/06/30/ice-is-leaving-immi- their fellow detainees, and support for and does not need to detain immi- grants-to-die-in-detention-and-retaliat- the Black Lives Matter movement. grants in the manner and at the rate in ing-when-they-speak-out/ These acts of heroic resistance have been coordinated with and supported by community members, advocates and organizers. In response, ICE and their for-prof- it henchmen have undertaken a vicious campaign against activists in deten- tion, retaliating against them with acts of violence and seeking to delegitimize their words and actions in the press. This includes using pepper spray against detainees who have peacefully protested or refused to sign a legal waiver in order to obtain masks, as well as threatening those who have taken This banner associates those who support ICE as a KAPO—a prisoner in a concentration camp who part in hunger strikes. carried out administrative tasks for the Nazis.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 49 UK Compensation to Slave Traders UK taxpayers were paying compensation to slave traders until 2015 By Jack Peat Slave capital of Britain dants paid off the money that went to Bristol—once known as the “slave their ancestors’ owners. capital” of Britain—has become the “Am I right in thinking that means focus of protests after a statue of that descendants of slaves—who never Edward Colston was toppled. got any compensation—have been pay- The bronze memorial to the slave ing for the compensation paid to slave trader, situated in the city center since owners?” she said. 1895, was torn down after crowds left Don’t you think it’s disgusting…? College Green as part of a Black Lives Stand-up comedian London Hughes Bristol. once known as the “slave capital of Matter demonstration. has reignited the debate over slave Britain,” has become the focus of protests after a statue of Edward Colston, an English merchant, It had been the subject of an trader compensation this week. philanthropist and Tory Member of Parliament 11,000-strong petition to have it removed. She tweeted: who was involved in the Atlantic slave trade, was toppled June 8, 2020. Images showed crowds rushing to “Don’t you think it’s disgusting that stamp on the statue, which stood in Revelations that UK taxpayers have when slavery ended, the UK govern- Colston Avenue, before it was rolled along ment paid out millions to former slave been paying compensation to slave the road and pushed into the harbor. traders up until 2015 has caused out- owners as a way of saying sorry. The debt was so huge it came out of taxpay- rage on social media following the Slave descendants paying com- Black Lives Matter protests. ers money until 2015. Which means pensation to slave owners that I helped pay off the people that The government pledged £20 million in But despite there being no compen- tortured my ancestors.” 1833 in order to reimburse the owners of sation for the victims of the slave trade, —The London Economic, June 11, 2020 slaves when slavery was abolished in Britain. what many people don’t realize is that The sum, while big now, was mon- UK taxpayers have been paying money strous in 1833, and it took the British to wealthy slave owners for centuries. https://www.thelondoneconomic. taxpayer 182 years to pay off. As Bristol historian Kirsten Elliott com/politics/uk-taxpayers-were-paying- The information was revealed by the said at the time, not only were the freed compensation-to-slave-traders- Treasury after a Freedom of Information slaves given no compensation them- until-2015/11/06/ request from the Bristol Post. selves, the debt meant their descen- Palestinian Day of Rage Palestinians and global allies rise up against annexation plan and Israeli apartheid By Jessica Corbett

Palestinians in the occupied West In Gaza City, the Associated Press trary to the U.N. Charter, and a funda- Bank and Gaza Strip—backed by allies reports, thousands of protesters mentally illegal act.” across the globe—organized protests marched with Palestinian flags and The demonstrations in the occupied on Wednesday, July 1, 2020 against the signs decrying the annexation plan as a territories came after Hazim Qasim, a Israeli government’s looming plan to “declaration of war” on the Palestinian spokesperson for the Palestinian further its apartheid policy by annex- people. Following that demonstration, Resistance Movement Hamas, said ing up to a third of West Bank territory which reportedly ended peacefully in Tuesday, June 30, 2020 that Hamas under U.S. President Donald Trump’s the early afternoon, other rallies were and all the other Palestinian factions so-called “vision for peace” for the planned in the West Bank. “are united” against Israel annexing region, which was unveiled in January Protest signs captured by photo- any West Bank territory. Qasim added and championed by Israeli Prime journalists said that “Palestinian Lives that Wednesday would be a “day of Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Matter” and “The annexation is con- real rage.”

50 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 Solidarity rallies and car caravans citizenship, where their lives and city of Ramallah. ‘This is why we were planned throughout Wednesday movements are forever curtailed by cannot help but ridicule the world’s in California, Florida, Illinois, New the imperatives of the Israeli security growing, alarmist, and existential York, and Oregon. A dozen Democrats state. ‘It means that I, as a Palestinian, outcry as we approach July 1.’” in the U.S. House and Senator Bernie will not be able to do anything with- Barahmeh, writing for +972 Magazine out their permission,’ Saeb Erekat, Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday released a on Monday, added that “the Palestinian secretary general of the Palestine letter vowing to oppose further mili- Liberation Organization, told my struggle today is not just about fighting tary aid to Israel if its government colleague Ruth Eglash. ‘It means annexation, which we must continue to moves forward with annexing parts of they will control my movements, my do. It is about dismantling the entire sys- the West Bank. planning, my borders and my access tem of apartheid. The world must recog- Solidarity protests were also held to everything. ...They are trying to nize this reality for what it is and impose outside the U.S. consulate in the South suffocate me, bury me, and they political and economic pressure on Israel African city of Sandton and in South think I will stand for it?’ to dismantle that system. If the world is Korea, the Middle East Eye reported “Others contend that years of more interested in maintaining the cur- Wednesday. “Protests in Jordan, which Israeli occupation, land grabs, and rent reality because it feeds a convenient has threatened to take action should settlement expansion in the West façade, then the world itself is complicit.” Israel move forward with its plans,” the Bank and around East Jerusalem “Instead of maintaining this grand had already cemented this reality. outlet noted, “have meanwhile been illusion, what we need now are system- ‘Contrary to the popular narrative, postponed to Saturday, activists said annexation will not kill the two-state atic solutions that build a new social on social media.” solution—you cannot kill some- contract between the river and the sea, After Netanyahu signaled on thing that has long been dead,’ wrote where everyone can be free with equal Tuesday that annexation could be Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian rights,” Barahmeh concluded. “This is delayed beyond his initial July 1 target American scholar. ‘Rather, annexa- not about who you are or where you date, Regional Cooperation Minister tion is dragging and displaying the [are] from, or whether you are Ofir Akunis told Israel’s Army Radio two-state solution’s corpse before Palestinian or Jewish—it is about the station the process would not begin on the world.’ values you stand for. We cannot let Wednesday. He said the Israeli govern- “‘If you ask Palestinians in the another generation of Palestinians ment is still sorting out details with the Jordan Valley how they feel about grow up under apartheid.” Trump administration and he now annexation, many will tell you that —Common Dreams, July 1, 2020 expects the annexation to occur later they thought we had already been annexed long ago,’ wrote Salem https://www.commondreams.org/ this month. Barahmeh, executive director of the news/2020/07/01/day-rage-palestin- The anticipated annexation and Palestine Institute for Public ians-and-global-allies-rise-against- Trump’s broader plan have drawn sharp Diplomacy, based in the West Bank annexation-plan-and-israeli?cd- critiques from the international commu- nity, which considers all existing Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, along with pol- iticians and diplomats from various countries, have urged the Israeli govern- ment to resist annexation altogether. Washington Post columnist Ishaan Tharoor argued in a piece Wednesday that “whatever Israel decides, a one- state reality looms.” As Tharoor wrote: “If Netanyahu presses ahead with annexation, prominent Palestinian officials fear a definitive end to their already enfeebled statehood project and a future shorn of equal rights of Demonstrators take part in a rally as Palestinians call for a “day of rage” to protest against Israel’s plan to annex parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in Gaza City July 1, 2020.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 51 How Israel Shaped U.S. Policing Knee-on-neck, mass surveillance and protest suppression By Sheren Khalel

The video of a white police officer under Israeli law enforcement and mil- incredibly problematic training part- kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, itary officials, as nationwide calls for ner,” Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty an unarmed African American, for defunding and abolishing American International USA’s researcher for nearly nine minutes as he slowly died, police departments have taken hold. arms control, security and human gasping for air, has struck a familiar Since the early ’90s, hundreds of law rights told Middle East Eye (MEE.) chord with many Palestinians and anti- enforcement officers, including police Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police occupation activists. officers and agents from the FBI, CIA, and spokesperson, rejected criticizms of the Since his death in late May, footage Immigration and Customs Enforcement training scheme, telling MEE that the of Floyd pleading: “I can’t breathe” (ICE), have either been sent to Israel police exchanges in Israel provide and “they’re going to kill me,” has through police exchanges, or attended American forces with valuable infor- emerged alongside videos and stills of summits within the U.S. that were spon- mation on how to “prevent and Israeli security forces taking similar sored by Israeli lobby organizations. respond” to attacks. positions over the necks of unarmed Police forces from Florida, New “The learning and sharing has saved Palestinians in the occupied West Bank Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, many lives both in Israel and overseas and besieged Gaza Strip. Arizona, Connecticut, New York, throughout the years,” Rosenfeld said. The Israeli police force has tried to dis- Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, “The organizations that are calling tance itself from any perceived similarities, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington out, specifically in the U.S., against law issuing statements denouncing what hap- state and others have participated in enforcement learning and sharing are pened and stating that its officers are not the training, including one that took weakening the nation’s preparedness to trained to use knee-to-neck techniques. place in Minneapolis, the city where respond to terror attacks, hate crimes But photographs taken as recently Floyd was killed. and extremists who break the law.” as March have shown Israeli forces Leading human rights groups have using the same restraint on unarmed denounced the exchange programs, Policy or practice? protesters just yards from the Al-Aqsa warning that Israeli police standards and Since Floyd’s death, second-degree Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. tactics only serve to exacerbate racial murder charges have been levied against Derek Chauvin, the officer who The damning imagery has revived profiling and police brutality in the U.S. had his knee to Floyd’s neck, while the complaints against U.S. programs that “With a long record of human rights other three are facing charges of aiding send American police officers to train violations, Israeli security forces are an and abetting. Rosenfeld called the incident “sad” and said that “there is no procedure that allows an officer of the Israel police department to carry out an arrest by placing a knee on the neck of a suspect.” Still, before being fired and charged over the incident, all four officers had been employed by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), which par- ticipated in a 2012 training conference in Minneapolis that was held by the FBI and Chicago’s Israeli consulate. “Every year we are bringing top- notch professionals from the Israeli police to share some knowledge,” Deputy Consul Shahar Arieli said at the time, as quoted by Mint Press News.

52 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 MEE reached out to the MPD sev- “Since most of the [Israeli] police Activists have spoken out against eral times to inquire as to whether bylaws related to these issues are the training exercises since they gained Chauvin was one of the 100 Minnesota confidential, it is hard to tell if this a popularity after the attacks on 9/11, police officers that participated in the matter of policy or practice.” with Israel marketing itself as a global training. The MPD did not respond to Like Rosenfeld, Minneapolis Police leader in counterterrorism. requests for comment, but before he Chief Medaria Arradondo on The exchanges with Israeli law was fired Chauvin was a training offi- Wednesday, June 17, 2020, said enforcement and military have been cer at the department, having worked Chauvin’s use of force against Floyd paid for by public funds, as well as by there for the past 18 years. was not part of any MPD training. an array of pro-Israel groups, such as MEE also reached out to the Israeli Since Floyd’s death, chokeholds and the American Israel Public Affairs consulate in Chicago for comment but neck restraints have been explicitly Committee, the Anti-Defamation failed to receive a response. banned by the MPD. At least 12 other League (ADL) and the Jewish Institute For his part, Rosenfeld said that no states have followed suit, rolling out for National Security Affairs (JINSA). measures to ban chokeholds. training exchange with Israel’s police JINSA alone has sent at least 200 forces would “involve such a measure” Two already repressive forces American police officers to Israel for like the one Chauvin used against Floyd. Still, while human rights activists training in the wake of 9/11 and has “It doesn’t exist in any [Israeli] have long denounced U.S. and Israeli hosted ten conferences across the United police textbook,” he said. police exchanges, those speaking to States, with a combined attendance of But Fady Khoury, a Harvard Law MEE were quick to point out that the over 10,500 law enforcement personnel. School civil and political rights attor- United States has its own history of Meanwhile, the New York Police ney with Adalah legal center for minor- police brutality and systemic racism. Department (NYPD) even has its own ity rights in Israel, said textbooks and branch in Israel, opened at the Sharon bylaws cannot negate the physical evi- District Police Headquarters in 2012. dence of such tactics being used by ...all four officers had In fact, the department’s discrimina- Israeli officers on the ground. been employed by the tory Muslim surveillance program was “There is plenty of documentation Minneapolis Police modelled in part after Israel’s surveil- lance program used on Palestinians in out there of violent arrests that involve Department (MPD), kneeling on detainees’ heads and the West Bank. necks,” Khoury said. which participated in a The Department of Homeland “We have seen this not only in the 2012 training conference Security (DHS) in 2003 also estab- occupied territories when soldiers per- in Minneapolis that was lished a special office in Israel, which form arrests, but inside Israel by police held by the FBI and has institutionalized the relationship officers as well.” between Israeli and American law Chicago’s Israeli enforcement. Days after Floyd was killed, Mohammad al-Qadi, a Palestinian consulate... “I think we can learn a lot from marathon runner from the occupied other countries, particularly Israel, which unfortunately has a long history West Bank, posted several pictures “It is important to understand that of preparing for and responding to ter- depicting uniformed Israelis arresting U.S. police have harmed Black people rorist attacks,” Senator Susan Collins Palestinians by using knee-to-throat long before Israel existed, and that Israel said about the special office during a techniques similar to the one that harms Palestinians without any special resulted in Floyd’s death. training from the U.S.,” an activist congressional hearing at the time. “Crazy how the same thing happens whose work focuses on building Black- But campaigns looking to abolish in Palestine, but the world chooses to Palestinian solidarity told MEE. police exchanges have highlighted that ignore it,” al-Qadi said. Even so, these training exchanges Israel has long been criticized by human rights groups across the world for its Khoury also pointed out that it is dif- with Israeli law enforcement “should be ficult for the public to know what is and opposed,” she said, “because they help “extrajudicial killings” and “dispropor- is not allowed in terms of Israeli police two already repressive forces learn how tionate use of force” against Palestinians. tactics due to a lack of transparency to enhance state violence against popu- Even the U.S. Department of State within the law enforcement system. lations fighting racism and colonialism.” has in the past cited Israeli police for

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 53 carrying out “arbitrary or unlawful especially focus on ending law enforce- run into a snag,” JVP said in a state- killings.” ment exchanges with Israel. ment at the time. Khoury, who mainly represents After years of lobbying by one of Deepening relationships and loyalty protesters who have encountered those JVP coalitions, in April 2018, the The coalition group in Washington, police brutality, said it is uncommon City Council in Durham, North Occupation Free DC, has also been for an Israeli officer or soldier “to be Carolina, voted unanimously to bar its working to end the DC Police held accountable for the use of exces- police department from taking part in Department’s partnership with Israel, sive force against Palestinian civilians.” “military-style training” programs as well as the force’s militarization. “In fact, it is more accurate to say abroad, becoming the first American Scott Brown, an organizer with the that it is rare for an investigation to be city to bar police training in Israel. group, said the training that takes place opened,” he said. That same year, another coalition of with Israel is as much about ideology as social justice groups backed by JVP “This is true in the context of the they are about tactics and equipment. Palestinian citizens of Israel, and even succeeded in getting California’s “The U.S. and Israel are huge politi- more so when it comes to Palestinians Alameda County Board of Supervisors cal and military allies, so they have a living in the occupied territories, where to end its Urban Shield program, which stake in deepening relationships and excessive force is much more commonly sponsored exchanges with Israel and loyalty between them,” Brown said. used by both the police and the military.” other countries. “So, when you’re sending police Israeli forces killed hundreds of departments there, that’s what you’re protesters in Gaza between 2018 and Israel has long been doing, you’re deepening relationships 2019 during the Great March of Return in a way that builds up really strong demonstrations, while thousands more criticized by human support for Israel and its actions.” suffered devastating gunshot wounds. rights groups across Only one soldier—who shot and killed David Friedman, who was an ADL a plainly unarmed 14-year-old—was the world for its regional director, echoed that senti- convicted of a crime. He was sentenced “extrajudicial killings” ment when talking about the so-called to one month in jail. benefits of an ADL-funded trip of and “disproportionate American law enforcement executives The day the United States moved its use of force” against to Israel in 2015. embassy to Jerusalem, Israeli forces killed 50 Palestinians protesting along Palestinians. “[They] come back and they are the Gaza border fence and injured at Zionists,” Friedman said. “They under- least 2,400 others. No charges were stand Israel and its security needs in According to the program’s website, ways a lot of audiences don’t.” levied as a result of the crackdown. it was the world’s largest militarized In addition to the thousands of SWAT training and weapons expo. That year’s ADL trip included execu- Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in tives from U.S. Immigration and It had been funded in part by a $5.5 Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. the field, since 1967 some 222 million grant from DHS. Palestinian have been killed while Marshals Service, the U.S. Naval Criminal already in Israeli custody. Nearly $75,000 was spent from the Investigative Service and the International Urban Shield trust fund in 2010 on Association of Chiefs of Police, and offi- Campaigning against travel to Israel. Travelers included at cers from the police departments of Israeli training least three top officials from the Chicago, Las Vegas, Austin, Seattle, Because of Israel’s notoriety for its Alameda County Sheriff’s office. Oakland and Miami-Dade. excessive use of force tactics, many Police departments in Vermont and In DC, Police Chief Peter Newsham human rights groups have launched Massachusetts also withdrew from a and at least two other local command- campaigns trying to end the U.S.- trip to Israel organized through the ers have taken part in the training Israeli police training programs. ADL in 2018, following pressure from exchanges, and organizers at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a one of the JVP coalition groups. Occupation Free DC suspect others grassroots anti-occupation group, has “For the first time in 20 years, the from the department have gone as well. helped create several localized coalition all-expenses-paid trips to Israel where “We don’t know because of lack of campaigns working to stop the milita- American law enforcement are trained transparency around these things rization of U.S. police forces, which by the Israeli military and police have whether another trip is being planned

54 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 for the near future, but we definitely U.S. authorities—police and nation- While it has reportedly not yet been know that high profile officers have al guard—have tear-gassed peaceful used by law enforcement in the U.S., the gone in the past,” Brown said. gatherings, shot at protesters with rub- St. Louis Police Department began stock- In 2017, DC councilman David Grosso ber bullets (causing several people to piling skunk water after massive popular sent a letter to Chief Newsham, denounc- lose an eye,) mass arrested protesters, protests broke out in Ferguson in 2014 ing a trip planned for the department. detained lawmakers, implemented cur- following a fatal police-shooting of an fews, and indiscriminately targeted unarmed Black teenager. The police “While I strongly believe in cross- journalists, all of which are tactics com- department of Bossier City, Louisiana, cultural exchanges and the importance monly used by Israel against Palestinians. has also purchased skunk water, accord- of training for our law enforcement ing to records obtained by Defense One. officers, learning from military advi- Despite the U.S. and Israel’s copious sors is not what local law enforcement use of tear gas and pepper spray against Private American security compa- needs,” Grosso wrote in his letter. protesters, both are considered chemi- nies have also started advertising its “Indeed, numerous watchdog organi- cal agents and are banned under inter- potential use for “border crossings, zations, Association for Civil Rights in national law for use in warfare. correctional facilities, demonstrations Israel, Human Rights Watch and and sit-ins.” Amnesty International, have docu- Amid reports of police brutality mented human rights violations by Only one soldier—who during crackdowns on the recent Israeli police and security forces. shot and killed a plainly nationwide protests in the U.S., Anthony Lorenzo Green, an advisory “I am concerned that we are not doing unarmed 14-year-old— enough to prevent the militarization of neighborhood commissioner of DC’s law enforcement in the District of was convicted of a crime. 7th Ward, pointed the finger squarely Columbia,” he continued. He was sentenced to one at Israel’s training of American police. Green shared a video posted by an Allegations that American police month in jail. training in Israel encourages police activist who linked the crowd control militarization is among the many criti- methods DC police were using to those used by Israeli forces when he had been cisms regularly levied against these Included in that ban is Israel’s new- in the occupied West Bank last year. exchange programs. est crowd control creation, “skunk The Pentagon has given American water,” which Israel first deployed “@DCPoliceDept are trained by the police departments more than $7.2 bil- against Palestinian protesters in 2008. [Israeli army]. They don’t want you to know that,” Commissioner Green tweeted. lion worth of surplus military equip- Sprayed via water cannons at pro- ment over the past couple of decades, testers, the stench of the foul-smelling Amnesty USA’s Wilcken said under which amounts to about two years- liquid stays for days on any surface that the current circumstances, it is unsurpris- worth of the annual U.S. foreign mili- it touches, such as asphalt, buildings, ing that those shocked by the police’s use tary aid Israel receives. clothes and even skin. of force are drawing such comparisons. Meanwhile, Israeli police and mili- “The physical side effects of the “Peaceful protesters across the tary forces can be hard to tell apart in skunk [water] may include nausea, United States find themselves under terms of weaponry and tactics, and its skin rash, and vomiting,” the ACLU attack by police forces,” Wilcken said. training of U.S. police officers is also said in a 2016 report. “Harsh and violent tactics employed often directed by military officials. Israel’s so-called counterterrorism against demonstrators bring to mind Protests and Israeli “riot control” training sessions have included seminars on security forces from other parts of the world that have employed similar and Arguments against militarization the benefits of the noxious-smelling water. even harsher methods,” he continued. have heightened amid the massive “The problem with this method is “Israel is one such country.” ongoing nationwide protests that were that it is indiscriminate, as it targets sparked in the wake of Floyd’s death, groups of protesters without distinc- —Middle East Eye, June 22, 2020 with activists pointing to the many tion. In many cases, homes, individuals similarities in crowd control methods and businesses were harmed by its use being used by American police forces despite not having taken any part in https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/ during government crackdowns across the protests in which it was used,” israel-us-police-training-end-knee- the country. Khoury told MEE. neck-protests

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 55

Environment ENVIRONMENT

Microplastics Falling from the Sky New research helps unravel how vast amounts of plastic particles travel— both regionally and globally—on the wind By Scott Hershberger Carried by the wind, dust particles new findings add to scientists’ concern Brahney’s team used a pair of 3.5-gallon from places such as the Sahara Desert over microplastic pollution’s potential (13.2-liter) buckets with a sensor-trig- can float halfway around the world impacts on the environment and human gered lid. When rain or snow fell, the lid before settling to the ground. As the health. “We’re not supposed to breathe would cover the “dry” bucket and allow plastics discarded by humans break in this material,” says Steve Allen, a material to enter the “wet” one. During down into tiny pieces in the environ- microplastics researcher at the dry weather, the lid would cover the wet ment, they, too, drift through the atmo- University of Strathclyde in Scotland, bucket and allow material to enter its sphere. Now scientists are a step closer who was not involved in the new study. dry counterpart. to understanding how these globe-trot- Plastics in the environment “carry all Back in the lab, the researchers ting microplastics travel—both locally sorts of pesticides, heavy metals and all counted the plastic particles by hand and on long-distance flights. the other chemicals that we’ve made under a microscope, using visual clues over time,” he adds. “They’re going to Researchers spent more than a year such as vivid colors and unnatural tex- carry them directly into our lungs.” collecting microplastics from 11 nation- tures to distinguish them from dust al parks and wilderness areas in the Since their discovery in oceans in the and organic materials. The team inde- western U.S. They separately examined 1970s, microplastics—which can be as pendently estimated the number of the particles that settled on dry days and large as a grain of rice or smaller than a microplastics using a process called those that fell along with rain or snow. particle of dust—have been found Fourier transform infrared spectrosco- In addition to shedding light on how nearly everywhere researchers have py, which measured how the samples microplastics move around, the results, looked: in cities, in Arctic snow, on absorbed and emitted infrared light to published on Thursday, June 11, 2020, remote mountaintops. Their presence differentiate plastic from other mate- in Science, reveal the sheer scale of the in areas distant from human habitation rial. The particles and fibers they cap- problem: more than 1,000 metric tons has pointed to them being borne by tured originated as carpeting, paint, of microplastics—the weight of 120 winds. Few studies have directly inves- cosmetic products, camping gear, and more. But the largest contribution million to 300 million plastic water tigated this possibility, however. came from clothing. Clothes shed bottles—fall on protected lands in the Janice Brahney, a watershed scientist microfibers when they are washed and country’s western region each year. The at Utah State University and lead author dried, as well as during daily use. of the new study, initially The scientists found microplastics set out to inves- in almost every sample they collected. tigate how dust In total, four percent of the identifiable carries nutri- dust particles were plastic. Brahney ents, not plas- and her colleagues “immediately real- tic. But after ized the gravity of what we were see- peering into ing,” she says. “That was a moment of her microscope being just completely astounded.” and seeing col- By analyzing weather patterns and orful beads and dust accumulation in the national parks fibers among and wilderness areas, the team could the bits of dust, observe the effects of pollution from she refocused nearby cities—and could better under- her efforts. To stand the “plastic cycle” that carries collect micro- synthetic materials across the planet, Plastic fibers and beads in dusts collected from remote National Parks and Wilderness areas in the United States. plastic samples, just as the “dust cycle” transports dust.

56 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5

Incarceration Nation The microplastics that fell to the ground The new research “expanded quite how atmospheric conditions affect the during storms tended to be larger and significantly” on previous studies of flight paths of these particles. arrived when winds blew in from popu- microplastics in remote areas, Allen For Brahney and others, future lated areas. This observation indicated says, including a paper he and his wife, research will focus on uncovering the that the “wet” plastics originated in Deonie Allen, also at the University of ways microplastics enter the atmosphere. those nearby cities and that larger plas- Strathclyde, published last year in “We’re only starting to really scratch the tics fall out of the atmosphere closer to Nature Geoscience. “They’ve done a nice surface of what is in the atmosphere and where they are emitted. On the other job of especially working out where it how it’s moving around,” she says. hand, the microplastics that fell during came from and the sort of distances it dry conditions were smaller but more can travel,” he adds. Deonie Allen, who —Scientific American, June 11, 2020 numerous. They also corresponded was not involved with Brahney’s proj- with air currents higher in the atmo- ect, says that the separation of dry and https://www.scientificamerican.com/ sphere, suggesting that these plastics wet microplastics represents an impor- article/thousands-of-tons-of-microplas- had traveled long distances. tant advance toward understanding tics-are-falling-from-the-sky/

INCARCERATION NATION U.S. Prisons: Mass Releases Demanded! A report on San Quentin action By Chris Kinder

Mass releases from prisons was the power to release prisoners to pro- Militants at the rally went down to the demanded by a large march and rally at tect them from the petri dishes for the gates to the prison and shouted demands San Quentin prison in California on pandemic that prisons are. One of those to the prison guards inside. Soon, there Sunday, August 2, 2020. Some 600-700 who spoke reported the death just that were a dozen more guards mobilized to people marched almost a mile from afternoon of his long-time friend, protect this prison neighborhood, which Larkspur ferry to the prison entrance, inmate Orlando Romero, who died in a includes a staff housing complex as well behind a banner demanding that hospital of Covid-19. He, as others, was as the prison. Protect it from what? There Governor Newsom order “Mass Releases not sent to the hospital in time. was no violence at this action. Now!” and “No Executions by Covid- 19.” They chanted, “Let them go,” as they approached the prison entrance. This action, organized by the No Justice Under Capitalism (NJUC) coali- tion, was supported by the Oscar Grant Committee and the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal— both founding members of the coali- tion—and by California Prison Focus, and the We Are Their Voices organiza- tion, which includes many family mem- bers of prisoners, as well as many other organizations and individuals. Rally at San Quentin prison As the marchers arrived, a rally was held at the West Entrance to the prison. Rally speakers denounced the lack of Larkspur, CA — August 2, 2020: Over 700 demonstrators march down Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in action by Governor Newsom, who has Larkspur, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020, from the Larkspur Ferry parking lot to the state prison closing down Sir Francis Drake Blvd to road traffic.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 57 “It sure feels like I’m on California prisons have 81.2 confirmed the cases had begun to ramp up in San death row” cases per 1,000 people, compared to Quentin. NJUC militants also demon- Newsom’s announced release of 14.3 per 1,000 in the U.S. overall. And strated at Newsom’s house on July 5th. 8,000 prisoners because of the virus in San Quentin? It has 674.9 cases per Storm the Bastille! no way solves the problem. This num- 1,000 people! (CDCR statistics) ber of releases still keeps California Prisons like San Quentin lack ade- prisons occupied beyond their designed The deadly transfer quate health facilities, and have inade- capacity. Health workers have called San Quentin had no cases of Covid- quate cleanliness supplies such as soap, for 50 percent of prisoners to be 19 until a transfer of 121 prisoners not masks, and disinfectant. San Quentin, released, at a minimum. recently tested, who were moved from as speakers at the rally reported, is now providing only cold food—no hot Two prisoners called in during the the prison in Avenal—a virus hot rally, and were, with some difficulty, spot—to San Quentin, and to another meals—to its many prisoners! broadcast to the rally. Inmate Charles prison, in mid-May. This bungled Prisons under capitalism today are Sydney said, “With this pandemic going transfer resulted in a quick escalation of not that different from the dungeons of on it sure feels like I’m on death row.” cases in San Quentin, which now total the feudal era. The French Revolution of San Quentin’s death total from the 2,215 confirmed cases total (includes 1789 began with the masses storming the mishandling of this health emergency deaths, releases and resolved cases). 258 Bastille, the main dungeon in Paris at the is now at 25 deaths as of August 11, staff have also been infected. time. The capitalist system that followed 2020, the highest death toll of any The first demonstration by the installed a new ruling class, which did California prison. And if there was any NJUC—a car caravan/protest on May not abolish prisons—far from it. question about the danger of this virus 9th—warned of this problem. We then Our task today? Keep up the fight and in prisons, it should be known that demonstrated again on June 20th, as abolish the prisons by abolishing capitalism!

Racism and Murder Against Black Lives We charge the Pennsylvania courts, Department of Corrections and Parole Board with racism and murder against Black lives By Shakaboona

Before we proceed, lets first get the ple as chattel property. This is not and destabilization against Black and meaning of racism correct. When we’re about “individual” racism, it’s about Brown people and communities in discussing racism, we’re discussing racism as a “system” of government Pennsylvania (PA). Caucasians’ fanatical xenophobic idea institutions and as a “lived reality” for The Police, Prosecutors, Courts, of race based on white skin being supe- African Americans under that system Prisons, and Parole Boards, which make rior and dark skin being inferior, a of racism. So, just like the police mur- up the so-called criminal justice system, system of white supremacy where der of George Floyd was not only about has a sordid history of both overt and Caucasians collectively uphold the an individual racist murderous cop but covert racism against African Americans. racial status quo, and a Caucasian cul- rather about the institutional racism of The police murders of George Floyd ture that expresses itself in terms of police departments that foster racism and Breonna Taylor have simply placed building whiteness and destroying and cultivate cops to carry out racial the U.S. government’s institutional and Blackness. Racism is white suprema- oppression against Black and Brown structural racism against Black people cy—a Caucasian mindset, culture, and communities and about the everyday back on center stage and underneath system of white people’s dominance lived reality of Black people in the U.S. the national and international spotlight. and rule over all non-white peoples. (and the world) under the govern- So, what does that spotlight expose Racism is anti-Blackness. ment’s institutional racism. Likewise, when placed on Pennsylvania’s D.A. This anti-Black racism has its full the District Attorney office, Courts, Offices, Courts, Department of expression in the government institu- Department of Corrections, and the Corrections, and Parole Board? tion of policing in America, that Parole Board are institutionally racist The Department of Justice has spawned from America’s “Slave government agencies that operate as investigated dozens of major police Patrols” during this country’s unflat- purveyors of racism, legalized high departments throughout the country tering history of enslaving African peo- tech lynchings, state violence, murder, for civil rights violations against

58 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 African Americans in cities like District—from a year ago—that it Attorney, and the PADOC sealed their Philadelphia, New Orleans, and attempted to hide away, Philadelphia’s internal investigation files as “Highly Chicago, and have found all practiced a court system actually acknowledged its Confidential” to avoid public disclosure system of institutional racism and the institutional racism against Black peo- of those records from the Right-to- police departments agreed to imple- ple, as reported in the July 10 issue of Know Act law. Recall that SCI-Greene ment remedial measures. The police The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper. was Abu Gharib prison in PA, before departments are routinely exposed for The PA Department of Corrections there was a U.S. operated Abu Gharib having unleashed hell on the commu- is rotten to the core with racism. For prison during America’s war in Iraq. nities of Black and Latinx people— instance, from 1994-2001, top officials The PA Parole Board is another consisting of abuse, terror, drug deal- at PADOC Headquarters in Harrisburg, thoroughly racist institution whose ing, extortion, prostitution, criminal PA “ordered” prison officials and policies and practices adversely affect frame ups, and murder. Why? Because guards at the then newly opened SCI- Black and Latinx communities through- police forces have their origins in slav- Greene supermax prison in Greene out PA. Black and Brown people are ery and racism, and in similar vein to County, PA, to abuse, torture, and ter- subjected to racist parole policies that America’s culture of racism and racist rorize Black and Latino incarcerated add more time to what they were legal- beliefs, Black lives never mattered to men just because of the color of their ly sentenced to by not crediting their them. The mission of the police is to skin. At State Correctional Institution county time to their state time, by for- protect the one percent wealthy and (SCI)-Greene (and nearly all other SCIs feiture of street time done on parole social control the 99 percent rest of us within the PADOC), 99 percent of the while free in society whenever they’re through race, class, religion, and state prison staff were/are Caucasian males returned to prison, by technical parole violence by their right-wing militarized and females, there were four African infraction violations like mega-super- occupying police forces in America. American prison guards at SCI-Greene, star rapper Meek Mill popping a wheely Collective harm and two of the four Black prison staff on a dirt bike in the city, and by uncon- were complicit actors in carrying out stitutional parole reviews that dispro- D.A. Offices’ institutional racism is racial abuse and terror against incarcer- portionately deny parole to incarcerat- daily perpetrated against Black people ated Black and Latino men. ed Black and Brown people. with racially unjust and oppressive pol- icies and practices that cause collective Brutality by prison guards The aforementioned examples of Police, D.A. Office, Courts, Prisons, harm to Black communities, like the During that period, Black and Latino and Parole Board’s institutional racism mass certification of Black children as prisoners were routinely brutally beat- is not exhaustive, and are really just the adult offenders, disproportionately en, abused, and tortured while in soli- tip of the iceberg. What is most pro- seeking the Death Penalty and death by tary confinement. One incarcerated found is that those government agen- incarceration—Life Without Parole man was beaten bloody in his prison (LWOP)—sentences against Black peo- cell by racist guards, who then wrote cies are not only bastions of institu- ple, overcharging of criminal offenses KKK on the wall in his blood. Another tional racism but the Police, D.A. against Black people, and a laundry list incarcerated man was viciously beaten Office, Courts, Prisons, and Parole of other racial discriminatory policies and sodomized with a police baton stick Board are interconnected, working and practices against Black people. by a gang of guards like what the cops together as a superstructure, and bear- Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Court did to Abner Louima in New York in ing down on Black people’s lives like system’s institutional racism operates 1997. Guards also murdered at least two the weight of the earth—six-sextillion- by systematically mass incarcerating incarcerated men by lynching them in tons (a unit followed by 21 zeros.) This Black children through the certifica- their cells and falsely calling them sui- interconnection of institutional racism tion-as-adult offender process under cides, though incarcerated men wit- is referred to as “structural racism.” the Juvenile Act law, by sentencing nessed the murders. Criminal investiga- Therefore, if anyone wants to talk Black children to serve long prison tions by the State Attorney General about racism, Black Lives Matter, and terms as adult offenders in adult pris- Office, Greene County D.A. Office, and ending police murder of Black people on, and by disproportionately sentenc- a phony PADOC internal investigation or challenging the government’s rac- ing Black men, women, and juveniles ensued, and over 40 prison officials/ ism, violence, and oppression against to the Death Penalty, LWOP, and guards were lightly penalized, and no poor Black and Brown peoples, then extremely long prison terms more than criminal charges were filed. The matter people should begin with challenging any nation in the world. In a recently was swept under the rug by the State the institutional and structural racism released report of the First Judicial Attorney General and local District of the criminal justice system. Since

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 59 historically the criminal justice system The criminal justice system’s record tem that was unleashed against Black has been and continues to be the bane For wasn’t it the criminal justice and Brown communities with Nixon/ of African American people, as it is system that was used to end the Reagan/Clinton’s fake War On Drugs the primary governmental instrument Reconstruction period and re-enslave to neutralize African Americans’ grow- used as a weapon to perpetually keep Black people into penal slavery to ing political power and social advance- Black people in their social place in rebuild the American south after the ment. Now, today, isn’t it the criminal the racial hierarchal structure of white Northern Union Whites betrayed freed justice system that is attempting to supremacy by criminalizing Black Black people after the Civil War in the crush the mostly peaceful Black/multi- bodies and nearly every aspect of great 1876 Tilden-Hayes Betrayal? ethnic nationwide protests in response Black life—including criminalizing Wasn’t it the criminal justice system to the police murders of George Floyd/ the constitutional right of freedom to that was used to destroy the Black Breonna Taylor and challenging the seek racial justice through peaceful Freedom Movement from 1955-75, racial status quo over their pig police’s protests and by mass incarcerating that sent many Black civil rights and institutional racism? peaceful Black and multi-ethnic pro- Black liberation leaders to prison on Just as the racist police murders of testors, then it is paramount that peo- false charges and whom many still lan- Black people in police custody like ple challenge the criminal justice sys- guish in prison today? Say their George Floyd must stop, likewise the tem for its institutional/structural rac- names—Jalil Muntaqim, Russell racist D.A. practice of charging Black ism, state-sanctioned violence, and “Maroon” Shoatz, and Sundiata Acoli. children as adults and mass incarcerat- human rights violations. And wasn’t it the criminal justice sys- ing them in adult prisons must stop. The racist courts death penalty and Death By Incarceration (DBI) sentenc- es of LWOP against Black peoples must stop, the racist guard murders of incar- cerated Black people in prison custody must stop, the racist parole policies fueling mass incarceration of Black people through parole recidivism must

stop. And the brutal acts of state vio- lence inflicted against Black people must be condemned and stopped.

As Abolitionists in the 1800s took their great leap forward and abolished

chattel slavery in America, today, let us also take that great leap forward with

the Human Rights Coalition (HRC) in Philadelphia to hold accountable and forever abolish the racist police, pros- ecutors, prisons, and Parole Boards in Pennsylvania. —THE MOVEMENT magazine, July 2020

Write to Shakaboona: Smart Communications/PA DOC Kerry Shakaboona Marshall #BE7826 SCI Rockview P.O. Box 33028 St. Petersburg, FL 33733

60 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 No Slavery! No Exceptions! By Shaka Shakur

“Prison Lives Matter as Black We Too! Are the victim of racist ishing the prison system, are also being Lives Matter!!!” attacks and beatings while unarmed or denied C-19 testing. “There shall neither be slavery nor handcuffed behind our back by racist We Too! Are being denied serious involuntary servitude unless duly con- guards or strike teams and it’s covered up. consideration for early release or par- victed of a crime.”—13th Amendment of We Too! Are subjected to white dons based on the color of our skin, U.S. Constitution supremacist gangs and militias hiding in what city or community we come from We as prisoners held captive in one plain sight behind badges, in prison guard or based on our politics or religious of the united states many modern-day uniforms and as prison administrators. beliefs. plantations wish to stand in solidarity We too! Are subjected to the plant- We Too! Are here and feel your with our people as they protest the sys- ing of evidence, the filing of false pain, because your pain is our pain and temic racism and genocide perpetrated reports/charges and thereby extending we stand united and in solidarity with by the united states security forces and our sentences without any checks and you because Prison Lives Matter as criminal (in)justice system. balances or oversight. Black Lives Matter!!! As our people march and protest in We Too! Are subjected to decades in ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE righteous anger and rage throughout solitary confinement without due pro- WHO FIGHT FOR IT!!! the country, we not only want to add cess or penological justification. Committee For Freedom (C.F.F.) our voices in unity, we also want to say, We Too! Are the first to be denied Shaka Shakur #1996207 We Too! parole or clemency for decades, no mat- We Too! Are often murdered/ ter how many programs we have com- K.M.C.C lynched in the streets by the u.s. secu- pleted and in spite of meeting the criteria. P.O. Box 860 rity forces and throughout its prison We Too! Are denied preventable Oakwood, VA 24631 system, and it’s ruled a suicide or natu- healthcare and allowed to die and suf- —Black Agenda Report, July 8, 2020 ral causes. fer due to official Indifference. We Too! Are often lynched in the We Too! In the midst of a pandemic biased and racist courtrooms through- that is sweeping the country and rav- https://blackagendareport.com/we-too out amerika as we are railroaded into the Prison Industrial Complex. We Too! Are systematically harvest- ed from our communities and families and fed into the Prison Industrial Complex in the interest of big business, privatization and social control. We Too! Are often the first to be sentenced to death, either literally or figuratively through a slow death of an outrageous amount of years.

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 61 Punished for Being Sick at San Quentin By Juan Moreno Haines

At around 2:00 A.M. on May 4, At San Quentin, however, prisoners As the outbreak grows, the system of Ronald Carter heard his cellmate cry are reluctant to report when they’re punishing people for being sick may make out in agony. “He said he felt dizzy, sick—everyone knows they’ll be sent to it harder for the prison to contain it. heated, and couldn’t even hold his Carson, known as The Hole, where On that night in May, Carter want- head up, so I turned the fan on him,” prisoners are kept in the punishing ed to call for medical assistance imme- he said. conditions of solitary confinement. diately, but Scott was worried about Carter, 55, and his cellmate, Edward For months, San Quentin reported both of them being sent to The Hole. Scott, 52, live in San Quentin State that no prisoners had tested positive for Carter was surprised at his cell- Prison’s North Block, where more than COVID-19, though a staff member mate’s response. “You could be dying,” 700 prisoners occupy 414 cells—nearly tested positive in March. But in late he said. “Don’t worry about anything twice the designed capacity. May, some prisoners from the but your health.” Scott agreed, and Carter has been incarcerated at San California Institution for Men, which Carter called for help. Quentin State Prison for about seven has had one of the deadliest outbreaks in the state’s prison system, were trans- “I had to keep calling, ‘Man down!’ of the 23 years in a 42-years-to-life sen- for about ten minutes before the cor- tence under California’s Three Strikes ferred to San Quentin, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Many of the rectional officers came,” Carter said. Law. Scott is serving an 88-year sen- When they arrived, Scott said, he tence; he has been incarcerated since men were not tested in the weeks lead- ing up to their transfer to San Quentin, couldn’t stand up and everything 1991 and at San Quentin since 2011. A seemed to be spinning. new law allowed him to appear before the Chronicle reported; shortly after the the parole board in February, but he transfer, several of them tested positive. The correctional officers called for was denied release and told to return in In a statement, the corrections medical help. It took another ten min- three years. department said that the men were utes before a nurse showed up. All of California’s 35 prisons have transferred from CIM because they Upon arrival, the nurse asked Scott been locked down since mid-March to were at high risk for complications from if he could stand up and Scott said no, prevent the spread of the novel corona- COVID-19. The department main- Carter said. The nurse then asked Scott virus. Ralph Diaz, secretary of the tained that the men were tested prior to if he could walk down the stairs. When California Department of Corrections being moved and said that some of he said no, the prisoner paramedics and Rehabilitation, asked state prison- them tested positive upon arrival. were called and arrived “fairly quickly” ers to tell a doctor or nurse if they feel The virus has since spread rapidly. to transport Scott to San Quentin’s symptoms of COVID-19, and said that As of August 11, 2020, more than 2,200 Triage and Treatment Area, Carter said. doing so would help stop the spread of prisoners at San Quentin are positive While sitting in TTA, Scott says he the virus and keep everyone safe. for COVID-19. was trying to “get his bearings.” “I was given some kind of medica- tion, but it didn’t help,” Scott said. “The TTA nurse and CO were making light of my situation, saying that guys were coming in with trumped-up ill- nesses because of COVID-19. I had to explain to them that there was some- thing really wrong with me.” Scott says even though he threw up a couple times, the nurse tried to send him back to North Block in a wheel- chair. But he couldn’t get off the bed. A doctor showed up around 9:00 San Quentin State Prison, California A.M. and conducted tests that showed

62 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 Scott suffered from vertigo. They deter- Prisoners sent to Carson during sea- The Perils of Reform mined that he needed care that San sonal flu outbreaks have also reported Quentin could not provide. Scott was harsh, unsanitary conditions there in By Mumia Abu-Jamal transferred out of the prison to Marin the past. General Hospital. There, an MRI revealed A CDCR spokesperson did not The perils of Reform. For years, a black spot on Scott’s cerebellum. answer a question from The Appeal indeed for decades, we have seen the “That’s when they told me I had a about conditions inside Carson, and it mirage of reform being presented by mild stroke,” Scott said. “They gave me is unclear how things may have changed neoliberal leaders and their media tools some medication for vertigo, treated since Scott was held there. “Since the only to awake too late to ghoulish me for three days, then sent me back to global coronavirus pandemic hit our nightmares of shattered promises and San Quentin.” community, the department has worked hopes betrayed. So, reform is betrayal. Because of the pandemic, prisoners tirelessly to implement measures to A devil’s bargain of better days to come. protect staff, the incarcerated popula- entering CDCR facilities from the out- That only brings worse days. Today, tion, and the community at-large,” the side have to quarantine for 14 days. the nation is shocked by the savagery of department said in a statement. And so, Scott was sent to The Hole. George Floyd’s curbside execution for Right after he returned to San Carter had his own experience with all the world to see. Just five years ago, Quentin, Scott was quarantined in the The Hole about five years ago, when, politicians claiming themselves pro- prison’s hospital as he underwent he says, a confidential informant falsely gressive, sold illusions of police body physical therapy. But he was discharged accused him of plotting an attack on cameras as some kind of solution. But four days later. A nurse told him they correctional officers. During the inves- George Floyd, not to mention, Rayshard needed his bed for someone who just tigation, Carter was held in Carson. He Brooks, put the nail in that coffin for it got out of surgery. said it took four-and-a-half months to meant nothing when it came to chang- clear his name. He says he was kept in unsanitary ing cop behavior. Today’s reformers in conditions in Carson, in an environ- “The first six cells on the first and Congress promise much, but they can ment that hardly lent itself to recovery. second tiers have sliding glass doors and and will deliver little but new illusions. they are filthy,” he recalled. “I don’t Reforms are, but reformulations of old “When I was sent to Carson, I was think that’s the place you’d want to send promises, of old wine in new bottles, of given one bed sheet the whole ten days. someone who has this killer disease.” things to come that never make it. For The cell was filthy. The showers looked that is the nature of capitalist society. like they were never cleaned, so I took “If it’s for medical, then put in decent mattresses, fresh linen, TVs and New items to sell that ended up pro- bird baths in my cell,” Scott said. “The ducing new problems. way I was treated made me feel like I have it regularly cleaned and sani- did something wrong. My property tized,” he said. “Staff it with medical New days need new ways of think- was taken, and as of today, I still people. It should be more of a hospital ing. They need creativity. They need haven’t gotten it all back.” setting, instead of The Hole.” deep change. That truly transforms. Not discussions, but relationships. As of June 19, he said his belongings “If people are more worried about staying out of The Hole instead of get- And who will dare say that this miser- still hadn’t been returned to him— able present is awash in outright including some irreplaceable items like ting medical help, then there’s some- thing wrong,” Carter said. oppression, not the lie of service, but family photos—and that he had filed a truly repression, suppression, and grievance about it. Juan Moreno Haines is an award- oppression. New oppressive systems The unit is not set up to provide winning incarcerated journalist and a can only bring more of the same. medical care, he said. “When people member of the Society of Professional Journalists. To quote Dr. Huey P. Newton, get sick, I think they’d get a better founder of the Black Panther Party, “we response if they’d at least put us in a —The Appeal, June 23, 2020 want freedom, not another reform.” place where there’s medical staff or with custody that understands that Recorded by Noelle Hanrahan we’re there for medical and they don’t https://theappeal.org/san-quentin- —Prison Radio, June 29, 2020 have to handcuff us every time we leave state-prison-coronavirus-solitary-con- https://www.prisonradio.org/media/ the cell,” Scott said. “We should be finement/ audio/mumia/perils-reform-243-mumia- able to keep some of our property.” abu-jamal

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 63 Children of the Corn By Mumia Abu-Jamal

When we think of politicians, we too threat) to re-open schools has fallen Children—these children—are little often see them as great, even mighty like a lead balloon. It’s like ordering more than rhesus monkeys being used figures, seemingly larger than life. That’s parents to send their children into a in a grand experiment—and they are because of how the media projects burning building—with no masks! just as expendable. them—and far too often, protects them. And although the coronavirus is For this is about politics—the poli- But in times like these, times of invisible, it is burning—bringing the tics of illusion, to show control—when plague, crises, massive failures of insti- nation to its knees with its effect of nothing could be more out of control. tutions, and yes, of death, we begin to bone-wracking sickness and tens-of- These children are extras in a cam- see them differently. thousands of deaths. paign commercial, to support the For some, the spell is broken. We see For these aren’t the children of the reelection of a politician who couldn’t them as they are, flawed beings, driven wealthy; they’re the children of the care less. by ambition and hunger for power. poor and working classes—the chil- —Prison Radio, July 13, 2020 It ain’t a pretty picture. dren of the common people. https://www.prisonradio.org/media/ U.S. president Trump’s recent so- And does anyone believe this dude audio/mumia/children-corn-231-mu- called order (it sounds like more of a cares about them? mia-abu-jamal

America: Rogue Nation? By Mumia Abu-Jamal

At last count, over three million The U.S. has emerged as a nation people in the U.S. are infected, result- out of control, either unwilling or ing in at least some 130,000 deaths. unable to follow simple medical direc- Americans, long regarded as disputa- tions designed to mitigate a pandemic. tious, quarrelsome and argumentative, Here, state governments seem inef- are now regarded as a threat to the fective; the national government seems public health of European states. It simply incompetent. now joins Brazil, as a nation banned from European soil. —Prison Radio, July 7, 2020 Europeans must also regard Americans as foolish and undisci- https://www.prisonradio.org/search/ plined, for failure to abide by simple node/America%3A%20Rogue%20 health rules, which threatens to surge Nation%3F throughout European society. Write to Mumia at: In the U.S. meanwhile, southern Smart Communications/PA DOC Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335 Mumia Abu-Jamal and southwestern states regarded masking as an assault on American SCI Mahanoy On June 30, 2020, the European rights, and an affront to freedom. P.O. Box 33028 St. Petersburg, FL 33733 Union announced that Americans What is most unnerving, however, were not welcome to visit any of the is the elevation of politics over science, 28-member countries of the EU. for the U.S. proves that he who substi- Why? tutes a politician’s decision over that of Because of the explosive expansion of a doctor, has a fool for a patient. FREE the coronavirus among American states, For politicians serve their egos or their which surpasses many foreign nations. donors, and others suffer the consequences. MUMIA

64 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5

Letters to the Editors LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Dear Editors, In struggle, tem designed to uphold white suprem- Revolutionary greetings! Comrade Harlequin, AKA Tamara acy. It’s systemic. The capitalist profit Angelique Allenbaugh motive holds the value of material I watch the news of the worldwide wealth and property over the value of protests in the wake of the murder of life. And since white and capitalist George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Write to Tamara Angelique Allenbaugh supremacy already owns the majority Breonna Taylor with growing anticipa- (Trans Prisoner): of the world’s wealth, they will always tion. The murder of innocent civilians, Smart Communications/PADOC be willing to pay enforcers like the cops disproportionately people of color, by Thomas Flick #LJ9467 and military to protect their interests. law enforcement has gone on unchecked SCI Phoenix A perfect example of this is Sean for far too long and the people have had P.O. Box 33028 “Tucan” Monterrosa, who was killed enough. While I support the protesters St. Petersburg, FL 33733 100 percent, and cheer them, I can’t by Vallejo cops while on his knees with help but think of all the victims of social his hands up. The police claimed he violence and social murder that are had a gun, but all they found was a incarcerated across the nation. I don’t hammer. And anyway, who loots with know about you, but I view the death a pistol? Dear Editors, penalty and Life Without Parole And what conditions in society (LWOP) sentences as a form of vio- I’ve been out in the streets protest- caused young Sean to risk his life for lence, but yet hundreds-of-thousands ing police brutality and killings since material gain? That’s where the move- in Amerika, if not millions, are victim- the Rodney King “riots.” And been ment should be focused, not just on the ized and have been victimized within aware of police, specifically San surface but at the root of the problem. the last fifty years alone in this way. Francisco Police Department, killing Another example of property held young Black men since Hunters Point We live in the biggest prison-for- above the value of life—if you report a native Kendrick “Street Frog” Gardeau profit nation in the world. Often, these car stolen, the driver will be pulled over was run off the road on his motorcycle sentences are imposed as a result of one at gun point, whether the car was actu- by SFPD October 17, 1989. act of violence that is a direct result of ally stolen or not. social conditions such as poverty. One I’m also a surviving veteran of the As long as the profit motive remains act of stupidity can result in imprison- war on drugs, and countless experi- there will be abundant room for exploi- ment for a lifetime or even death, with ences with police violence and brutali- tation, oppression and brutal enforce- no chance of redeeming or rehabilitat- ty. Not racially motivated, but as some- ment of the laws that protect material ing oneself. While other countries uti- one who grew up on welfare and of the wealth and property. lize alternatives to incarceration that “working poor” class, and absolutely motivated by class oppression, it’s like- The only way to truly dissolve the are effective, Amerika locks away and police is a socialist revolution to dis- murders one-sixth of theirs. ly that the only reason I have survived this far, besides being a fighter, is mantle the system in place that values Restorative justice works and heals because of the color of my skin. Not All human life less than property and all the wounds inflicted by crime. The Americans have that privilege, so all material wealth. incarcerated and disenfranchised need lives don’t matter in this society, under End capitalism with a socialist revo- their own revolution, it seems. this system. lution and you will see solutions collec- Kudos to those active in the revolu- There are no good cops in a racist, tively manifest with the interest of life tion going on worldwide for the vic- exploitive, and oppressive system. and the future at the heart of society. tims of police brutality. It’s about time! There may be cops who believe they Rest in Power Kendrick “Street We incarcerated need a similar move- stand for justice and are well inten- Frog” Gardeau. ment. I hope I’m fortunate enough to tioned, but they chose that side as a be alive when it happens. Rest in Power Sean “Tucan” way of life. There will always be jobs Monterrosa. I wish Sylvia Weinstein were alive to enforcing racist and capitalist oppres- —Johnny Gould see her legacy brought to life. She sion as long as society continues to would’ve been so proud. produce for profit, because it’s a sys- (Follow @tandion415 on Instagram)

Vol. 20, No. 5 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, and environmental destruction that capi- Bargain rate: $35.00 for two years; talism 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. 5 Eight Minutes Forty-Six Seconds By Rickie Richburg

San Francisco, CA - June 3, 2020: Protestors at the George Floyd Black Lives Matter protest, performing dances and giving speeches prior to marching to the Police Station and City Hall.

Eight minutes forty-six seconds! utes forty-six seconds! Back then, a It was cut off like he neglected to pay the For eight minutes forty-six seconds, hangin’ didn’t take that long. bill while his body lay still. George Floyd screamed “Please, I can’t What does that say about the state If that don’t make you feel some breathe! I can’t breathe! Momma help we are in? type of way, you must be wearing that me please!” Eight minutes forty-six seconds! white hood, hiding your face. Eight minutes forty-six seconds! That’s equivalent to three, three-minute It’s 2020, what a disgrace! For eight minutes forty-six seconds, songs, average time for one to run a mile or three rounds of a heavyweight fight! Write to Rickie Richburg: one who is supposed to protect and Smart Communications/PADOC serve curve his knee on his neck like a And this officer is supposed to be right? Rickie Richburg #JQ0803 necklace,while his soul slowly left us! For eight minutes forty-six seconds, SCI Rockview George Floyd’s death was inhu- George was denied one of the only P.O. Box 33028 mane! He was tortured for eight min- things that are free in this world, oxygen. St. Petersburg, FL 33733

Continued from page 2 Wall St. criminals. The vast wealth of Socialist candidates LaRiva and Freeman will 9. Defend and expand our unions. the giant banks and corporations is be on the November ballot in: Arkansas, Califor- Support the right of all workers to have a created by workers’ labor and the nia, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, union. Fight back against the attacks on exploitation of the world’s diminish- New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennesee, Vermont, collective bargaining. Require employers ing natural resources. The billionaires Washington, and Washington, D.C.; write them to recognize card check union votes. looted and destroyed the economy. It in in other states. Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act. Focusing is time to seize their assets and use —Party of Socialism and Liberation, on low-wage worker organizing, rebuild those resources in the interests of the August 2020 a fighting labor movement. vast majority. Power must be taken https://www.lariva2020.org/program 10. Takeover the stolen wealth of the out of the hands of the super-rich, and giant banks and corporations—Jail Wall Street criminals must be jailed. http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/

Vol. 20, No. 5 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 67 $4 at Newsstands and Bookstores SocialistViewpoint

H The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. —Karl Marx H SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 VOL. 20 NO. 5

Renters facing risk of evictions and their supporters protest as they demand developer Geoffrey Palmer to cancel their rent on July 31, 2020 in Los Angeles. Read All Evictions are Violent on page 29. On the Front Cover: s Screen shot of New York Times video report on Port- land protest showing “Wall of Moms” carrying banner declaring "No War but Class War," July 23, 2020. Read Symptoms of Terminal Capitalism, on page 4.

Wrecked framework of the Museum of Science and Industry in Hiro- shima, Japan. This is how it appeared shortly after the dropping of the Larkspur, CA — August 2, 2020: Over 700 demonstrators march down Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Larkspur, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 2, first atomic bomb, on August 6, 1945. (Shutterstock) Read Another Symptoms of Terminal Capitalism - Page 4 Hiroshima is Coming on page 10. 2020, from the Larkspur Ferry parking lot to the state prison closing down Sir Francis Drake Blvd to road traffic. Read 30 U.S. Prisons: Mass Releases Demanded on page 57. Year of the Plague - Page 6 « « « Attention Prison Mail Room: « « « The Attack on Science - Page 14 - Page 19 Prisoners retain their free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That means you cannot Huge New Military Budget 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.”