Page 6 Yellow Vests and Red Unions - Page 11 Corporate Titans Target Venezuela - Page 17 “Maybe We Should Change the System Itself” by Greta Thunberg

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H The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. —Karl Marx H MARCH/APRIL 2019 VOL. 19 NO. 2

Drug Wars, Prison and Corporate Wealth - Page 4 Primacy of the Working Class - Page 6 Yellow Vests and Red Unions - Page 11 Corporate Titans Target Venezuela - Page 17 “Maybe We Should Change the System Itself” By Greta Thunberg

But I don’t care about being popular. Until you start focusing on what I care about climate justice and the living needs to be done, rather than what is planet. Our civilization is being sacri- politically possible, there is no hope. We ficed for the opportunity of a very small cannot solve a crisis without treating it number of people to continue making as a crisis. We need to keep the fossil enormous amounts of money. Our bio- fuels in the ground, and we need to sphere is being sacrificed so that rich focus on equity. And if solutions within people in countries like mine can live in the system are so impossible to find, luxury. It is the sufferings of the many, then maybe we should change the sys- which pay for the luxuries of the few. tem itself. We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored Our biosphere is being us in the past, and you will ignore us Greta Thunberg sacrificed so that rich again. We have run out of excuses, and people in countries like we are running out of time. We have Fifteen-year-old Swedish climate activ- come here to let you know that change ist Greta Thunberg addressed the COP24 mine can live in luxu- is coming, whether you like it or not. UN plenary assembly, on December 12, ry. It is the sufferings of The real power belongs to the people. 2018, in Katowice, Poland. Here is the Thank you. speech she gave excerpted from a December the many, which pay for —Daily Kos, December 16, 2018 16, 2018 article in the Daily Kos titled, the luxuries of the few. “Fifteen-year Old Greta Thunberg Speaks https://www.dailykos.com/ Truth to Power at UN Climate Change stories/2018/12/16/1819508/-A-Call-to- Conference.” The year 2078, I will celebrate my Action-on-Climate-Change-by-15- 75th birthday. If I have children, maybe My name is Greta Thunberg. I am year-Old-Greta-Thunberg they will 15-years-old, and I’m from Sweden. I spend that speak on behalf of Climate Justice Now! day with me. Many people say that Sweden is just Maybe they a small country, and it doesn’t matter will ask me what we do. But I’ve learned that you about you. are never too small to make a difference. Maybe they And if a few children can get headlines will ask why all over the world just by not going to you didn’t school, then imagine what we could all do anything do together if we really wanted to. while there But to do that, we have to speak still was time clearly, no matter how uncomfortable to act. You that may be. You only speak of green say you love eternal economic growth because you your chil- are too scared of being unpopular. You dren above only talk about moving forward with all else, and the same bad ideas that got us into this yet you are mess, even when the only sensible stealing thing to do is pull the emergency their future brake. You are not mature enough to in front of tell it like it is. Even that burden you their very leave to us children. eyes.

2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 SocialistViewpointSOCIALIST VIEWPOINT March/April 2019 Vol. 19, No. 2 www.socialistviewpoint.org CONTENTS email: [email protected] (415) 824-8730 U.S. and World Politics Environment “Maybe We Should Change the System Itself” . . . . .2 Disaster Capitalism in Brazil ...... 44 By Greta Thunberg By Vijay Prashad Drugs, Wars, Prisons and Corporate Wealth ...... 4 By Bonnie Weinstein Incarceration Nation Primacy of the Working Class ...... 6 Alleged Government Interference in Governor By Susan Roberts Cuomo’s Parole Denial ...... 46 Yellow Vests and Red Unions ...... 11 By Jalil A. Muntaqim By Richard Greenman Death Row Inmate Asks Governor Newsom Corporate Titans Target Venezuela ...... 17 for Innocence Investigation ...... 47 By Bruce Lesnick By Kevin Cooper History and Hypocrisy of U.S. Meddling in Venezuela . . .20 Prison Report Mass Media Chose to Ignore ...... 48 By Brett Wilkins By Adam Johnson General Strike: The Fierce Urgency of Now ...... 22 Women Politicals of the American Empire ...... 49 Aggression Against Venezuela Must Cease ...... 23 By Linda Ford Tripling the Poverty Rate in the U.S...... 23 Life Imprisonment For Profit Is the Crime ...... 51 By Paul Buchheit By Ted Kelly Andy Lopez, ¡Presente! ...... 25 Indiana Case Shines Spotlight on Solitary Confinement . 53 By Chris Kinder By Olivia Covington Incarceration vs. Education ...... 26 Stunning Turn of Events has Hope By Valerie Bauman for Mumia’s Freedom Rising ...... 55 When and How Will Artificial Intelligence be OK? . . 27 Adapted From an Article By Noelle Hanrahan By Dr. Nayvin Gordon Remembering Martin King ...... 56 California Cop Protected Neo-Nazis By Mumia Abu-Jamal and Targeted Their Victims ...... 27 Fight for Decarceration ...... 57 By Sam Levin By Dan Berger Arizona: Four Women Convicted After Leaving Food and Water in Desert For Migrants ...... 30 Reviews By Associated Press U.S. Spent Billions to Change Outcome of Elections Lessons from the FBI’s Secret War on Activism . . . .31 Worldwide ...... 58 By Michael Steven Smith By Danny Haiphong Palestinian Children Killed by Israel in 2018 Have Been Forgotten by the World ...... 33 Letters to the Editors ...... 60 By Ramona Wadi Israel’s Largest Land Grab Since 1948 ...... 34 Arsenal of Marxism By Whitney Webb Paris Commune, the October Revolution U.S. and Mass Murder in Guatemala ...... 36 and the Party Question ...... 62 By Greg Grandin and Elizabeth Oglesby By Howard Keylor 200 Million Strike Against Anti-Labor Policies in India . . 39 War and the Workers ...... 63 By Adam Pal By V. I. Lenin Afghanistan in 2019: Fewer U.S. Troops, Capitalism in Crisis ...... 75 More CIA Torture and Killings ...... 42 By Mumia Abu-Jamal By William Boardman

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Vol.Vol.Vol. 19, 19,3, No.No. 22 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 3

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

Drugs, Wars, Prisons and Corporate Wealth By Bonnie Weinstein

The principle of profit is king holds mon as patients struggle to keep up. of the more powerful forms of the true for the military and prison indus- In the short term, fluctuating blood company’s painkillers. According to trial complexes as well as the healthcare sugar levels can lead to confusion, the complaint, McKinsey consul- industry and industry in general. War, dehydration, coma, even death. In tants advised Purdue Pharma to prisons and the healthcare industry all the long term, poorly controlled dia- increase sales by claiming that opi- betes is associated with heart attacks, oids reduced stress and made have one thing in common—they strokes, blindness, amputation and patients less isolated. Patients on make money off of human misery. the need for dialysis. The exorbitant drugs such as OxyContin can in fact There’s a multitude of examples of prices confound patients and doctors become socially withdrawn. how the quest for higher profits endan- alike since insulin is nearly a century McKinsey consultants, members of gers the health and welfare of working old now. The pricing is all the more the Sackler family were told, also people. But two recent examples in the infuriating when one considers planned to study techniques for medical industry stand out. that the discoverers of insulin sold keeping patients on opioids longer the patent for $1 each to ensure that and McKinsey urged Purdue Pharma Pharmaceutical corporations spend the medication would be affordable.” to fight efforts taken by federal agen- tens-of-millions of dollars on adver- This means that people are getting cies to stop illegal drug sales...” tisements—on everything from hem- sicker and even dying because they Financial success for the Sackler orrhoid ointments to late-stage cancer can’t afford the insulin they need family and Purdue Pharma, in fact, drugs—because they profit tremen- because the industries’ profit margin is contributed to more than 70,200 dously from the sale of them. more important than their lives. American deaths in 2017.2 This is noth- The financial wellbeing of pharma- In a January 31, 2019 New York ing short of mass murder for profit. ceutical corporations depends on prof- Times article by Barry Meier titled, And, under the private, for-profit its from the sale of drugs to individu- “Sackler Scion’s Email Reveals Push for medical industry, big business has als, and to insurance companies that High-Dose OxyContin, New Lawsuit nothing to lose by people getting sicker insure drug coverage. Profit is the pur- Disclosures Claim,” while becoming addicted to their pose of their existence. drugs. It just means more profits for “The lawsuit, which was filed in them all around. Safety, efficiency and accessibility June by the Massachusetts attorney for the poor to life-saving drugs are general, Maura Healey, claims that Death and incarceration is big only important if they make a profit. Purdue Pharma and members of the business, too, in the USA In the case of the manufacturers of opi- Sackler family knew that putting War and the sales of weapons— ates that have killed over 70,000 in 2017 patients on high dosages of from small arms to nuclear arsenals— alone,1 addiction is profitable because they OxyContin for long periods is the USA’s biggest industry and is can sell more drugs—proving capitalism increased the risks of serious side effects, including addiction. underwritten by U.S. taxpayers to the and medicine are incompatible. Nonetheless, they promoted higher tune of $716 billion for 2019 alone, The depths of greed dosages because stronger pain pills that includes a 2.6 percent pay increase brought the company and the for service members.3 (And this figure In a January 18, 2019 New York Sacklers the most profit. ...The law- Times article by Danielle Ofri titled, does not include the cost of the U.S. suit alleges that the Sackler family police force.) “The Insulin Wars,” received more than $4 billion in “Between 2002 and 2013, prices opioid profits since 2007, when the Meanwhile, the private corporations tripled for some insulin. Many cost company pleaded guilty. The lawsuit that manufacture these weapons keep around $300 a vial, without any via- includes claims that McKinsey and increasing their profits while causing ble generic alternative. Most patients Company, a consulting firm, pre- death and destruction across the globe— use two or three vials a month, but pared reports for Purdue Pharma to also good for business. The rebuilding, others need the equivalent of develop strategies that would cleanup and exploitation of natural four. Self-rationing has become com- increase the prescribing by doctors resources after wars and bombings, some-

4 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 time in the future, amounts to a business- profitable for the .01 percent who own Then we can turn production for investment for U.S. corporations. the means of production, and the raw profit into a democratically structured The giant prison industrial com- materials necessary to run them. And system of production for all the things plex—including immigrant detention crimes of the poor against the poor are people want, with equal prosperity for centers—fuels the U.S. public and pri- profitable for big business, too. all. Socialism will, at long last, bring the vate prison system, which profits off brutality of capitalism to a final end, to the imprisoned poor. the benefit of the whole world. War, prisons and the The poor, unlike their wealthy counterparts with plenty of bail money healthcare industry all and lawyers, are unable to provide for have one thing in com- their own defense, and are found guilty, or forced to plea to a lesser charge— mon—they make money 1 “More than 70,200 Americans died even when innocent—only to languish off of human misery. from drug overdoses in 2017, including illicit in jail because there is no equal justice drugs and prescription opioids—a two-fold under capitalism. increase in a decade.” National Institute of The capitalists have it covered both Drug Abuse, January 2019 The irony is that the cost of keeping ways. https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/ people in jail could pay for college Capitalism’s profit motive is stacked trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates scholarships for all state and federal 2 Ibid inmates: against the masses of humanity and against the incredible life forms that 3 “2019 Defense Budget Signed by Trump” “Incarceration costs an average share this planet with us. https://militarybenefits.info/2019-defense-budget/ of $31,000 per inmate, per year, 4 “How much does it cost to send someone nationwide. In some states, it’s as We can keep our planet and our- to prison?” much as $60,000. Taxpayers foot the selves alive and healthy only by demo- https://www.marketplace.org/2017/05/15/ bill for feeding, housing and secur- cratically and collectively building a world/how-much-does-it-cost-send-someone- ing people in state and federal peni- socialist society. prison tentiaries.” May 19, 20174 So, while the costs of the Prison Industrial Complex are astronomical, taxpayers pay for them, making incar- cerating people very profitable for big business—and not just directly from taxpayers—but indirectly through the “new slavery,” i.e., corporations exploiting dirt-cheap prison labor to increase their profits instead of having to pay union wages. Free education from cradle to grave for all would go a long way toward ending the “crimes of the poor against the poor” such as theft, drugs and gang wars. It would benefit all of us and drastically reduce crime, but that’s just not profitable and, therefore, not good for business. The solution is socialist revolution The fact is, that under the capitalist system, crimes against the poor by the rich, like medical price-gouging, war, mass incarceration, slavery and pollution, are perfectly legal because they are

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 5 Primacy of the Working Class By Susan Roberts

If someone were to ask me the mean- moral authority. In the eyes of these the vilification of the working class, ing of politics, I would say that it is new global players, “collective” politics, which has become a cultural meme concerned with the contestation of with its demands of representation, since the ’80s, has proved an invaluable power; that it is agonistic, even antago- constituency and even democracy are aid to the ushering in of this new apo- nistic. And that it has to be, because discredited artifacts of a broken system, litical elite. For the flip side of the wor- what it contests is the balance of power which needs to be superseded by a thy coin that is GSJM is the unworthy, wielded by different class interests. As more moral form of global governance. feckless and irresponsible working Marx recognized, the underlying pur- The rapid multiplication of these, class. By falsifying working class politics pose of the social, political, economic media-savvy, global players, which act as greedy and self-serving it has been and even legal institutions of capitalist very much like lobbyists, negotiating relatively easy for the capitalist media to society, is to preserve the monopoly of concessions at capitalist summits, isn’t delegitimize their demands. What is power enjoyed by the capital-owning simply a crude manifestation of an now approvingly taken up instead is a class. And, consequently, any attempt to expanded global capitalism, although pluralism of social and cultural inter- challenge that monopoly, in whatever World Bank requirements that third ests none of which has the political sphere, is going to be countered, as the world governments seeking aid involve leverage, nor the desire it would seem, yellow-vested protesters are currently NGOs and advocacy groups has clearly to challenge the status quo. experiencing on the streets of Paris. helped fan that development. There is Urban geographer, Mike Davis dis- I point this out because the nature also a philosophical justification under- cusses the NGO revolution under the of politics seems to have radically pinning the emergence of these post- heading “Soft Imperialism,” and changed over the last couple of decades. political movements, and the conse- regards it as responsible for “hegemon- Dare I say it? It has become rather apo- quent replacement of the collective izing the space traditionally occupied litical—concerned more with amelio- subject focused on class politics with a by the left” and “de-radicalizing urban rating the excesses of capitalism than more compliant apolitical partner. social movements.” with challenging the system itself. What may seem surprising, however, is Housing activist, P.K. Das is more that global capitalism’s new partner, The dramatic protests against global forthright, suggesting that the aim of should largely be a creation of the Left. capitalism that marked the end of the such movements is to “subvert, dis- For whilst neoconservatives bent on 20th century have now settled into a inform and de-idealize people so as to rolling back the state, welcomed the not uneasy truce, as new “transnation- keep them away from class struggles,” at al” actors have emerged to fill and hugely influential work of neo-liberal philosopher John Rawls, which herald- the same time encouraging people to “depoliticize” the radical space previ- beg “for favors on sympathetic and ously occupied by the working class. ed the primacy of the autonomous individual and paved the way for the humane grounds rather than making These new players comprise a panoply 4 3 the oppressed conscious of their rights.” of “Global Social Justice Movements,” fiction of “trickle down” economics. It (GSJMs) and “Non-Governmental was the Left’s embrace of postmodern David Chandler describes these Organizations,” (NGOs) which impose thinking with its distinctive disparage- newly emergent political actors as themselves on inchoate civil society all ment of historical narratives that led to “anti-political and elitist” which seems 5 over the globe. Whilst the range of their the abandonment of the working class spot on. In many ways their actions particularistic interests is vast, they are as the historical subject, i.e., in Marxian mirror those of their missionary fore- generally united in the denigration of terms, as the class capable of effecting bears: placating the natives and clear- working class politics. These move- historical change. ing the ground for the expansion of ments, which tend to be managed by A corollary of this supposed moral expire. However, his suggestion that western, middle class personnel,1 and evolution in trans-global “politics,” is the shift away from class politics are very often funded, directly or indi- the depreciation of the former political stemmed from the fact that the leftist rectly by western corporate interests objectives fought for by organized labor programs of the ’70s and ’80s were and unelected bodies,2 eschew the rep- and its associated imperatives of soli- empty and exhausted isn’t correct. resentational demands of the “old” darity and community: terms which are Quite the opposite, as a brief glance at class politics, insisting instead that their notably absent from the new “corpo- the progressive policies put forward at “individualistic” agenda wields a higher rate-friendly” moral lexicon. Indeed, that time reveals. In fact, the compen-

6 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 satory consumerism launched by neo- and political future of the country. ward industrial strategies that recog- conservative governments in the dereg- When Ted Heath, the Prime Minister nized the importance of diversification, ulated ’80s, which has led to unprece- of the Tory government then in power, social goods, green energy, environ- dented levels of private debt, was the called an election in 1975, (after declar- mental constraints, worker cooperation very antithesis of the socialist projects ing five states of emergency in so many and responsibility. In “Socialism and suggested a decade earlier, when work- years,) asking the people “Who rules the Environment,” published in 19728, ers had sought to found an alternative Britain?” the electorate decisively several years before “Green Politics” society on something other than a answered that it was not him and came on the scene, the connection destructive and wasteful capitalism. returned a Labor government. It was, between the expropriation of the envi- indeed, a time of flux. And there was a ronment and that of the worker was A more accurate summation of real sense that fundamental change was recognized, as was the need to end the those years of contestation—what possible; a confidence perhaps best destructive and wasteful consumerism might now be called “extreme politics” conveyed by the appearance of the which was polluting the planet and is not that the leftist programs were UCS shop steward on a BBC chat show. threatening to make it uninhabitable. exhausted, but that their policies were It seems incongruous now, in the era of never implemented. Certainly in the For young people today, the passiv- “bake-offs” and similar inanities, that UK striking workers were deceived by ity of “apolitics” rather than the con- the highlight of Saturday night televi- their own representatives, both in and testation of politics is the norm. The sion could be something as prosaic as a out of government, but also by the class divisions that animated society in discussion of working class politics. political system itself, which used the 1970s have since become institu- That the chair usually occupied by undemocratic means to block the tionalized and repackaged as career Hollywood types on promotional film implementation of manifesto pledges paths for the “caring middle classes” or and book tours should seat the charis- promising irrevocable and fundamen- passed off as market exigencies beyond matic communist, Jimmy Reid, pro- tal change to the economic system. the reach of government, as much of moting nothing other than the inter- What evidently united the forces against what constituted civil society back then the workers was their demand for more ests of ordinary people seems quite has been destroyed or privatized. direct democracy and involvement in extraordinary. But so it was. the political and economic process, What is not so surprising, perhaps, is The target which was a challenge both to capitalist the fawning media’s denunciation of Margaret Thatcher is perhaps best control and to bourgeois clientizm. that time, dubbed “the winter of dis- remembered for her role in deregulat- content” as an era when the country ing the financial sector and selling off Contestation vs. acceptance was on the brink of economic collapse.6 state assets and social housing, in an In the cultural shift from contesting Eager to hail Margaret Thatcher’s emer- attempt to create an expanded middle capitalism to accepting it, it is accep- gence on the political scene as nothing class, but her main target was always tance, which now seems to be the gov- short of messianic, it suited the Tory the destruction of organized labor erning ethos determining and directing press to denigrate the striking workers which she rightly recognized was the what passes for “leftist” politics. It and present their demands as greedy main challenge to the capitalist monop- therefore seems timely to reflect on and self-serving. However, what the oly. As victims of the cult of individual- that earlier era, not so long ago, when a workers were primarily asking for ism which began to throttle society in politics of contestation dominated the wasn’t money, it was power and more the 1980s, and is evidently nothing public space and being “on the left” involvement in the productive process more than “consumer grooming,” it is was a socialist stance, incontrovertibly itself.7 With many manufacturing difficult for anyone growing up in bound up with working class demands industries closing down, due to a com- post-industrial capitalism to appreciate for a fairer and more just society. bination of mismanagement and that it was calls for solidarity, justice, In the UK of the 1970s strikes, sit- under-investment, often notwithstand- worker co-operation and a new vision ins, worker occupations and even ing considerable government subsidies, for productive capacity that shaped work-ins (most famously perhaps at the workers could see a way forward much of the debate around industrial the Upper Clyde Ship Building works through the production of socially use- democracy, which is precisely why (UCS) were common events. Angry ful goods, like dialysis machines and there was so much opposition from the grey men, huddled around braziers, efficient heating systems for pension- city and corporate interests, the media, were a regular sight on the nightly ers. In their demands for greater the civil service and even the security news, and everyone seemed to be involvement, workers—through services. What most exercised all these locked in debate about the economic Worker Councils—were putting for- concerns was the realization that their

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 7 long held fears about organized labor there are “telling patterns” in the sur- sorry, forgotten state. Certainly, Lenin’s being capable of effecting historical vey results, particularly as there was a observation concerning the working change were real. And that the only “dramatic over-representation of busi- class’s perpetual “cultural enslave- way to see off that challenge and to ness and related finance professionals,” ment” seems truer than ever.11 secure their monopoly was to destroy and with the responses received from Savage’s work is also instructive in the collective power of the working CEOs being more than 20 times the revealing the social vulnerability of the class using every possible means. number expected. Unfortunately, he middle classes and how class itself has Structurally that meant emasculating doesn’t seem able to tell us what they now assumed a cultural significance as the trade unions with onerous legisla- are. He reports that “the proportion of an aspect of personal identity: as a sig- tive controls, and eradicating those respondents who do not think they nifier of moral and intellectual value. elements of civic society, which incul- belong to a class rises as the class hier- Which would, perhaps, explain why cated notions of community and soli- archy descends,” with only a quarter of GSJM personnel are drawn primarily darity. Culturally, it meant effecting a the “precariat,” (the class who occupy a from this class. However, the survey’s radical shift in society’s perception of precarious position in society due to division of the populace into seven the working class so negative and per- no or poor work opportunities) separate class divisions obscures the vasive that few, whatever their eco- acknowledging their low class status. bigger picture of winners and losers, nomic circumstances, would wish to be Whereas, “Nearly half of the elite think which is what the dramatic differentia- identified as, let alone associated with, they belong to a class.” Savage suggests tion in response rates so eloquently working class ideas and values. Ably that this is a “fascinating inversion of reveals. A less obfuscating analysis of caricatured by a relentless and reac- what Marx might have thought, that that trend is perhaps provided by the tionary media, membership ofS the class consciousness intensifies among simple societal distinction drawn by working class soon became synony- the proletarianized, who ‘have nothing Thorstein Veblen in Vested Interests mous with being a “benefit cheat” or a to lose but their chains.’” Whereas, “In and the Common man. In Veblen’s “scrounger.” You could also expect to fact, those at the bottom of the pile are study, which concerned the U.S. at the be imputed to hold racist and sexist the least likely to think of themselves as turn of the century, all the “Vested 10 views and would almost certainly be belonging to a class.” Apart from the Interest” group requires from the capi- perceived to be lacking in aspiration. obvious fact that what people think talist class with whom they negotiate, is However, it is the label “underclass,” and what they say are often very differ- “a narrow margin of net gain.” In or “feral underclass” for working class ent things, and the observation that return for this moderate benefit, youth, which perhaps best conveys the nobody wants to volunteer for the los- Veblen suggests, they will happily dramatic fall and political invisibility of ing team; there is no inversion of “shape their sentiments and outlook” the working class, who were effectively Marx’s thesis here. in support of those business interests. erased from the political spectrum. If anything, at a time when social and With the withdrawal of the state and cultural capital have attained new lev- the promotion of the neoconservative By falsifying working els of exchange-value following capital- mantra of “individual responsibility,” class politics as greedy ism’s colonization of the cultural it became easy to present poverty and sphere, Veblen’s analysis seems more unemployment as personal failings and self-serving it has relevant than ever. For, in the era of rather than political objectives. What been relatively easy for trans-global capitalism and the accom- was thereby ensured was that the “irre- panying expansion of apolitical social sponsible” and “unaspirational,” the capitalist media to and cultural movements there are seared by their shameful failings, would delegitimize their many more margins for gain. obligingly delete themselves from the demands. political play list, as indeed they have. Class politics? Mike Savage’s Social Class in the 21st The abandonment of the working Century, published in 2015, which A better explanation for the prole- class as the historical subject is gener- reveals the results of the biggest survey tariat not rattling their chains is per- ally traced back to the emergence of of class ever undertaken in the UK, haps because there is little chance of post-Marxian/post-modernist think- with 161,000 participants, reports that losing them in a time when their incar- ing in France in the ’70s, with its defin- not a single cleaner or worker in the ceration has been normalized, i.e., de- ing denial of over-arching historical “elementary services” responded to the politicized. At such a time all that rat- narratives. The work, which has pro- survey.9 Savage acknowledges that tling achieves is to remind you of your vided moral and political authority for

8 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 that abandonment is Hegemony and however, does not bear that out. As Dissolving the solidity of the work- Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical seen above, the UK of the ’70s, a time ing class into a multitude of antago- Democratic Politics, by Chantal Mouffe when working class power was at its nisms seems aimed at destroying soli- and Ernesto Laclau, published in 1985. height, was a very enlightened time. darity; it also looks like political suicide. In that post-Marxist text, Mouffe and Anti-racist and Anti-sexist acts were In the famous Grunwick strike of 1976, Laclau argue that the working class is passed and there was also progressive started by non-unionized Asian women no longer the historical subject, essen- legislation protecting the rights of working for a pittance in extremely tially because there is no historical homosexuals, legalizing abortion and poor conditions, a powerful message of subject and therefore no ontological making divorce easier. Workers even worker solidarity was sent to the Labor privilege attaches to the working class went on strike to demand more money government then in power. Issues of as the effective historical force against for old age pensioners. In fact, it is dif- ethnicity and gender were swept aside capitalism. Instead, they suggest that a ficult to think of an area of social life, as the biggest mobilization of worker range of social interest groups, (e.g., which was not considered to be part of solidarity ever seen in the UK was put feminism, anti-racism, environmental- the socialist plan for reform. in place and over 20,000 workers turned ism, etc.) can, through “moral and up on the picket line to support the intellectual” leadership, (as opposed to strikers. The strike even went interna- mere “political” leadership) combine tional: with dockworkers in Belgium, to effect such a challenge. Workers With the withdrawal of France and the Netherlands blocking remain relevant to that amalgamation the state and the goods from the Grunwick, film-pro- of interest groups, but only through cessing factory. It was precisely the their lived, concrete experience and promotion of the widespread solidarity of the movement not because of the historicity of their neoconservative mantra which terrified the government, as what position. It is in this new “unity of an of “individual was then evident was that worker soli- ensemble of sectors” that a structurally darity could transform society, which is new relation, different from class rela- responsibility,” it why the government resorted to heavy tions, is to be forged. And such an became easy to present policing to break up the strike, (the ensemble, the work suggests, will form same tactic the Thatcher government a “radical democracy.”12 poverty and would use against the miners a few It is in what Mouffe and Laclau call unemployment as years later.) Mouffe asserts that plural- the “decisive transition” from the personal failings rather ism can only be radical if there is no “positive and unitary founding princi- political to the moral/intellectual plane than political objectives. that a new concept of hegemony ple.” But it is hard to see what could act “beyond class alliances” takes place. as a unifying force in anti-capitalist struggles if it isn’t the commonality of The reason that a shift away from Reflecting on the fact that students exploitation. Who could the predomi- the political is thought necessary is and immigrants as well as factory nantly Gujarati women strikers: newly because there is a perceived need for an workers were involved in the mass arrived immigrants from East Africa, ensemble of ideas and values to be strikes which broke out in France in have called on if it wasn’t their fellow shared by a number of sectors—“that 1968, Mouffe suggests that “Once the exploited workers? And how effective certain subject positions traverse a conception of the working class as a would their actions have been in the number of class sectors.” It is Mouffe universal class is rejected it becomes absence of that solidarity? and Laclau’s contention that it is only possible to recognize the plurality of In their attempt to justify this dra- by leaving class politics, and the inad- the antagonisms which take place in matic shift away from class politics and equate “conjunctural coincidence of the field of what is arbitrarily grouped the historical interests of the working interests” that political alliances have under the label of ‘workers strug- class, Mouffe and Laclau draw on forged in the past, that a new singular gles.’”14 However, exactly what is “arbi- Gramsci’s notion of the “collective will,” movement can be established. trary” about that label and what benefit which he regarded as a national and Part of the reasoning for this is the is to be derived from abandoning it in popular movement capable of express- supposition that the working class can- favor of a plurality of different labels ing the shared interests of the masses, not think for the rest of society: that it which have no political significance in and also on Gramsci’s recognition of cannot get beyond the “narrow defense the context of a workers struggle is dif- the importance of moral and intellec- of its corporative interests.”13 History, ficult to determine. tual leadership. However, with regard to

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 9 preserve the defining issues of working and therefore until injustice is ended, class contestation. Whilst Mouffe sug- contestation must continue. For, as the gests it is the very fragmented, separate father of political philosophy recog- identity of these specific “antagonisms” nized, “it is always the weaker who seek that produces a “deep pluralistic con- equality and justice, while the stronger ception of democracy,” the reality has pay no attention to them.”19 been just the opposite. As Ellen Meiksins Wood points out in Democracy as Ideology of Empire it is precisely the dis- appearance of politically defined class both these aspects of his political strat- relations that makes this hollowed out, 1 Claus Offe, New Social Movements: Chal- egy, Gramsci’s thinking remains “de-socialized” version of democracy lenging the Boundaries of Institutional Politics, grounded in the historicity of the work- so attractive to global capitalism. Social Research 52:4 (1985:Winter) 832 ing class. For whilst he recognizes the Because, by putting the former social 2 James Heartfield, The European Union and need for alliances and doesn’t see the and political concerns of class politics the End of Politics (Zero Books: Winchester 2013) 117 working class holding out on its own, he beyond the reach of democratic 3 John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Oxford does recognize it as the directing force. accountability, politics is easily subor- University Press: Oxford, 1972) 18 The whole point of a collective will dinated to the market. Claus Offe too 4 P.K. Das, “Manifesto of a Housing Activ- is that it is a single, focused will, and recognizes that the “neoconservative ist” quoted in Mike Davis’s Planet of Slums, not a disparate array of tactics and project of insulating the political from (Verso: London, 2006) objectives. In fact, Gramsci opined that the non-political” is served by a restric- 5 David Chandler, “Deconstructing Sover- what had blocked the formation of just tive redefinition of what can and should eignty in Constructing global civil society” in be considered political, thus enabling Politics Without Sovereignty, (UCL Press: Lon- such a will in the past was an array of don 2007) 150 governments to eliminate problematic specific social groups. “All history, 6 John Medhurst, That Option No Longer from 1815 onwards shows the efforts social demands from their agendas. At Exists—Britain 1974-76, (Zero Books: Win- of the traditional classes to prevent the the same time, he observes that the chester, 2014) formation of a collective will of this emergence of new social movements, 7 State Intervention in Industry—a workers’ kind and to maintain ‘economic-cor- operating in non-political spheres of inquiry (Russell Press Ltd.: Nottingham, 1980) porate’ power in an international sys- action, usefully serves to exonerate that 8 Ken Coates, Socialism and the Environment, tem of passive equilibrium.”15 The fact de-politicization. (Spokesman: Nottingham, 1972) that Gramsci identifies the need for The Yellow Vest protest is a response 9 Mike Savage, Social Class in the 21st Cen- tury, (Pelican: Random House, 2012) 11 moral and intellectual leadership in the to an increasingly “dissocialized” ver- 10 Ibid. 367 formation of such a will does not mean sion of democracy and to the power of that it loses its political/economic base. 11 V.I. Lenin Collected Works, vol. 27( the elites, which has only increased Moscow, 1965) 464 On the contrary, not only does he under Macron. What began as a pro- 12 Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau, regard it as self-evident that such a test against increased fuel tax is now so Hegemony and Socialist Strategy—Towards a movement needs to be led by a party much more. Emboldened by wide- Radical Democratic Politics, (Verso: London, 16 grounded in politics. But he also rec- spread solidarity, the workers are 1985) 64 ognizes that moral and intellectual demanding an end to the elitism and 13 Ibid. 66 policies are nothing without structural corruption of government and a recog- 14 Mouffe, ibid. 167 change: “Intellectual and moral reform nition that the working class wants 15 Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the has to be linked with a program of eco- more than crumbs—the overthrow of Prison Notebooks, edited and translated by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith, nomic reform—indeed the program of Macron, the ending of political corrup- economic reform is precisely the con- (Lawrence and Wishart: London, 2003) 132 tion, a new republic, the emergence of 16 Gramsci, Ibid. 129 crete form in which every intellectual a new political party for the working and moral reform presents itself.”17 17 Ibid. 133 class. It is impossible to forecast how 18 Ellen Meiksins Wood, Democracy as By elevating a spurious moral lead- the protest will end. But it would not Ideology of Empire in The New Imperialists ership above class politics a platform have lasted as long as it has if it had not (Oneworld Publications: Oxford, 2006) 9 has been created for an open-ended been for the widespread solidarity the 19 Aristotle, Politics, trans., Joe Sachs plurality of apolitical causes. The effect workers have shown. Solidarity is (Focus Publishing: Newburyport, 2012) 1318b of which has been to radically depoliti- grounded in a love of justice, which is cize democracy by removing from its the life-blood of working class politics

10 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 Yellow Vests and Red Unions By Richard Greenman

On Tuesday, February 5, 2019, as demonstrating together with the of popular revolutions, have been sin- the Macron government pushed harsh French labor unions, whom he thought gularly inventive in coming up with repressive laws against demonstrators he had tamed last Spring. This conver- new political arrangements. For now, through the National Assembly, the gences came in response to a call for a let us look more closely at what may in Yellow Vests joined with France’s one-day “General Strike” issued by the retrospect be an historic day. unions for the first time in a daylong, General Confederation of Labor (CGT) The Strike began at exactly midnight nation-wide “General Strike.” and Solidaires, who for the first time when a rowdy crowd of 200-300 dem- At the very moment when in Paris invited “any Yellow Vests who felt like onstrators near Paris blocked the giant the lower house was voting to imple- it” to join. In the event, quite a few did Rungis produce market (which ment Macron’s proposed laws designed feel like it, despite the CGT’s previous replaced Les Halles, the legendary “Belly to suppress public demonstrations (a hostility to the Yellow Vests and despite of Paris,) cutting off food to the capital legal right protected in both the French their own fundamental suspicion of all with trucks lining up outside. You can Constitution and the U.N. Human “representative” structures, like estab- see the Yellow Vests among the Red Rights Declaration) tens-of-thousands lished parties and unions (whom the flags of the CGT in this video from Le of their constituents were out in the Yellow Vests justifiably fear would Parisien.1 They even set up a barricade. streets all over the country demon- attempt to coopt them, speak in their In the early hours there were also block- strating and striking against Macron’s name, and sell them out). ages at the airport of Nantes and at the authoritarian, neo-liberal government. A day of action and convergence University there, at a key tollgate near The demonstrators’ demands ranged For a “first date” the one-day Strike Toulouse, while in Grenoble transport from better salaries and retirement came off very well, somewhat to the was perturbed all morning. benefits, restoration of public services, surprise of both parties. And if this All told there were demonstrations equitable tax codes, an end to police tentative Red-Yellow alliance contin- in at least 160 different localities, all brutality, and banning the use of ues to solidify (and there is every indi- different in size and conduct, mostly “flash-balls” on demonstrators, to cation that it will) France will likely improvised by people on the spot at the Macron’s resignation and the instaura- become ungovernable and the ruling last minute. There were big ones in the tion of participatory democracy. classes will be up against the wall. What Channel ports Le Harvre, Rouen and Deaf to the angry people’s legitimate might happen next rich in possibility, Caen. In Strassbourg about 1500, in grievances, unwilling to deal with them, for the French, with their long history Lyon 5000 including 500 Yellow vests. Macron has given himself no other choice than to legislate new repressive legal restrictions to suppress their continued free expression. This resort to open repression can only serve to discredit the government’s handling of a crisis largely of his own making, treating a spontaneous social movement among the 99 percent as if it were a terrorist or fascist conspiracy. The unpopular President’s repressive tactics will inevitably backfire on him. The French are extremely jealous of their liberties, and Macron’s monarchical arrogance can only remind them of how their ances- tors dealt with Louis XVI. Moreover, the Yellow Vests, who have been a painful thorn in Macron’s side since last November, were now

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 11 In Marseille the Yellow Vest march every Yellow Vest has by now personal- of post-offices, bakeries and cafés forc- converged with the CGT at the Stock ized her/his attire, inscribing slogans ing them to spend two hours every Exchange, a shift of targets for the on them like: “End of Month/End of workday in their cars. Yellow Vests from government to World: Same Combat,” “Macron The Yellow vests represent a demo- finance capital. Resign!” “Down with Capitalism” and graphic cross section of France—natu- In Paris, instead of the usual union the very popular “Government of the rally minus the top two percent or three march through the popular quarters People, By the People and for the percent. And, unfortunately, for the from the Bastille to Nation, the CGT- People” (The French haven’t a clue moment, minus the ten percent (?) of led strikers invaded the fancy Right they’re quoting Lincoln, an American!) France’s doubly oppressed, discriminat- Bank territory, violently contested for At the front of the column, after the ed immigrant communities. The Arabs, twelve weeks by the Yellow Vests, CGT banner, were the Yellow Vests, Berbers, Black Africans and other immi- marching boldly up the Rue de Rivoli perhaps 200 strong behind our banner grants who do most of the dirty jobs, with its luxurious shop-windows (and and singing aloud. I was a little disap- who are rarely seen in civil service jobs, construction sites with bricks lying pointed by the low turnout of Yellow and whose youth riots in the Banlieues around.) They then held an impromp- Vests. Also that they didn’t go back and (Projects) seriously challenged President tu rally at a major intersection, tying fraternize and mingle with the union Sarkozy in 2005. (Partly due to my sug- up traffic and baffling the police.2 folk, as one woman proposed and I gestion, the Montpellier Yellow Vests Here in Montpellier, as elsewhere in attempted, in spite of the loud record- are starting to reach out to the immi- France, the crowd was big, but no big- ed CGT music. At the end of the grant communities.) ger than some of the previous Saturday march, our Montpellier Yellow Vest Coming from many different back- Yellow Vest demos—as was the case all had planned to hold an open-mike grounds, the Yellow Vests wisely chose over France. But this Tuesday it was speakout, but that didn’t come off to put aside their political differences largely a union crowd. On the other either. But as comrades kept remind- and party preferences, avoid pointless hand, after weeks of gassing peaceful ing me, it was an important first step, arguments, and focus on the struggle protestors, the police presence was and we’ll be back. We make our road that unites them, each speaking for her extremely discrete, and one Gendarme by walking. or himself (alternating genders to was filmed explaining to the Yellow maintain parity.) As the weekly pro- Vests protestors that the Gendarmes Who are these Yellow Vests? tests continued, the Yellow Vests were had “nothing against them,” that his Since November 17, 2018, the pop- slowly refining their goals and tactics family supported the movement, ular, nation-wide, self-organized and discovering how to organize them- explaining that they were soldiers and Yellow Vests movement has been keep- selves while retaining their autonomy. sworn to obey orders (the Gendarmerie ing up the pressure on the neo-liberal After more than two months, on is under the military.) They Yellow Macron regime with daily protests at January 25-27, delegates from 75 local Vests answered that they “had nothing traffic circles and weekly demonstra- Yellow Vest Assemblies came together against the Gendarmes either.”3 tions in dozens of cities. It is made up in the town of Commercy (Lorraine) When I arrived at the gathering of average, lower middle-class French for their first “Assembly of Assemblies” point, the loudspeakers of the CGT people, mostly provincials, whose lives and wrote a democratic, egalitarian, soundtruck were blaring out a long have gotten worse under neo-liberal anti-racist Declaration (discussed boring speech—complicated stuff con- policies. They are mostly “little people” below) which soon achieved a consen- cerning the Euro. No possibility of who are struggling to make ends meet sus around the country. So a function- conversation much less convergence. and are tired of being ignored and ing federation with common goals is Next up the line came a contingent of humiliated by France’s elites. now emerging. CGT people, quite a number of whom Last November, they began to turn Remarkably, the Yellow Vests’ rebel- were wearing yellow vests with bright off their TVs, come out of their houses, lion has persisted week after week red CGT emblems on them. This join together at traffic circles and toll despite a government campaign of bru- “dual” identity underscores the natu- booths, get to know each other, grill tal police repression—including thou- ralness of the convergence of the two sausages and feel empowered, rather sands of injuries (some serious), several movements of working class people than isolated and helpless. They thus deaths, a thousand arrests, and routine who have nearly identical economic humanized these “noplaces” or non- tear-gassing of peaceful groups. The goals and all the same enemies. Like places created by the automobile civili- Yellow Vests have persisted despite the Red-Yellow CGT activists, nearly zation that had stripped their villages being constantly vilified by the govern-

12 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 ment and media as fascists, violent ter- successfully opposing Macron’s eco- Vests. The event was to be a demon- rorists, “a hate-filled mob” (Macron) nomic program of taking from the stration of power, a public-relations etc. Yet, amazingly, according to the poor and giving to the rich (from leadership challenge, and it was point- latest polls, 77 percent of French people whose soft white hands the wealth will edly planned for Friday, not Saturday— at large think their mobilization is “jus- theoretically “trickle down.”) the Yellow Vests’ demonstration day tified” (up from 74 percent in January.) The CGT (the only free day for many of them, for example single parents, workers in Most remarkable of all, they have The immediate response to the rise offices and small businesses who don’t wrung some actual concessions from of the Yellow Vests on the part of the have strike pay or legal rights to strike). Macron, who, after disdainfully declar- CGT and its leader, the unsmiling, The Friday, December 14 union dem- ing he would “never” give in to an mustachioed Martinez (picked by onstrations were hardly imposing unruly mob, was forced to rescind the Central Casting for the “tough-guy” compared to Saturday’s Yellow Vest tax on Diesel fuel that the movement part) was suspicion (‘petty-bourgeois evens, so the ploy fizzled. had originally crystalized around, and fascists?’) and hostility. Martinez and promised a raise in the minimum wage the other union bureaucrats could not Two months later, the CGT’s issued and a cut in taxes on retirement income help seeing the Yellow Vests as com- another call for a one-day “General (both of which turned out to be shams petitors, and thus as a threat to their Strike” on February 5 (a Tuesday). It on close examination). own hegemonic status as official repre- seemed like a replay of the same ploy, These practical victories, won by an sentatives of the workers—especially but in a gesture toward the more and autonomous group that refuses to after Macron’s “concessions.” more obvious need for “convergence,” Martinez opened a crack for Yellow anoint leaders or to negotiate, have After shocking reports of police vio- Vests “to join if they wished” (as he deeply embarrassed the French labor lence unleashed by Macron’s govern- said the day before the Strike). However movement and particularly the “mili- ment against the Yellow Vests’ third the next day, blowing with a different tant” CGT (General Confederation of Saturday demonstration, and in direct wind, he changed his tune and actually Labor, historically affiliated with the response to an appeal for calm from made some sensible remarks about French Communist Party) which, after Macron, on December 6, the leaders of convergence: months of stop-and-go strikes last the CGT and all the other labor federa- Spring, failed to block the implementa- tions except for Solidaires, signed “People have been saying for more tion of Macron’s neo-liberal “reforms,” a Déclaration of solidarity—not of sol- than two months that we must talk and which took away many benefits won by idarity with the injured and arrested find common demands. We have them. French labor during the great struggles demonstrators, but with the Macron There is no reason we shouldn’t march of the past.4 government, the alleged representative side by side, the ones behind the oth- 5 The defeated strikers returned to of the “peaceful republican order!” [5] ers. What is important is to have a suc- work last Sept. with their tails between In return for what many described as a cessful first day of action together, their legs, simmering mad; and it was “betrayal,” the labor movement’s because I find that the bosses have been out this void of active opposition to clique of professional negotiators let off easy [by the Yellow Vests—Ed.] Macron’s ongoing neo-liberal offen- accepted Macron’s invitation to and it is time to bring to account the sive that the Yellow Vests spontane- “resume the social dialogue”—that is big bosses of this country.” ously emerged and spread across the to allow them to sit at the table with Martinez remark about needing to country, with their spectacular direct him and negotiate more give-backs of attack the big bosses was both pointed action tactics. Many union members, workers’ rights. and to the point. The Yellow Vests, more or less disgusted with their lead- The union leadership’s pledge of given their broad and varied social ers, joined the Yellow Vests from the allegiance to the neo-liberal flag did composition, have naturally focused start. The Yellow Vests organized not go down well in the union ranks. on the consumer issues they have in themselves via Facebook pages, social- And so the very next day, Martinez and common as working folk struggling to ized in traffic circles and parking lots the other union leaders spun in the make ends meet: high prices, unfair and grew into an autonomous social wind like weathercocks, started acting taxes and declining social services, movement. They stood up for them- militant, and called for a national labor directing their anger at the govern- selves and for the rest of France’s work- demonstration (legal) on Friday, ment, the media and the political elite. ing poor, unemployed, single mothers, December 14. The union leaders’ strike Their signs often denounce “capital- and retired people. They spontaneous- demands covered the same basic eco- ism,” but as a group they have no ly organized mass civil disobedience, nomic demands as the Yellow direct relationship with big industry

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 13 and finance in whose interest Macron them and secure his official status as Chapter Two of our movement. We rules. Yet clearly, only with the active labor’s representatives. This is precisely must all converge!” participation of France’s organized what the Yellow Vests feared from the Two railroad workers on the Paris- workers can this broad popular move- start when they founded their move- East line share his hopes. “The CGT has ment succeed—for example through ment on autonomy—perhaps remem- always been a fighting union, we’re on an unlimited general strike with occu- bering the dismal role played by the the side of labor, not capital. Before pations of workplaces and public spac- CGT in ending the general strike and taking a definite position on the Yellow es as in 1968. popular uprising that shook up the De Vests, we needed to wait to see how this Gaulle regime in 1968 (and whose The opening of chapter two in the movement was going to clarify its out- 50th anniversary was being celebrated look. Now, their discussions and movement? all over the media all last year.) demands are interesting, indeed attrac- More encouraging, Martinez’ co- So Red-Yellow convergence is tak- tive, rather leftist,” they judged. “This organizer of the February 5 strike, ing place in a conflicting context pit- movement has evolved on the ideologi- Cécile Gondar-Lalanne, whose union ting the traditionally hierarchical, ver- cal plane, the Yellow Vests have become Sud-Solidaires has been supportive of tical discipline of the CGT and other conscious through their struggle. It’s the Yellow Vests from the start, French labor organizations against the time to converge, to join together.” declared: “if today works out, we must innovative, horizontal self-organiza- look forward doing it again, to con- tion of the proudly autonomous Yellow Yellow Vests’ self-education in structing a common movement.” To Vests. The presence, observed in action this observer, such a convergence of Montpellier and on the videos of the Over time, the Yellow Vests’ objec- the Reds with the Yellows, if it devel- February 5 event, of demonstrators ops, might release a revolutionary tives have indeed deepened, as evi- with big red CGT badges on their denced by the evolution of the home- power greater than anything we have Yellow Vests, is already significant. The seen in modern history. made signs at demonstrations, by lists fact that these Red-Yellow (Orange?) of progressive demands from various The Yellows, composed of a cross- activists dare to openly display their local groups, and finally, at the end of section of the common people in the independence within the tightly orga- January 2018, by a Declaration (repro- provinces already have the support of nized culture of the CGT is a sign of duced below) voted by a “General the vast majority of French people. cracks opening in that bureaucratic Assembly of General Assemblies” They have held off the government for structure through which imaginative attended by Yellow Vests mandated by thirteen weeks and show no sign of wildcat initiatives may emerge. some 75 different local groups. A sec- relenting. The Reds, meaning the orga- Convergence is also developing ond Assembly, bringing together many nized workers, have the power to strike from below, through mutual under- more groups, is being prepared as the and bring a halt to France’s major standing. According to the investiga- Yellow Vests structure themselves in a industries, transportation, energy and tive journalism site Médiapart (whose loose federation and learn to represent all public services, as they did in 1936 coverage of this event was superb) “a themselves through delegates selected and 1968. not very militant” CGT member who (always one woman and one man) United, the Reds and the Yellows has been out with his Yellow Vest on with limited mandates and subject to have the potential to change the sys- the roundabouts and demonstrated recall (the system of the Paris tem, and many of the Yellows clearly every Saturday remarked that “there Commune of 1871.) have system-change on their agenda. are lots of employees who can’t strike, The Commercy Declaration defines System-change is definitely not on who work in small shops and whose their goals as “dignity,” an “end to the agenda of Martinez and the other relations with their bosses are too inequality,” “free public services,” union bureaucrats, whose social status, direct. But they understand that the “higher” salaries, retirements, etc., tax- like that of the members of the National problem is big capital.” ing the super-rich to pay for them and Assembly, depends on their role as the In Paris, a young man up from the restructuring of France as a partici- official “representatives” of their con- Lognes with his wife (who had never patory democracy through referen- stituents within the existing system. before demonstrated) and his Yellow dums. At the same time, in response to Given the pressure from below, Vest group held out a CGT flyer show- charges by Macron, the media, and any Martinez has no choice but to play at ing a red arm and a yellow arm holding number of groups on the far Left, the “convergence” with the Yellow Vests each others hand. He concluded: Yellow Vests Declaration declares: “we today, but it is only to outmaneuver “Today may be the beginning of are neither racist, nor sexist, nor homo-

14 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 phobic, we are proud to come together itself. It was both hilarious and instruc- advance. Whom does Macron think with our differences to build a society tive. He then proposed a number of he’s fooling? of solidarity.” Although this radical really nasty, but politically correct Curiously, the French public intel- Declaration is not a binding program, insults, and his report was approved by lectuals and philosophers, who occupy it expresses a consensus and has been the group. This Saturday we are going a much larger space in the media than quickly adopted by many Yellow Vest to demonstrate wearing masks, to their American counterparts, have groups, who are looking forward to a mock the government’s vicious liberti- mostly turned a cold shoulder to the larger nationwide Assembly of cidal anti-demonstration laws, which Yellow Vests. If I’m not mistaken, only Assemblies in two months. criminalize covering your face. two have seriously taken up their The investigative site Médiapart sent Macron’s throne is shaky defense: the popular libertarian phi- two reporters up to Commercy after losopher Michel Onfray (author of 100 As for Macron, his popularity hov- the Assembly of Assemblies and filmed books) and the historian-anthropolo- ering around 22 percent thanks to his their conversations with a couple of gist-essayist Emmanuel Todd. They regal pretentions, inflexible neo-liberal dozen local Yellow Vests, giving us an alone carry on the contrarian tradition orthodoxy, methodical use of violence intimate view of how this diverse group of Voltaire, Zola and Sartre into the to suppress the expression of legitimate interacts and makes decisions—a long 21st Century, our epoch in which the citizen grievances and criticism, and process of patience, respect, tolerance, mediatized intellectuals like the media his contemptuous way of talking down and conscious self-education. They personalities, the media owners, the to his angry subjects. This figure is explain how each individual brings politicians and the labor leaders have slightly above the 18 percent of the pieces of the truth from her/his knowl- all become integral parts of what the 2017 Presidential vote he got on the edge and experience, from which a French call “the political class.” first round, before being elected as the consensus is achieved. (Or not only alternative to “the fascist LePen.” Meanwhile, Macron is traveling achieved, on subjects where they are Compare this with approval of the outside of France and playing a role in not ready to decide and sweep under Yellow Vests, which stands at 77 per- international affairs to deflect from the the rug until they are.) cent. The French hate nothing worse intractable crisis at home, while the The atmosphere is one of trust and than being talked down to and taken media keep up a business as usual comradeship and active listening. for jerks, and Macron is his own worst façade, respectfully reporting the Great Interventions are short and to the point. enemy, for example when he declared Debate and reducing the Yellow Vest Viewing the video, I was struck by the that the presumably lazy French had insurrection to a weekly tally of the contrast between the locals’ discourse and “lost the taste for effort”—when more number of demonstrators (aren’t they that of the two academic sociologists, than half of them are breaking their declining yet?), the number of arrests both charming and well intentioned, who backs just to survive. and of cars burnt. I suppose that like tended to go on and on and talk over each frightened little kids, the French elites Macron’s latest ploy is the “Great other, adding very little. The local Yellow think that if they hide their eyes all Debate,” a public-relations charade Vests, whatever their education levels, these angry little people will go away, designed to counter the Notebooks of have all learned to express themselves in but they won’t. What will Act XIII (or Grievances being circulated by the public succinctly, and some have become Chapter Two) reveal? Yellow Vests in imitation of the Cahiers quite eloquent. Linked by common strug- de Doléances of the 1789 Revolution. Appendix gle, pooling their knowledge, they are The “Great Debate” consists of a seri- tapping into “the wisdom of crowds” Call from the First Assembly of ous of programmed meetings between long known to socialists and recently Assemblies of the Yellow Vests Macron or one of his Ministers and the studied by psychologists. elected Mayors of a region. Hardly We, the Yellow Vests of the round- They also have fun and laugh a lot. democratic considering how many abouts, of the parking lots, of the For example, here in Montpellier, the mayors are the tools of local real estate squares, of the assemblies, rallies and first report on the Agenda of last interests and political mafias. demonstrations, have gathered on Sunday’s General Assembly was on the Nonetheless, some mayors are actually January 26 and 27, 2019, as an “Assembly question of how to curse and insult the honest and sincere, and at the very first of Assemblies,” bringing together a “forces or order” (cops). The rappor- televised “Debate,” the first mayor to hundred delegations, in response to a teur went through a whole list of take the floor made a searing critique call by the Yellow Vests of Commercy. insults, which, like “cocksucker” are of Macron and his handling of the cri- Since November 17, from the small- offensive to gays, or women, or sex sis. Now questions are filtered in est village, from the rural world to the

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 15 largest city, we have risen up against phobic mob. But we are quite the you agree, add your signature and send this deeply violent, unjust and unbear- opposite: neither racist, nor sexist, nor it to Commercy (assembledesassem- able society. We will no longer let our- homophobic, we are proud to come [email protected]). Do not hesitate to selves be pushed around! We are rebel- together with our differences to build a discuss and formulate proposals for the ling against the high cost of living, society of solidarity. next “Assemblies of the Assemblies,” precariousness and poverty. For our We are strengthened by the diversi- which we are preparing for right now. loved ones, our families and our chil- ty of our discussions. At this very Down with Macron—power to the peo- dren, we want only to live in dignity. moment hundreds of assemblies are ple, for the people and by the people! It’s unacceptable that 26 billionaires developing and proposing their own Richard Greeman is a Marxist schol- own as much as half of humanity. Let’s demands. These concern real democ- ar long active in human rights, anti- share the wealth and not the poverty! racy, social and tax justice, working war, anti-nuclear, environmental and Let’s put an end to social inequality! conditions, ecological and climatic jus- labor struggles in the U.S., Latin We demand an immediate increase in tice, and the end of discrimination. America, France, and Russia. Greeman wages, social minima, allowances and Among the claims and strategic pro- is best known for his studies and transla- pensions; the unconditional right to posals that are the most debated, we tions of the Franco-Russian novelist and housing and health, to education; and find: the eradication of poverty in all its revolutionary Victor Serge. He splits his free public services for all. forms, the transformation of institu- time between Montpelier, France and It is for all these rights that we are tions (citizen’s initiative referenda, New York City. occupying roundabouts on a daily constituent assembly, abolition of the —ZNET, February 10, 2019 basis, that we organize actions and privileges of elected officials…), the demonstrations, that we discuss every- ecological transition (energy injustice, https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/yellow- where. With our yellow vests we retake industrial pollution…), the equality vests-and-red-unions-strike-together/ the floor, we who have never had it. and the taking into account of all And how has the government regardless of their nationality (people responded? With repression, con- with disabilities, male/female equality, 1 http://www.leparisien.fr/economie/val-de- tempt, denigration. Many dead and an end to the neglect of popular neigh- marne-des-manifestants-bloquent-les-entrees- thousands wounded, massive use of borhoods, the rural world and the du-marche-international-de-run- firearms that mutilate, blind, injure DOM-TOM [overseas territories].…) gis-05-02-2019-8004348. php#xtor=AD-1481423553 and traumatize. More than 1,000 indi- We, the Yellow Vests, invite every- 2 Information from the investigative journal- viduals have been arbitrarily detained one to join us with their own means ism website subscriber-supported web- and sentenced. And now the new “anti- and abilities. We call for continuation site, Médiapart, at whose studio Macron’s justice wrecker” law is applied to stop us from of the acts of protest (act 12, against department recent attempted to conduct a war- demonstrating. We condemn all such police violence at the police stations; rantless search, scandalizing civil libertarians. violence against protesters, whether acts 13, 14…), to continue the occupa- https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/050219/ from the police or violent gangs. None tions of the roundabouts and the eco- gilets-jaunes-et-rouges-cela-peut-etre-le-debut-du- chapitre-deux-de-notre-mouvement of this will stop us! To demonstrate is a nomic blockades, to build a massive 3 https://francais.rt.com/france/58841-gen- fundamental right. End impunity for strike starting on February 5th. We call darme-gilets-jaunes-montpellier-toutes-nos- the police! Amnesty for all the victims for committees to be formed at work- familles-elles-sont-avec- of repression! places, at schools and everywhere else vous?fbclid=IwAR2PooRLq2Oj_j0jRPQt2wuN- And what a dirty trick is the so- so that this strike can be built from the aVA4GKBunkIhdVo5Gnk3VbQUPZhjOx1HiqA called great national debate—in fact bottom up by the strikers themselves. 4 Please see: Richard Greeman “Spontaneous Teachers’ Strikes Sweep Conservative U.S. it’s just a government propaganda Let’s take things into our own! Do not remain alone—join us! States. French Strikes Remain Stalled” campaign that manipulates our desire http://divergences.be/spip.php?article3348 to debate and decide! True democracy, Let’s organize ourselves in a demo- 5 https://www.revolutionpermanente.fr/Les- as we practice it in our assemblies, in cratic, autonomous and independent directions-syndicales-repondent-a-l-appel-de- our roundabouts, is neither on televi- way! This assembly of assemblies is an Macron-pour-maintenir-l-ordre-contre-les-gilets sion nor in the fake roundtables orga- important step that enables us to discuss ?fbclid=IwAR3yhFKIVT0XadWlW36bZM_ nized by Macron. our demands and our means of action. ME7XnoKGicuazV0OwIWeTJPphVIxFzsgQ-ps After having insulted us and treated Let us federate to transform society! us as less than nothing, now he points We urge all Yellow Vests to circulate to us as a hateful fascistic and xeno- this call. If as a group of Yellow Vests

16 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 Corporate Titans Target Venezuela By Bruce Lesnick

Ruling elites have united behind the panic, MSNBC’s standard script offers According to the Times, Pence advised Trump administration in its illegal, little guidance to confused liberals Trump to assure Guaidó that the U.S. unjust and brutal attempt to meddle in seeking to triangulate a political posi- would recognize his bid for power if, the internal affairs of Venezuela. tion Trump is for the coup but Russia is by chance, he were to make such a Democrats and Republicans alike have against it what to do?” claim. Trump agreed. Later that day, fallen in line, revealing the degree to Pence called Guaidó to give him the The devil is in the details which the two parties march in lock good news. Pence then posted a video step when the geopolitical prerogatives Soon after Donald Trump assumed online asserting that elected President of the one percent are at stake. The the Presidency, Senator Marco Rubio “Nicolas Maduro is a dictator with no governments of some 20 countries, (R-FL) and Vice President Mike Pence legitimate claim to power.” In the including Canada, Britain, Spain, began a concerted campaign to con- video, Pence went on to proclaim U.S. Germany, France, Australia, Brazil, vince Trump to adopt a plan to oust support for Guaidó. Then, surprise, Israel and Argentina, have all pledged elected Venezuelan President Nicolas surprise: Guaidó claimed he was the fealty to the U.S. and its hand-picked Maduro. As the New York Times report- rightful president the very next day. puppet in Venezuela. The New York ed, “Mr. Rubio’s approach has gener- The Trump administration and U.S. Times, champion of the “liberal” wing ated unusually bipartisan support, imperial allies around the world quick- of the ruling rich, editorialized in sup- including from leading Democrats like ly endorsed Guaidó’s claim. port of the Trump administration’s Senators Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Robert Menendez of New Jersey.” Shortly after declaring himself transparent coup plotting on January “interim president,” Guaidó moved to 24 insisting, “…the Trump adminis- In September of 2018, the Times ran seize Venezuelan oil revenue held in tration is right to support Mr. Guaidó.” the headline, “Trump Administration the U.S. so as to use those funds to Pretend socialist and Democrat Bernie Discussed Coup Plans With Rebel finance his assault. As the Washington Sanders shed crocodile tears, decrying Venezuelan Officers.” The article Post reported, “For now, the hope is to violence and economic disaster in reports, “American officials eventually use the newly declared interim govern- Venezuela while failing to note his own decided not to help the plotters, and ment as a tool to deny Maduro the oil government’s hand in creating those the coup plans stalled.” But the machi- revenue from the United States that conditions. Sanders provides left cover nations didn’t end there. The focus provides Venezuela virtually all of its for U.S. military intervention asserting, shifted to finding some figurehead who incoming cash, current and former “The United States should support the could claim to be the “legitimate” U.S. officials said.” On January 29, the rule of law” in Venezuela. To date, self- Venezuelan ruler. After considering U.S. imposed additional sanctions on described “Democratic Socialist” various opposition politicians, Rubio Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has been and Pence settled on the little-known PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.) silent on U.S. aggression in Venezuela. engineer serving as president of the Forbes reports, “The restrictions would On the heels of a multi-year, evi- Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan amount to $7 billion in blocked assets dence-free propaganda offensive Guaidó. According to AP and the today, and an estimated $11 billion in denouncing Russia’s supposed inter- Washington Post, the preparations for export revenues over the course of ference in the 2016 U.S election, it is the current coup and secret meetings 2019, according to [National Security beyond ironic to see politicians, pun- with Guaidó date back at least to Advisor John] Bolton.” In an interview dits and corporate media moguls cheer December 2018. “In mid-December, on Fox Business, Bolton bragged of for the proven, documented and Guaido quietly traveled to Washington, how U.S. corporations would benefit admitted interference by the U.S. in Colombia and Brazil to brief officials from the new sanctions: “You know, Venezuela. As reported by Al Jazeera, on the opposition’s strategy of mass Venezuela is one of the three countries “On Venezuela, Democratic Party demonstrations to coincide with I call the troika of tyranny. It will make leaders are often hard to distinguish Maduro’s expected swearing-in for a a big difference to the United States from their Republican counterparts… second term on January 10…” economically if we could have most, like Nancy Pelosi, have staked On Tuesday, January 22, Trump, American oil companies really invest out openly pro-coup positions. And Pence and National Security Advisor in and produce the oil capabilities in after two years stoking anti-Russia John Bolton met to discuss options. Venezuela. It’d be good for the people

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 17 of Venezuela. It’d be good for the President Delcy Rodríguez, not had no natural resources no one would people of the United States.” Guaidó, who is the leader of the give a damn about Chavez or Maduro On January 25, the Bank of England National Assembly. or anybody else there.” refused to allow Venezuela to access Economic destabilization Eugenia Russian of FUNDALATIN, $1.2 billion in its gold reserves. a Venezuelan human rights organiza- Also cited as justification for attempt- Bloomberg reports, “The Bank of tion formed before Hugo Chavez was ing to illegally oust Maduro are severe England’s decision to deny Maduro elected President, explained to the inflation and other economic difficul- officials’ withdrawal request comes after Independent, “It is insufficient to see ties currently confronting Venezuela. In top U.S. officials, including Secretary of only the errors or deficiencies that the a perverse twist, corporate apologists State Michael Pompeo and National government may have, without seeing seek to tie the current hardships in Security Adviser John Bolton, lobbied the environment of international pres- capitalist Venezuela to the “failure of their U.K. counterparts to help cut off sure under which this population lives.” socialism.” Bret Stephens, writing in an the regime from its overseas assets…” Op Ed for the New York Times, calls The U.S. Treasury department released Familiar pattern Venezuela a “socialist catastrophe,” a statement the same day announcing, We should note that this latest cam- insisting that, “Twenty years of social- “The United States will use its economic paign of U.S. imperial intervention is ism, cheered by [Jeremy] Corbyn, and diplomatic tools to ensure that not the first of its kind directed against [Naomi] Klein, [Noam] Chomsky and commercial transactions by the Venezuela or other countries in Latin Co., led to the ruin of a nation.” Venezuelan Government, including America and the Caribbean that refuse those involving its state-owned enter- to march in lock step with U.S. corpo- prises and international reserves, are rate interests. Other hostile actions consistent with” U.S. recognition of ...the two parties include: Guaidó as the interim president. march in lock step • The illegal, decades-long eco- Among the rationalizations present- when the geopolitical nomic blockade of Cuba. ed in the corporate media for replacing • The invasion of Guatemala in Maduro with Guaidó is that the process prerogatives of the one 1954. that resulted in Maduro’s 2018 election percent are at stake... • The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba victory was flawed. But former U.S. in 1961. President Jimmy Carter declared in • The invasion of the Dominican 2012 that, “the election process in What coup supporters fail to men- Republic in 1965. Venezuela is the best in the world.” In tion, however, is the campaign of harsh February of 2018, the main right-wing economic sanctions imposed by the • The U.S. supported coup in Chile opposition parties, fearing defeat, U.S. and its imperial allies against in 1973. pledged to boycott the presidential elec- Venezuela, dating back to the Obama • The Contra war against Nicara- tion scheduled for May. Two minor administration. Those sanctions, gua from 1981-1990. opposition candidates did participate. together with U.S. moves to block • The invasion of Grenada in 1983. Maduro won the election, but as intend- loans to Venezuela from the world’s ed by the boycott, there was lower than leading financial institutions, have • The invasion of Panama in 1989. normal voter turnout. The U.S. and the wreaked havoc with the Venezuelan • U.S. backed coups and occupa- main Venezuelan opposition groups economy. In his recent report, U.N. tions in Haiti in 1991, 1994 and refused to recognize the results. Special Rapporteur, Alfred de Zayas, 2004. Guaidó and his backers among poli- characterized the sanctions as “eco- • The U.S. supported coup in Hon- ticians and the media also cite article nomic warfare.” He went on to recom- duras in 2009. 233 of the Venezuelan constitution as mend that the International Criminal justification for his ascension. But that Court investigate the economic sanc- • Material aid to Nicaraguan article refers only to a procedure to be tions against Venezuela as possible opposition groups from at least followed if the elected president crimes against humanity. As quoted in 2016 to the present. (Maduro in this case) were to become the London-based Independent, Zayas • Support for Jair Bolsonaro in permanently unavailable. And in such explained, “What’s at stake is the enor- Brazil. a case, the next in line for the presi- mous, enormous natural resources of • The U.S. supported coup against dency would be Venezuelan Vice Venezuela. And I sense that if Venezuela Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 2002.

18 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 • Economic sanctions against Ven- masses of working people that it is a their will on the Venezuelan people. ezuela from 2006 to the present. capitalist rather than a socialist party. For this reason, we must do all that we • A special $5 million fund for Ven- When faced with similar aggression in can to stay the hand of the war-makers, ezuelan opposition groups estab- the 1960s, the Cubans took a different understanding that in this context as in lished by Barak Obama in 2011. road, leading ultimately to the arming so many others, an injury to one is an of the workers and peasants, national- injury to all. • Coup attempts against Venezue- ization of key industries and banking la’s Maduro in 2015 and 2018. under workers’ control, and the cre- Workers’ power • The Wall Street Journal reported ation of committees of workers and The power of organized, mobilized on January 30 that the current farmers in every village, neighborhood workers is the only thing that coup U.S. attack on Venezuela is but the and workplace to defend their revolu- plotters, war hawks and capitalist oli- first move in a strategy to “reshape tion. Up to now, Maduro, and Chavez garchs in the U.S or Venezuela truly Latin America.” In particular, before him, have sought to tame fear. Two recent examples demonstrate “After Venezuela and Cuba, U.S. Venezuelan capitalism in the hope of this point. officials are eyeing Nicaragua.” gaining enough breathing space to The first is the recent strike of the implement reforms. Meanwhile, Los Angeles teachers. Inspired by their Fighting back attacks from the still-powerful brother and sister unionists who fought When first elected in 1998, the Venezuelan capitalist class and their and won strikes in West Virginia, Chavez government promoted signifi- imperial boosters continue unabated. Virginia, Oklahoma, Colorado and cant reforms. It used revenue from the In this manner, the Venezuelan work- Arizona, the 34,000-strong UTLA nationalized PDVSA energy sector to ing class has been fighting with one strikers faced down an intransigent increase social spending by 60 percent hand tied behind its back. Unleashing school board and forced it to accede to from 2002-2012. By 2012, Venezuela the full strength of the working class a number of important demands that had reduced inequality by 54 percent and openly challenging the capitalists advanced the interests of teachers, stu- and poverty by 44 percent. Extreme for power offers the best chance of dents and the broader community. poverty was reduced from 40 percent defeating the current and all future Then there was the response of La in 1996 to 7.3 percent in 2010. Medical attacks against the Venezuelan people. Guardia air traffic controllers to care became free, as did education Nevertheless, we do not condition our President Trump’s recent government from preschool through university. support for the self-determination of the shutdown. On the day that federal But today, under relentless economic Venezuelan people in any way. Any workers missed their second paycheck, and political attack by U.S. imperial- changes or improvement in the an unusual number of controllers at La ism and its allies, many of these reforms Venezuelan government are for the Guardia Airport called in sick. Delays have been whittled away and the living Venezuelan people alone to make. The resulted and quickly spread to other conditions of the working class have U.S. imperial machine has no progressive airports. Within hours, the phony gov- become ever more dire. role to play in Venezuela or elsewhere! ernment shutdown was over! The Socialists support Venezuela’s right The last thing U.S. corporate leaders political and economic cost was high to self-determination unconditionally. want is a truly mobilized, active and enough to force bipartisan agreement But this does not imply agreement with empowered Venezuelan working class. In to resume paying the salaries of gov- every policy or pronouncement of the the U.S., antiwar and working-class activ- ernment workers. That’s power! Chavez and Maduro governments. ists must take to the streets to demand, That kind of power can stop the U.S Within Venezuela, the only force “U.S. Out Now! Hands Off Venezuela!” war-makers in their tracks; it can stop strong enough to beat back the current the current U.S. aggression against assault and future imperial offensives is Same enemy, same fight Venezuela; and in Venezuela, it can be the masses of working people. Working people in the U.S. must used to mount a potent defense against Unfortunately, the Venezuelan United understand that the same corporate the current capitalist assaults from the Socialist Party, led by President behemoths that push for cutbacks, lay- internal coup plotters and their U.S Maduro, has failed to fully prioritize offs, offshoring and austerity here at backers. working class interests. Despite its home all to maximize corporate profits name, it has demonstrated by its con- are behind the latest threats against —CounterPunch, February 6, 2019 sistent defense of private industry, land Venezuela. Working people in the U.S. https://www.counterpunch. and banking, and by its failure to fully gain nothing, and stand to lose much, org/2019/02/06/corporate-titans-target- mobilize the independent power of if the one percent succeeds in imposing venezuela/

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 19 History and Hypocrisy of U.S. Meddling in Venezuela By Brett Wilkins

There isn’t a nation in the Western Later, during the Dutch-Venezuelan to tortures every bit as horrific as those Hemisphere that hasn’t at one time or crisis of 1908, the U.S. Navy helped committed during the Gómez era. another found itself caught in the far- Venezuelan Vice President Juan Jiménez was as generous to transnational reaching tentacles of U.S. imperialism. Vicente Gómez seize power in a coup. corporations as he was cruel to his own Venezuela is certainly no exception. Gómez, known as “The Catfish,” would people. The United States, which cared Washington has been meddling in its rule the country either directly or about the former far more than the latter, internal affairs since the 19th century and through puppet presidents, until his counted the despot as a close ally, it continues to do so to this very day, when death in 1935. His regime was one of even awarding him the military Legion of the specter of yet another U.S.-backed inconceivably medieval brutality. His Merit “for exceptionally meritorious con- coup, or even a direct American military enforcers were fond of shackling politi- duct in the performance of outstanding intervention, looms larger by the day. cal prisoners in grillos, leg irons that services and achievements” and provid- A long history of meddling rendered many victims permanently ing his dreaded Directorate of National disabled—and those were the “lucky” Security (DSN) with invaluable assistance During most of the 20th century, ones. The unlucky ones were hanged to as it imprisoned, tortured and murdered U.S. interference in Venezuela was death by meathooks through their thousands of innocent Venezuelans. mostly about oil, but that wasn’t always throats or testicles. the case in earlier times. Washington’s A few years after Venezuela shifted involvement in the 1895 boundary dis- Gómez was fantastically corrupt. He to democracy in 1958, most other pute between Venezuela and Britain was believed to be worth a staggering South American nations began falling was a key event in the emergence of the $200 million, or more than $3.6 billion under the iron-fisted rule of U.S.- United States as a world power as the today, at the time of his death. However, backed military dictatorships. The mil- Grover Cleveland administration, he endeared himself to Washington itary and security forces of these repres- invoking the Monroe Doctrine prohi- and Wall Street by granting highly sive coup regimes were often trained by bition against European colonization lucrative concessions to foreign oil the United States, at the U.S. Army of the Americas, successfully sided with companies including Standard Oil School of the Americas and elsewhere, Venezuela. The Cleveland administra- (ExxonMobil today) and Royal Dutch in kidnapping, torture, assassination tion, which noted that “today the Shell. Rómulo Betancourt, who served and democracy suppression. As U.S.- United States is practically sovereign two presidential terms in the mid-20th backed death squads trained from on this continent,” issued thinly veiled century and is considered the founding U.S.-authored torture manuals mur- threats of war against Britain, which father of modern democratic dered, tortured and terrorized inno- eventually acquiesced to U.S. demands. Venezuela, wrote that Gómez “was the cent men, women and children from instrument of foreign Central America to Argentina, control of the Venezuelan Venezuelans enjoyed decades of peace economy, the ally and and prosperity. However, the U.S. servant of powerful out- never stopped meddling in Venezuela’s side interests.” affairs, and after the free and fair elec- The exploitation of tion of Hugo Chávez in 1998 and the Venezuela’s tremendous subsequent launch of the Bolivarian petroleum resources has Revolution, U.S. meddling would been the constant objec- reach levels that would shock the con- tive of U.S. policy and science of the world. action toward the South American state for over a Bolivarian backlash century. This meant back- The Bolivarian Revolution, a series ing the viciously repressive of economic and social reforms that dictator Marcos Pérez dramatically reduced poverty and illit- Jiménez (1948-1958), eracy while greatly improving health Venezuelan dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez receiving the “Legion of whose regime forced sub- and other living conditions for mil- Merit” from ambassador Fletcher Warren in 1954. jected political prisoners lions of Venezuelans, drew worldwide

20 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 acclaim. The reforms, which included or occupied Latin American and presidential usurper Juan Guaidó ed nationalizing key components of Caribbean nations more than 50 times and appointing the neoconservative the nation’s economy as part of an and, as Obama spoke, the U.S. military regime change hawk Elliott Abrams as agenda of socialist uplift, made Chávez was busy bombing seven countries in the special envoy, seems designed to sow a hero to millions of people and the Middle East, North Africa and South seeds of subversion and revolt within enemy of Venezuela’s oligarchs. The Asia. For decades, successive U.S. admin- the country’s government and military. exportation of the Bolivarian istrations have also lavished Venezuela’s This follows National Security Adviser Revolution, which included forging neighbor Colombia—which has been John Bolton—a key neocon architect stronger, more peaceful inter-Ameri- condemned for its government and and cheerleader for the 2003 invasion can relations and even the provision paramilitary death squad massacres and of Iraq and who has also advocated of free home heating oil for hundreds- deadly corporate-backed crackdowns regime change in Iran, Venezuela and of-thousands of needy people in the on indigenous peoples and workers— elsewhere—calling Venezuela, Cuba United States, made Chávez a marked with billions upon billions of dollars in and Nicaragua a “troika of tyranny,” a man in Washington. military and economic aid. hypocritical characterization reminis- The administration of George W. cent of Bush’s “axis of evil,” and one Bush—whom Chávez infamous- With friends like these… that utterly ignores the far worse, but ly called “the devil” in a speech before In an act of breathtaking yet typical far more subservient, regimes backed the United Nations—backed a failed U.S. hypocrisy, President Donald by the Trump administration. military coup against Chávez in 2002. Trump in July 2017 announced eco- The United States has almost always The attempted coup was closely linked nomic sanctions against Nicolás opposed—whether by slaughter, spies to prominent neoconservatives includ- Maduro, who was elected president fol- or sanctions—any government or ing Elliott Abrams, the disgraced Iran- lowing the death of Chávez in 2013. movement that seeks to freely choose Contra criminal who played a key role While Maduro vowed to continue the its own political and economic path if in covering up massacres committed by Bolivarian Revolution, the Trump it diverges from the corporate capitalist U.S.-backed death squads in Central administration threatened to attack order backed by Washington and Wall America, and Otto Reich, a staunch Venezuela, citing the “suffering” of its Street. It has long sought to crush the supporter of Cuban exile terrorists who people. Meanwhile, Trump continued boldly defiant Bolivarian Revolution, have killed at least hundreds of inno- previous administrations’ support for just as it has crushed countless popular cent men, women and children some of the world’s worst human rights revolutions and movements before. throughout the Americas. Two key violators, including the Islamic funda- The Maduro regime is far from perfect. coup plotters, Army commander Efraín mentalist monarchy of Saudi Arabia— But to call Maduro a dictator and to Vasquez and General Ramirez Poveda, which is waging a war of aggression and advocate regime change in Caracas were trained at the U.S. Army School of starvation in Yemen that has claimed while supporting far worse tyrants the Americas. The coup briefly ousted tens-of-thousands-of-lives, while around the world just because they’re Chávez but loyalist forces and popular severely repressing its own subjects at U.S.-friendly is an exercise in the bla- support restored his rule 47 hours later. home—as well as brutal dictators in tant, bloody hypocrisy for which the Barack Obama continued Bush’s pol- Bahrain, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, United States has long been infamous icy of demonizing Chávez, whose gov- South Sudan, Turkmenistan, around the planet, especially among its ernment he called “authoritarian.” This, Uzbekistan and elsewhere. While bash- poorer parts and peoples. despite the fact that former president ing Maduro, Trump has heaped praise Brett Wilkins is a San Francisco- Jimmy Carter, who won the Nobel Peace upon North Korean dictator Kim Jong- based author and activist. His work, Prize for his work at the election-moni- un, leader of the world’s most murder- which focuses on issues of war and peace toring Carter Center, called Venezuela’s ous regime, Philippines’ “death squad and human rights, is archived at www. election process “the best in the world.” mayor”-turned president Rodrigo brettwilkins.com In 2015, Obama declared Venezuela an Duterte, China’s “president for life” Xi Jinping, Turkish strongman Recep —Venezuelanalysis.com, January 28, “extraordinary threat to national securi- 2019 ty,” a bewildering assertion considering Tayyip Erdoğan, Vladimir Putin and the country has never started a war in its other unsavories. history. The United States, on the other Trump’s latest moves, recogniz- https://venezuelanalysis.com/analy- hand, has intervened in, attacked, invad- ing Venezuela’s illegitimate would-be sis/14263

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 21 General Strike: The Fierce Urgency of Now Association of Flight Attendants International President Sara Nelson speaks at 2019 AFL-CIO Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil and Human Rights Awards Dinner Washington, DC, January 20, 2019. care, or a tank of gas to get to work. Nurses who count on the medicine The federal worker stretching insulin we deliver on our planes—Stand Up. through the night and wondering if she Everyone who flew to this confer- will wake up in the morning. The ence—Stand Up. transportation security officer in her third trimester with no certainty for Anyone who believes it is a crime to her unborn child. The corrections offi- make people work without pay—Stand Up. Federal workers, we’ve got your back! Association of Flight Attendants International cer who tried to take his own life President Sara Nelson. because he saw no other way out. The The country sees no solution in This speech was given in the midst of air traffic controller who whispered to sight, but Labor can lead the way. Dr. the U.S. government shutdown. That’s his union leader, “I just don’t know King rallied us by reaching for the now over, but the strategy presented here how long I can hang on.” mountaintop. He didn’t seek integra- by Flight Attendant union national lead- The situation is changing rapidly. tion of just ONE school; he sought er, Sara Nelson, for a unified general Major airports are already seeing secu- freedom in our schools for ALL chil- strike, is the kind of action working peo- rity checkpoints closing. Many more dren. He didn’t seek integration of just ple must put forward to advance the will follow. Safety inspectors and fed- ONE lunch counter, he aspired to have struggle against the rapacious capitalists eral cybersecurity staff are on furlough, us ALL “sit down together at the table and their government. —The Editors not working. The layers of safety and of brotherhood.” And sisterhood, Dr. Thank you. I am proud to represent my security that keep us safe are not in King! union tonight, the Association of Flight place due to the shutdown. Today, people are starving for this Attendants-CWA. We are aviation’s first I have a growing concern for our kind of leadership. They are hungry for responders and last line of defense. members’ safety and security. answers where some would say there Receiving this award is an honor In addition, it is likely days—no are none. Through our Labor that I can’t begin to properly express. more than a week—until the aviation Movement, we have the answers for Thank you to the AFL-CIO Civil and system begins to unravel and massive them and together we can lead the way. Human Rights Committee, President flight cancelations ensue. When that We need to follow Dr. King’s lead Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Shuler happens, private jets won’t take off and think big. Think big like the hotel and Executive Vice President Gebre for either, and no one will get to Atlanta workers who took on the largest hotel this extraordinary award. for the Superbowl. chain in the world and won. Think But, This award is not about me. At best, our members will lose work, BIG, like the teachers in Los Angeles This award was created to honor the at worst... who this very minute are taking on legacy of Dr. King. This award is about powerful hedge funds to save public As I have said many times in recent education for our children. all of us. We are together here tonight days, safety and security is non-negotiable. because he called us together. He called Dr. King said that “With this faith, on us to come together with the “fierce The TSA was created for the same we will be able to work together, to urgency of now” to fight for justice. reason my friends’ names, along with pray together, to struggle together, to 3000 others, are engraved in bronze at go to jail together, to stand up for free- Our calling is now. There is a human- the 9/11 memorial in New York. itarian crisis unfolding right now for dom together.” our 800,000 federal sector sisters and If they can’t do their job, I can’t do Now listen to me…We can end this brothers who are either locked out of mine. Dr. King said, “their destiny is Shutdown together. work or forced to come to work without tied up with our destiny. We cannot walk alone.” Federal sector unions have their pay due to the government shutdown. hands full caring for the 800,000 fed- These are real people who are facing Federal workers here tonight— eral workers who are at the tip of the real consequences of being dragged Stand Up. spear. Some would say the answer is for into the longest shutdown in history. Flight Attendants and aviation them to walk off the job. I say, “what No money to pay for rent, for child- workers—Stand Up. are you willing to do? Their destiny IS

22 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 tied up with our destiny—and they Aggression Against Venezuela Must Cease don’t even have time to ask us for help. Don’t wait for an invitation. Get Declaration from the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of engaged, join or plan a rally, get on a Cuba picket line, organize sit-ins at lawmak- The Revolutionary Government of and extraordinary threat to national ers’ offices. the Republic of Cuba condemns and security and foreign policy” of the Almost a million workers are locked energetically rejects the attempt to superpower; unilateral coercive mea- out or being forced to work without impose a coup d’etat, a puppet govern- sures; the call for a military coup against pay. Others are going to work when ment at the service of the United States, the constitutional government of our workspace is increasingly unsafe. in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Venezuela; the President of the United What is the Labor Movement waiting and expresses its unwavering solidarity States’ threat to use “a possible military for? with the government of Constitutional option” and the August 4 assassination Go back with the Fierce Urgency of President Nicolás Maduro Moros. attempt against President Maduro. NOW to talk with your Locals and The true objectives of actions The acts of a group of countries and International unions about all workers against Venezuela are to control the the shameful role of the OAS consti- joining together—To End this vast resources of this sister nation and tute a new, desperate attempt to imple- Shutdown with a General Strike. destroy the value of its example, as an ment an unsuccessful policy of regime We can do this. Together. Si se emancipatory process defending the change, which has not been imposed puede. Every gender, race, culture, and dignity and independence of Our due to the unwavering resistance of the creed. The American Labor Movement. America. Venezuelan people and their determi- We have the power. As President Miguel Díaz-Canel nation to defend national sovereignty. —Havana, January 23, 2019 And to all Americans—We’ve Got Bermúdez said: “The sovereignty of Your Back! our peoples is expressed today in one’s —Granma, January 24, 2019 attitude toward Venezuela. To support —Association of Flight Attendants- the legitimate right of the sister nation CWA, January 20, 2019 https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/ to define its own destiny is to defend groups/CubaNews/conversations/top- https://www.afacwa.org/fierce_ the dignity of all.” ics/166124;_ylc=X3oDMTJzNTk2dWp- urgency_of_now Other coup attempts should not be vBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzIxI- forgotten, such as the military coup of wMjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYzOT- 2002 and the 2003 oil lockout; the g1BG1zZ0lkAzE2NjEyNARzZWMZG- aggressive U.S. Executive Order 1zZwRzbGsDdm1zZwRzdG- describing Venezuela as “an unusual ltZQMxNTQ4Mzk4OTgz

Tripling the Poverty Rate in the U.S. By Paul Buchheit

If measured by 1960s yardsticks, The best definition of poverty The United Nations calls poverty today’s U.S. poverty rates are three The World Bank defines poverty as the “denial of choices and opportuni- times higher than officially recognized. “pronounced deprivation in well-being,” ties, a violation of human dignity.” It’s Poverty should not be defined sim- not only of material needs but also of not just a lack of money, but also the ply by the number of dollars that an health and education and security and “lack of basic capacity to participate American can scrape together each public voice and the “opportunity to effectively in society.” Other sources year. But poverty deniers won’t look better one’s life” and the “capability of refer to “relative deprivation,” a lack deeper, because they don’t want to the individual to function in society.” of both material and non-material admit that anyone willing to work Surveys of tens-of-thousands of people needs, an absence of the “living condi- could be suffering in the richest coun- throughout the world found that “the tions and amenities which are custom- try in the world. It’s easier to blame poor did not focus on their material ary” in their societies, and a feeling the poverty-stricken for their own need; rather, they alluded to social and of insecurity in people’s “homes, their misfortunes. psychological aspects of poverty.” health, and their jobs.”

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 23 Deprivation? The United budget. Today, an individual mak- 800,000 federal workers are dealing Nations describes America as a nation ing $1,060 a month would not meet the with additional stress because of our that is near the bottom of the devel- federal definition of poverty, but even incompetent national leaders. oped world in safety net support and if that individual is lucky enough to Debt causes depression, migraines, economic mobility, with its citizens find an apartment for $500 a month, ulcers, high blood pressure, disrupted living “shorter and sicker lives com- that leaves less than $20 a day for food, sleep, even heart attacks. That is depri- pared to those living in all other rich phone, transportation, and clothing, vation of well-being. That is poverty of democracies,” with the highest infant and often for childcare and Internet both body and mind. mortality rate and obesity levels in the service and a variety of regressive taxes. Paul Buchheit is an advocate for developed world, and the world’s high- According to the Congressional est incarceration rate. social and economic justice, and the Research Service, “If the same basic author of numerous papers on economic How it’s gotten worse for the bot- methodology developed in the early inequality and cognitive science. He was tom half 1960s was applied today, the poverty recently named one of 300 Living Peace thresholds would be over three times and Justice Leaders and Models. He is Wages have stagnated in the past higher than the current thresholds.” forty years. The Consumer Price the author of Disposable Americans: Index (CPI) and average hourly earn- Extreme Capitalism and the Case for a ings have risen at approximately the Guaranteed Income (2017). same rate. But Pew Research notes that Debt causes —Black Agenda Report, January 9, “what wage gains there have been have depression, migraines, 2019 mostly flowed to the highest-paid tier ulcers, high blood https://blackagendareport.com/best- of workers.” definition-poverty-rate-should-be-tripled Median household debt of $68,000 is pressure, disrupted much more than the median house- sleep, even heart attacks. hold income of $58,000 , and almost as much as the average wealth ($78,000 ) That is deprivation of of an adult in the 6th decile (the ten well-being. That is percent of adults just ABOVE the poverty of both body median.) and mind. Census data in 2011 showed that half of Americans were in or near poverty. According to a Pew analysis it got The effects of deprivation WORSE from 2011 to 2014, with expenditures rising and income drop- If poverty is indeed a “deprivation ping. Nearly half of our nation’s chil- of well-being,” surveys and studies on dren under the age of nine, face pov- American stress show a much greater erty. Nearly half of gig workers in level of poverty than skeptics would California face poverty. have us believe. Depressing news doesn’t sell on our Stress! The American Psychological news shows. So the struggles of the bot- Association says 62 percent of us are tom half of America are downplayed, stressed by money issues. while the “booming” economy for the A CreditCards.com survey revealed upper-middle class is highlighted. that 65 percent of Americans lie awake at night fretting over money worries. The absurdity of the federal pov- A Northwestern Mutual study found erty thresholds that money is the number one cause of Poverty guidelines are dramatically stress among Americans. According out of touch with reality. Developed in to Varo Money, nearly half of Americans the 1960s, they were based on the cost don’t have any savings set aside to of food, which used to be a much cover an unexpected expense like a job greater part of the typical household loss or medical problem. And now

24 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 Andy Lopez, ¡Presente! By Chris Kinder

Andy Lopez was a 13-year-old kid. riddled the corpse with more bullets, If anything could be worse than this, He is now dead. The cop was an ex- for what? To protect himself from the it might be the statement by the Sonoma military weapons expert. He is still ghost of 13-year old Andy Lopez. County Sheriff’s department that “kids alive. Guess who was to blame! Now, this murder two years ago has should not have toy weapons!” No case like this should ever be forgotten! resulted in, one, exoneration of Gelhaus THIS WAS NOT ANDY LOPEZ’S Andy Lopez was walking down a of any wrong-doing, and, two, a $3 mil- FAULT! The fault was entirely with the street in Sonoma County, CA, near his lion settlement for the family of Andy cop Gelhaus, who should have been home on October 22, 2013. He was Lopez. Yeah, great. Money for the life locked up for life well before now! returning a plastic toy gun to a friend of a 13-year-old who had his whole life It was murder plain and simple! of his. Then he was dead. ahead of him. Until now. And freedom Shoot first and ask questions later for a cold-blooded murderer. equals murder. The killer was an ex-military weapons expert named Erick Gelhaus. Gelhaus was a cop patrolling in the area, who stopped some 35 feet (35 feet!) behind Lopez, a kid who was carrying a plastic toy gun. Gelhaus yelled at the kid to drop the “weapon.” As Andy Lopez began to turn around to find out who was yelling at him, or even if someone was yelling at him particularly from 35 feet behind him, Gelhaus opened fire. His first shot hit Lopez as he was turning around to see who was yelling at him. That was the fatal shot, and it came less than a second after Gelhaus had yelled at Andy Lopez from 35 feet away! That was the fatal shot, but it was not enough for Gelhaus. He pumped several more bullets into this innocent kid, including when Lopez was on the ground. Oh, but he “had” to do that to protect himself! Gelhaus “protected himself” by killing an innocent kid carrying a toy weapon who posed no danger whatso- ever to him or anyone else. Then he

Andy Lopez

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 25 Incarceration vs. Education America spends more on its prison system than it does on public schools—and California is the worst By Valerie Bauman

• Most American states spend Another factor in the spending gap ($17,872) and per-inmate ($57,614) more on their prisons than they between education and incarceration is spending. Massachusetts followed with do on education—and Califor- that it takes more workers to run a a $39,578 gap comparing per-student nia is the worst, investing $64,642 prison than a school, with each ($15,592) and per-inmate (57,614) per-prisoner compared to American teacher supervising an aver- spending. $11,495 per-student—a $53,146 age of 20.8 students, while prison With a gap of $35,124, Alaska difference in spending priorities guards oversee an average of 5.3 pris- ranked eighth, spending $17,509 per- • The reasons include an incarcer- oners. student and $55,170 per-inmate. ation rate that has tripled over In addition, it costs more to house Oregon came in ninth, with a $33,180 the past three decades, the higher and feed prisoners three times a day, gap between spending per-student cost of caring for people in pris- compared to school children who do (10,841) and per-inmate ($44,021). ons 24-hours-a-day, and the not require the same 24-hour over- Maryland came in tenth, with a higher number of workers sight. $30,396 gap between per-prisoner required to operate a prison While it may seem that prison ($44,601) and education ($14,205) • New York, Connecticut, New spending and education spending are spending. Jersey and Rhode Island round disparate, experts have drawn correla- Colorado ranked eleventh ($29,729), out the top states spending more tions between the two. followed by Minnesota ($28,985), on prisons For example, about 66 percent of Pennsylvania ($27,310) and Wisconsin The U.S. spends more on prisons state prison inmates haven’t graduated ($27,188). and jails than it does on educating chil- high school, and young Black men New Mexico rounds out the top 15, dren—and 15 states spend at least aged 20-24 without a high school with a $27,140 difference between edu- $27,000 more per-prisoner than they diploma are more likely to be in jail or cation ($9,692) and prison ($36,832) do per-student, according to a new prison than they are to have a job, spending. report. according to the U.S. Department of Education. —Daily Mail, February 18, 2019 Americans account for 4.4 percent New York had the second-largest https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ of the global population, but 22 per- article-6317783/Incarceration-vs- cent of the world’s prison population. gap between per-student and per-prisoner costs—and spends more on each education-America-spends-prison-does- California spends $8.6-billion-a- than any other state. Spending per- public-schools.html?fbclid=IwAR3HMb year on its prison system, more than student in New York is $22,366, com- 1tx6Cr0ojp0ySqgA7NtglbCtrg- any other state, averaging $64,642-per- pared to the $69,355 it invests per- PxsmzorgcmazdjfXfBFMyz28wM inmate. It’s also the state with the big- inmate, for a difference of $46,989. gest gap between education and prison Connecticut follows, with a $43,202 spending, paying just $11,495-per-stu- gap between its $18,957 spending per- dent for a difference of $53,146, student and $43,201 per-inmate costs. ...young Black men according to a new analysis by personal finance site GoBankingRates. New Jersey narrowly ranks fourth, aged 20-24 without a with a $43,201 gap between per-stu- Several factors play into the imbal- dent spending ($18,402) and per- ance, including U.S. incarceration high school diploma inmate expenditures ($61,603). rates, which have more than tripled are more likely to be in over the past three decades—even as Rhode Island lands in fifth place, crime rates have fallen. During the with a $43,033 gap when comparing jail or prison than they same period, government spending on per-student spending ($15,531) to K-12 education increased by 107 per- costs per-inmate ($58,564). are to have a job cent, according to a report by the U.S. Vermont ranked sixth, with a Department of Education. $39,742 gap between per-student

26 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 When and How Will Artificial Intelligence be OK? By Dr. Nayvin Gordon

You have just been informed that ahead of the competition, with little front and center. The explosion of A.I. A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) robots will regard for the impact on workers.”1 may soon force us to seriously consider replace half the work force at your job In pursuit of maximizing short-term these issues. in the next month. Just as the beads of profits, corporate boards are moving as Dr. Nayvin Gordon is a California sweat begin to form and your heart fast as possible. They intend to use A.I. Family Physician who has written many starts to race, a spokesperson announc- to displace, if possible, up to 100 per- articles on health and politics. He can be es that nobody should be concerned cent of their workers. Within the next reached at: [email protected] because everyone will be kept on at full ten years millions of workers may be pay and benefits for the next five replaced by robots. The vast majority of years. During this time the government 1 “The Hidden Automation Agenda of the displaced workers will not be re-skilled Davos Elite” and employment office will be develop- by private industry. ing a plan to retrain and rebuild new https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/technology/automation-davos-world-economic-forum.html and creative jobs for all displaced work- What jobs will remain for us or our ers. Now you are thinking that this kids? Will A.I. must be a pipe dream, a Utopian fan- improve the tasy. Yet making this a reality is needed quality of all our now more desperately than ever. lives? Are we O.K. with this It took some 50 years for automation picture of the to spread through all of factory work in future? Perhaps the U.S. New microcomputer automa- it is time to con- tion has exploded into the workplace in sider an eco- less than 20 years. It is poised to spread, nomic and social not only into every factory, but every system that puts corner of the entire job market. social needs, According to the New York Times, prof- social security it driven corporations “are racing to and social health automate their own work forces to stay and welfare, up

California Cop Protected Neo-Nazis and Targeted Their Victims By Sam Levin

The testimony of a California police activists charged with assault and “riot- Ayres told the court that he filed a officer leading the inquiry into a series ing” during a brawl between neo-Nazis search warrant to access the Facebook of stabbings at a neo-Nazi rally indicat- and counter-protesters at the state cap- accounts of the leftist protesters and ed that he targeted leftwing activists and itol in June 2016. anti-fascists, but chose not to seek victims rather than focusing his investi- Ayres was tasked with investigating equivalent information about neo-Nazi gation on armed white supremacists. the violence that erupted at the event, suspects—an extraordinary move for a The officer, Donovan Ayres, a including the stabbing and beating of at law enforcement leader investigating 12-year-veteran of the California high- least eight anti-fascist protesters. But his far-right violence. He also resisted way patrol, admitted he pursued infor- testimony in a packed courtroom earlier describing the political affiliations of mation on the political affiliations and this week, along with hundreds of pages individual men on the neo-Nazi side. online activity of leftwing activists and of reports he wrote, have revealed the “It’s extremely troubling that a police victims. He testified Tuesday, January officer’s acquiescence to the neo-Nazis officer wouldn’t [seek] to get all the 22, 2019, as a key witness in the state’s and the way he repeatedly advocated information available about all the ongoing case against three anti-fascist they not face any criminal consequences. actors involved in the violent episode,”

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 27 said Mike German, a former FBI agent Police seek “AntiFa” and “Black thrusting motions. [The protester] and expert on the far right who reviewed Lives Matter” records sustained a stab wound to the... abdomen. There is insufficient evi- some of Ayres’ documents for the Three months after the stabbings, the Guardian. “Law enforcement should dence to determine if Wurzburg is CHP wrote search warrants for the solely responsible for the wound always look at who has a history of vio- Facebook accounts of anti-fascists. The lence…The victims of the most egre- that [the protester] sustained. What agency was seeking information on “sev- is known, is that Wurzburg and [the gious violence were counter-protesters.” eral hundred protestors” who “illegally protester] were in physical confron- The CHP and the prosecutors assembled...with the stated messages to tation, Wurzburg had what appeared declined the Guardian’s request for a prevent Traditionalist Worker’s Party to be a folding knife in his hand comment. Officer Ayres did not from exercising their rights to assemble [and] during the fight Wurzburg is respond to multiple inquiries. and speak their message,” it said. seen making downward thrusting motions before they separate.” The June 26, 2016 rally in The protest groups include “AntiFa” Sacramento was organized by two white and “Black Lives Matter,” CHP wrote “I was unable to specifically place supremacist groups: the Traditionalist in the warrant, adding that it was seek- Wurzburg as solely responsible for any Worker party (TWP) and an affiliated ing “private messages,” “metadata,” specific injuries on those protestors California entity, the Golden State “friend” lists, information about past who were known to be injured,” Ayres Skinheads. The event attracted a mass and future events and other material concluded, saying it was “unknown if of leftwing counter-protesters from about people linked to antifa and pro- Wurzburg committed any crimes.” around northern California. test pages. Ayres’ separate report on this stab- Ayres was assigned to a “tactical Ayres also conducted extensive sur- bing victim said the victim “aggressively team” positioned on the roof of the veillance of the political activities of the tackled Wurzburg, taking an advanta- Capitol. From there, he witnessed the anti-fascists, digging up some protest- geous top position after taking chaotic melee between the protesters ers’ ties to Native American and Wurzburg to the ground near the bush- and counter-protesters below, which Chicano groups. es,” and that after the confrontation, the victim “collapsed due to a stab wound.” resulted in at least eight stabbings and Ayres wrote up more than 120 indi- dozens of other injuries. vidual reports on everyone present at the Ayres recommended the victim be After the event, Ayres and other capitol on June 26. For anti-fascists and charged with 13 separate criminal CHP officers began interviewing anti- counter-protesters, the language was gen- offenses, including “assault with a fascists who were stabbed, meeting erally the same: the activists were “riot- deadly weapon (flag pole) and battery some of them at the hospital. Ayres ing” and threatening the free-speech on Sean Wurzburg;” conspiracy; false also began his inquiry into their politi- rights of the TWP. “The message to com- imprisonment; brandishing a weapon; cal backgrounds. mit violence against the ‘Nazis’ was clear,” participating in a riot; inciting a riot; he wrote in the reports, recommending participating in an unlawful assembly; they all be prosecuted. possessing a prohibited weapon; dis- turbing the peace; wearing a mask or Ayres, however, concluded he could disguise to evade police, unlawfully car- not determine if the white supremacist rying a banner “exceeding thirty inch- men he identified were “solely respon- es;” carrying a flag pole handle that was sible for any specific injuries.” That “greater than one-fourth inch in thick- includes men who he determined, ness;” and carrying “prohibited signs.” based on video evidence, were holding knives. For more than a dozen of them, Wurzburg declined to comment there was not enough evidence of any when reached by phone. crimes, he wrote. Similarly, Ayres wrote that the TWP Sean Wurzburg, a TWP affiliate, Ayres affiliate Derik Punneo “possessed a wrote, was “observed holding what lawful knife, came under attack from appears to be a folding blade knife in his the protestors and defended himself right hand when he initially engaged from the attacks.” Ayres summarized: with” a counter-protester. He continued: “Punneo had a knife in his right Porfirio Paz, Michael Williams and Yvette Felarca “Moments later they are observed hand at some point during Event... were stabbing victims in the counter-protest at rolling in the bushes...and Wurzburg [and] was in the immediate area of the Neo-Nazi rally in Sacramento. Photograph: [a counter protester, who] did suffer Sam Levin for the Guardian was seen making some downward

28 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 from numerous stab wounds; onstrator who showed up at the Ayres also resisted describing the Punneo was in the immediate area rally carrying a flag with what Ayres political affiliations of individual men of [Yvette] Felarca and Felarca suf- described as a “white power, white on the neo-Nazi side, even though he fered cuts to one arm; Punneo had nationalist type symbol.” Walker extensively documented their white close physical interaction with taunted and provoked anti-fascist supremacist paraphernalia and TWP [another counter protester] on two activists, Ayres recalled, waving the flag ties in his reports. He said “unknown” separate occasions (within a moment and shouting, “Antifa, here I am!” and “I don’t recall” when asked about of each other) and [this counter protester] did suffer a large gash Shaky footage presented by prose- the beliefs of numerous men, including across his left upper chest; a knife, cutors shows the five-foot-tall Felarca Jonathan Jordan, a man who, accord- similar to the one Punneo was hold- bumping into Walker, briefly shoving ing to Ayres’ own report, attended with ing...was located in the bushes.” and prodding him, and grabbing his the TWP and did the “Hitler salute.” Ayres concluded: “I was unable to backpack as a crowd surrounded them. Ayres also admitted in court that he specifically place Punneo as solely Other protesters begin confronting utilized a wide range of sources for responsible for any specific injuries on Walker, and a police officer threw footage of the event during his investi- those protestors.” Felarca to the ground. gation, including neo-Nazi and white supremacist websites. Defense lawyers Ayres recommended no charges for Paris Coleman, the prosecutor on the criticized the questionable sourcing, Punneo but did urge a litany of felony case, argued the felony wasn’t about the and eventually, the judge said she, too, charges against the three stabbing vic- “actual pulling” of the backpack, but the was “concerned about the authentica- tims. The CHP later interviewed fact that Felarca knowingly “dragged” tion of the video” of Felarca and Walker. Punneo in jail after his arrest for an Walker to harm’s way: “She knew what unrelated allegation of domestic vio- was going to happen,” Coleman said. Ayres also detailed his observations lence. One man on the white suprema- Paz, Williams and Felarca were on the day of the rally. He explained cist side is now facing charges, but not engaged in a free speech protest, their that he had become worried about for the stabbings. lawyers have said, and maintain that Walker. Punneo could not be reached for the neo-Nazis attacked them. “He was by himself, and this was a comment. A judge ruled Friday that the cases concern for me,” Ayres testified. “I tried to call out to him to tell him not German, the former FBI agent and a against the three anti-fascists could to enter, that it wouldn’t be safe.” Brennan Center fellow, said Ayres’ lan- move forward, but agreed to down- guage was alarming: “That word ‘solely’ grade Paz’s assault charges from a felo- Ayres described the anti-fascists’ is carrying a lot of water to try to pro- ny to a misdemeanor. flags as weapons—a “club/stick” with a tect these people from responsibility.” flag “attached” to it—“emblematic of “Thanks for protecting white anarchist beliefs” and direct evidence Ultimately, Ayres did not recommend of their violent criminal offenses. But charges for any of the far-right men for supremacists” when asked if he considered Walker’s the stabbings. Ayres did recommend crim- Ayres’ hours-long testimony during flag attached to a long stick to be a inal charges against all 100 counter-pro- the hearing this week provided new weapon, Ayres said no. testers he identified, including eight stab- insight into the officer’s thinking, with bing and beating victims and those not remarks that at times sparked laughs The defense lawyers questioned accused of any violence. and jeers from the crowd of anti-fas- whether the officer, from his vantage cists supporting the protesters facing point on the roof, was able to observe Prosecutors ultimately chose to potential prison time. key conflict moments involving the charge three anti-fascists: Yvette protesters facing prosecution. Felarca, a 48-year-old Berkeley teacher On the stand, Ayres declined to and well-known leftwing organizer, refer to TWP organizers and support- “I could not see what was directly and two indigenous activists, Michael ers as Nazis, and judge Stacy Boulware beneath me,” he said. Williams, 58, and Porfirio Paz, 21. Eurie noted he seemed to be showing When questioned about the “hesitation” with the characterization. Paz and Williams stand accused of Facebook warrants, Ayres admitted he committing assaults with “sticks.” “That language wasn’t used in my did not send similar search warrants Felarca is facing a charge of felony assessment,” Ayres said. for TWP Facebook accounts, but he did assault “by means of force likely to Instead, he called them the “permit- not elaborate on his reasoning. produce great bodily injury” for an ted party,” since TWP had obtained a “This officer had real trouble being encounter with Nigel Walker, a dem- permit to hold the event. neutral,” the defense attorney Linda

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 29 Parisi told the court at the end of Arizona: Four Women Convicted After Leaving Tuesday’s four-hour hearing. “The people he is seeking to protect are peo- Food and Water in Desert For Migrants ple who engage in hate...white suprem- By Associated Press acists, white nationalists, Nazis.” The Sacramento case follows con- A federal judge has found four Huse and Zaachila Orozco- troversies across the U.S. in the last two women guilty of entering a national McCormick. years over the way law enforcement has wildlife refuge without a permit as they Hoffman was found guilty of oper- dealt with violence between white sought to place food and water in ating a vehicle inside Cabeza Prieta supremacist and anti-fascist groups. the Arizona desert for migrants. national wildlife refuge, entering the Civil rights activists have accused law U.S. magistrate Judge Bernardo federally protected area without a per- enforcement departments in Portland Velasco’s ruling on Friday, January 19, mit, and leaving water jugs and cans of , Berkeley and Washington, DC of 2019, marked the first conviction beans there in August 2017. aggressively investigating and prose- against humanitarian aid volunteers in cuting anti-fascists who oppose the The others were found guilty of a decade. growing far-right movement. entering without a permit and leaving Authorities have disproportionately The four found guilty of misde- behind personal property. targeted the left, critics say, even meanors in the recent case were volun- —The Guardian, January 19, 2019 though white supremacists have per- teers for No More Deaths, which said petuated mass shootings and in a statement the group had been https://www.theguardian.com/us- other deadly attacks. providing life-saving aid to migrants. news/2019/jan/19/arizona-four-wom- Coleman, the prosecutor, argued it The volunteers include Natalie en-convicted-after-leaving-food-and- didn’t matter whether Ayres was Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline water-in-desert-for-migrants “believable or disbelievable,” and that he called the officer to court for the purpose of authenticating a video. As Coleman exited the hearing, an attendee had a message for him: “Thanks for protecting white supremacists.” —The Guardian, January 25, 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2019/jan/25/california-police-neo- nazis-antifa-protest?CMP=Share_ iOSApp_Other

Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime

30 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 Lessons from the FBI’s Secret War on Activism By Michael Steven Smith

The Federal Bureau of Investigation gator of his time. In 1986, a federal ple evicted and workplaces were visited tried to destroy left organizations and judge in Manhattan awarded the party in order to get people fired. the Black freedom movement during $264,000 in damages. The case is The agents were also instructed to the last major upsurge in radical poli- extraordinarily important today, when stir up mistrust in the movement and tics in this country, in the 1960s. It socialist ideas are growing in popularity create antagonistic factions inside the looks like they are trying to do it again. and socialists are getting elected to office party, such as by sending anonymous The bureau’s Cointelpro for the first time in almost 100 years. letters to a prominent Black SWP mem- (Counterintelligence Program) was a The FBI first investigated the SWP ber that he and his fellow “party mon- secret operation the bureau carried out in 1940. When the bureau added it to keys” should leave and join the Black against left-wing groups from 1956 to Cointelpro in 1961, a secret memoran- Panthers. Agents tried to get the party 1971. It first targeted the Communist dum said the party had been “openly to engage in illegal activities, such as by Party, and was expanded to the Socialist espousing its line on a local and nation- handing out flyers at an antiwar dem- Workers Party (SWP) in 1961 and the al basis through running candidates for onstration calling the SWP and other “New Left” in 1968. In a secret 1968 public office and strongly directing organizers cowards for not wanting to memo, longtime FBI director J. Edgar and/or supporting causes such as get “battle wounds” fighting the “pigs.” Hoover directed his agents to “expose, Castro’s Cuba and integrations prob- The 1986 victory was historic. The disrupt and otherwise neutralize the lems…in the South.” federal court decision held that advo- activities of various new left organiza- The discovery aspect of the SWP cating for socialism and being in a tions. We must frustrate every effort of lawsuit took eight years and yielded an socialist organization were legal, ruling these groups and individuals to con- astounding ten million pages of docu- that “these disruption operations were solidate their forces or to recruit new ments. The judge told Boudin, “You directed at the kind of political activi- or faithful adherents.” are not going to believe what’s in these ties that the SWP had a constitutional Hoover directed his venom espe- documents.” right to carry out.” cially at the Black movement, writing The SWP came out of the Debsian1 “For the first time the FBI’s disrup- that “we must prevent the rise of a new wing of the Socialist Party in the late tions, surreptitious entries and use of Black messiah.” The FBI and its accom- 1930s, and advocated a democratic form informers have been found unconsti- plices in the Chicago Police Department of socialism unlike what existed in the tutional,” the Nation magazine wrote. admitted to the 1969 assassination of Soviet Union. At its peak, it had 3,000 “All in all, it amounted to a domestic Chicago socialist and Black Panther members including its youth group. It contra operation against a peaceful Party leader Fred Hampton in his bed had a weekly newspaper, a monthly political organization, for no reason along with his bodyguard Mark Clark. magazine, an international news service, other than its ideological orientation.” The circumstances around the mur- a publishing house, and owned a five- ders of Martin Luther King—who was The FBI had played its role as the story headquarters in an old ship repair “political police of the national govern- harassed by the FBI for years—and building in the West Village. It had Malcolm X remain suspicious. ment,” Noam Chomsky wrote. The chapters in most major cities and on federal government, represented by Although Cointelpro was ended many college campuses. It helped orga- then-U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani, after it was exposed in 1971, and the nize some of the largest demonstrations maintained to the bitter end that it had FBI investigation of the SWP ended in against the Vietnam War. a right to undermine an organization 1976, their practices of government The 1986 trial took three months. just because of its ideas. No govern- surveillance, infiltration and disruption What was proved? The FBI had used ment official who participated in the of radical groups have never gone away. 300 infiltrators and 1,300 informers campaign against the SWP was ever Most of what we know about over a 15-year period, and burglarized prosecuted, and no congressional hear- Cointelpro resulted from a lawsuit, SWP offices and members’ homes ings were ever held. Socialist Workers Party vs. The Attorney more than 200 times. Wiretaps had In the post-9/11 era, even the modest General, which the SWP filed in 1973 been employed for 20,000 days and legal restraints that were imposed on law through its attorney Leonard Boudin, listening devices for 12,000. Landlords enforcement surveillance and infiltra- the finest movement constitutional liti- were contacted in an effort to get peo- tion of political activity during the 1970s

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 31 have been tossed aside. The surveillance • Within our movements, don’t state has grown ever larger with the cre- turn political disagreements into 1 Socialist Party candidate, Eugene V. ation of a Department of Homeland personal feuds. Don’t engage in Debs, ran for President of the United States five Security that works closely with the FBI needlessly disruptive behavior— times, including 1900 (earning 0.6 percent of the and local police departments to monitor and be wary of those who do so popular vote,) 1904 (3.0 percent,) 1908 (2.8 per- lawful political dissent. on a regular basis. The govern- cent,) 1912 (6.0 percent) and 1920 (3.4 percent.) The FBI has already infiltrated ment has a long history of using In 1920, he ran for president for the last time Muslim mosques and admitted to a infiltrators to sow strife within from a cell in the federal prison in Atlanta for program targeting those whom they left organizations. a speech opposing World War 1 that he gave 100 call “Black identity extremists,” that is, Socialism is no longer a dirty word. years ago on June 18, 1918. Dispite his imprison- Black people organizing to oppose We are growing in numbers and ment, Debs received 913,664 votes. [Two months police violence. Under Obama, the strength. It would be naïve to think later, Congress passed the Espionage Act, which FBI and Homeland Security worked that the powers that be are not cogni- made it illegal to incite active opposition to U.S. closely with local police departments in zant of the threats to their power and involvement in the war.] the fall of 2011 to monitor and later privilege and are not taking steps to https://www.commondreams.org/ break up Occupy encampments in var- block it. views/2018/06/18/one-hundred-years- ious cities. Michael Steven Smith is a past board ago-eugene-debs-gave-anti-war-speech- We need to build solid organiza- member of the Center for Constitutional landed-him-prison tions that can withstand government Rights. He co-hosts the nationally broad- attempts at disruption. Here are some cast weekly radio show Law and Disorder key practices to remember: with Heidi Boghosian and is the author • We should not advocate any- of the forthcoming book Lawyers For the thing illegal, keeping in mind Left: In the Courts, In the Streets, and that the government will try to On the Air, to be published by OR Books. put the onus of violence on us —The Indypendent, February 12, rather on them where it belongs. 2019 • Don’t say anything on social media https://indypendent.org/2019/02/les- or other electronic communica- sons-from-the-fbis-secret-war-on-activism/ tions you would not want the government to see. They have access to all of it when they want it.

Police use Mace to move war protesters blocking access to the Oakland Induction Center on October 17, 1967.

32 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 Palestinian Children Killed by Israel in 2018 Have Been Forgotten by the World By Ramona Wadi

Defense for Children International the international community gives its II of the UN Convention on the Palestine (DCIP) paints a bleak prospect tacit agreement to the abuse and is, in Prevention and Punishment of the for Palestinian children revealing that in some cases, complicit. Crime of Genocide defines the term as 2018, at least 56 were killed by Israel. “acts committed with the intent to Individuals who witnessed some of the destroy, in whole or in part, a national, murders have insisted that the targeted ...between 2000 and 2014 ethnical, racial or religious group.” children were unarmed and posed no Israel killed a Palestinian What else is Israel doing to the people threat to the state or its citizens. of Palestine, “in whole or in part?” Palestinian children have been killed child every three days on The international community’s by Israeli army snipers, drones and average, for fourteen responses are so predictable that Israel security forces across the occupied years... finds no obstacles in maneuvering Palestinian territories. Five of the mur- beyond the limits set by international dered children were under 12 years of law; it is allowed to act with impunity. age. In Gaza, 49 children were mur- DCIP’s research establishes the fact The “drip, drip” rate of the killing of dered by Israel in activities pertaining that Israel killed an average of more Palestinian children and the almost to the Great March of Return protests. than one child per week in 2018. Earlier routine nature of their detention Live ammunition was used by Israel shocking official statistics revealed that sneaks under the radar of human rights in 73 percent of the fatalities docu- between 2000 and 2014 Israel killed a violations. As the international com- mented by DCIP, which also recorded Palestinian child every three days on munity fails to respond to Israeli viola- “140 cases of Palestinian children who average, for fourteen years. Throughout tions within its established framework, were detained by Palestinian forces.” the year there was ongoing discussion Israel succeeds in bridging the gap Israeli forces also arrested 120 children about Israel’s genocidal intent and between violations and rights. within the occupied West Bank. In both actions, which were mostly discarded To speak of Israel’s violations now groups, the detained children suffered due to the monopoly over the term in is, in fact, also to speak of the interna- abuse at the hands of the security forces reference to the Holocaust. Yet, Article Continued on page 35 holding them, whether the Palestinian Authority or the Israeli military. These tactics show that Israel’s colonial collaboration with the Palestinian Authority is targeting a very vulnerable segment of Palestinian society. What’s more, the killing and wounding of Palestinian children by Israeli snipers at the Great March of Return is a direct maiming of the generation, which can carry on the anti-colonial struggle. Citing international law is pointless when Israel, and even the Palestinian Authority, have extended the parame- ters for an ongoing cycle of abuse against Palestinian children. International law is only relevant when used to point out that violations are taking place and the Palestinians are facing a UN member state which treats international law with contempt, while Palestinian child in a refugee camp in Gaza.

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 33 Israel’s Largest Land Grab Since 1948 Israel to expel 36,000 Palestinians from Negev By Whitney Webb

Tel Aviv, Israel—According to an Israel Hayom’s report stated that, per Whitson, executive director of Human Israeli media report, the Israeli govern- the new plan, the Palestinian villages Rights Watch’s Middle East and North ment has completed work on a mas- would be demolished and the ruins of Africa Division, stated: sive, far-reaching plan that would expel their homes would then become the “The forcible eviction of Bedouin an estimated 36,000 Palestinians from sites of “national projects,” infrastruc- residents to make way for a new “unrecognized” villages in the Negev ture projects, and “security” installa- Jewish town would be a blatant and Desert. If the plan is approved by the tions after the forcible “transfer” of the ugly episode of discrimination mir- Knesset, Israel’s legislative body, its land’s current inhabitants to other roring Israel’s unlawful settlements. implementation could begin as soon as “state-approved” settlements such as Long after most of the rest of the this year and would take four years to Tel Sheva, Abu Talul and Umm Batin. world has rejected such racist poli- complete. News of the plan was first The report noted that a major motiva- cies, the Israeli government keeps building and razing communities on published by Israel Hayom—Israel’s tion behind the plan’s creation was the the basis of religion and ethnicity.” largest Hebrew-language newspaper, transfer of an arms-industry factory funded by Sheldon Adelson, the top from another part of Israel to the Negev, No recognition, no rights donor to both U.S. President Donald as well as the expansion of the “Trans- The Bedouin Palestinians who Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Israel Highway” system. inhabit these lands face an uphill battle Benjamin Netanyahu. Furthermore, the plan involves call- in any effort to oppose the newly draft- The plan—compiled by Uri Ariel, ing for a budget increase to boost the ed plan. This is because their villag- Israel’s Minister of Agriculture and presence of law enforcement officials es have long been “unrecognized” by Rural Development, and his staff—fea- involved in the forcible “transfer” and the state of Israel, which has claimed tures the seizure of an estimated in the demolition of Palestinian villages. that Palestinian Bedouins cannot 260,000 dunams (64,247 acres) from “prove” their ownership or claim to Rights groups have yet to comment Palestine’s Bedouins. The size of the the land. This has been used to justify on the newly announced plan targeting territory in question and the high the withholding of basic services, such Palestinian communities in the Negev. number of Palestinians set to be affect- as running water and electricity, from However, Human Rights Watch has ed has led some to call the plan the these areas. Residents, even though previously condemned Israel’s target- largest “land grab” of Palestinian- they are technically Israeli citizens, also ing of “unrecognized” Palestinian vil- inhabited land since 1948, when the lack addresses and their villages do not lages in the region. In 2016, Sarah Leah state of Israel was founded. appear on official Israeli maps. As a consequence of their lack of formal recognition, Israeli authorities do not regard the Palestinian inhabitants of these villages as having any rights to the land, even though many of the villages were established several decades ago by Palestinians forced from their homes following the creation of the Israeli state in 1948. Given the state’s rejection of their existence, Israeli government officials have called the Palestinians living in these villages “violators” and “squat- ters”—accusing them of illegally occupying “state lands.” As a result, these villages have constantly been under Israel plans to demolish homes expeling 36,000 Palestinians from the Negev Desert. threat of demolition, with the Israeli

34 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 government even forcing the inhabit- proponents of ethnic cleansing of Continued from page 33 ants of demolished villages to pay for Palestinian-inhabited territories. A tional community’s irresponsibility. the destruction of their own homes. member of the far-right Jewish Home Yet neither are scrutinized and held to party and vocal proponent of illegal account; the result is the regular yet Pushing towards complete annex- settlements, Ariel stated last June that somewhat reluctant citing of what ation and ethnic cleansing the Israeli government should forcibly should happen according to interna- The newly announced plan is part annex 60 percent of the West Bank. tional law being juxtaposed against of a wider Israeli government push to This past December, Ariel then stepped Israeli breaches of the law. annex Palestinian territory and ethni- up his rhetoric regarding Palestinian Accountability, however, has long since cally cleanse areas that have already Bedouins in the Negev, stating: absconded from the scene of the crime. been annexed by Israel. With the sup- If Israel wants to kill Palestinian chil- port of the Trump administration in “I am happy to announce a revolution in the Negev regarding the dren (or women and men, come to the United States, right-wing Israeli illegal construction. The enforce- that), it will kill because it has decided, politicians have been emboldened to ment agencies, together with the quite deliberately, to do so. introduce and promote measures that proper activities of the Bedouin would result in the Israeli govern- Settlement Authority according to Meanwhile, the international comment’s complete annexation of my instructions, created a new situ- munity will steer clear from ever asso- Palestine’s West Bank, which has been ation in the Negev: in 2019, we will ciating Israeli actions with genocide, under Israeli military rule since 1967 aspire to zero illegal construction in preferring instead to rely on “alleged and has lost substantial amounts of the Negev. war crimes,” the perpetrators of which land to the construction of illegal “We have increased the means of will never be brought to justice. Jewish-only settlements supported by enforcement, we have demonstrated Palestinian children killed by Israel the Israeli government. Those the validity of an attack along with over many years, last year included, efforts prompted the UN to warn last significant land marketing, and we have been forgotten by the world. July that Israel’s government was are on the right path to dramatically Ramona Wadi is a staff writer for poised to formally annex the West reduce and later eliminate the illegal Middle East Monitor, where this article takeover of state land in the Negev. Bank in the coming years. was originally published. She contributed The Negev will no longer be a no- In addition, within areas already man’s-land area without gover- this article to PalestineChronicle.com. controlled by Israel, the effort to erase nance.” —The Palestine Chronicle, January Palestinian communities is also pick- Ariel reiterated this policy in 9, 2018 ing up steam, as evidenced by the pro- January, stating that he would imple- http://www.palestinechronicle.com/the- motion of this new plan to expel 36,000 ment a “zero tolerance” policy for “ille- palestinian-children-killed-by-israel-in- Palestinians with Israeli citizenship gal” Bedouin construction on Bedouin 2018-have-been-forgotten-by-the-world/ from their homes. land, and again accusing Bedouin Last year, an Israeli Supreme Court Palestinians of “taking over” Israeli ruling essentially authorized and justi- state land. fied the Israeli government’s demoli- A recent Haaretz report found that tion of “unrecognized” Palestinian vil- Ariel has been drafting plans to evict lages after hearing the case of the Palestinian Bedouins from their homes Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar, since the 1970s. Now, with a top post in located east of Jerusalem. That ruling Netanyahu’s government, Ariel seems has now set a precedent that critics to have finally garnered the power and claimed would allow the Israeli gov- the political support to make his long- ernment to “ethnically cleanse” any planned push to ethnically cleanse Palestinian village within its territory, Palestinian communities a reality. despite the fact that the practice is considered illegal by international law. —Mint Press News, February 1, 2019 FREE A man on a mission https://www.mintpressnews.com/ It should be no surprise then that largest-land-grab-since-1948-israel-to- Uri Ariel, who drafted this latest plan, expel-36000-palestinians-from- PALESTINE is one of the Israeli government’s top negev/254564/#.XFzjoifwWKo.facebook

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 35 U.S. and Mass Murder in Guatemala Washington trained Guatemala’s mass murderers—and the border patrol played a role By Greg Grandin and Elizabeth Oglesby

John P. Longan was an agent with the Guatemala, empowering an intelligence Links with Guatemalan Government U.S. Border Patrol in the 1940s and ’50s, system that through the course of the and Private Sector Leaders,” Council working near the Mexican border, where civil war would be responsible for tens- on Hemispheric Affairs, October 30, two Guatemalan migrant children fell of-thousands of disappearances, 1980.) In office, Reagan supplied muni- mortally ill last month in the custody of 200,000 deaths, and countless tortures. tions and training to the Guatemalan the Border Patrol—seven-year-old (Greg Grandin describes Longan’s army to carry out that dirty work Jakelin Caal Maquín, who died on work in The Last Colonial Massacre.) (despite a ban on military aid imposed December 8, and eight-year-old Felipe during the Carter administration, since Gómez Alonzo, who died on Christmas existing contracts were exempt from Eve, 2018. Longan had a reputation for ...the Guatemalan the ban.) Reagan was steadfast in his violence, as did many patrollers. Since moral backing for Guatemala’s géno- its founding in the early 20th century, government’s postwar cidaires, calling de facto head of state the Border Patrol has operated with near strategy, backed by General Efraín Ríos Montt, who seized impunity, becoming arguably the most international power in a coup in the spring of 1982, politicized branch of federal law enforce- “a man of great integrity” and “totally ment—even more so than J. Edgar development loans, dedicated to democracy.” Hoover’s FBI. has been to open up As the Cold War heated up in Latin large swaths of the Felipe and Jakelin’s homes America, following the 1959 victory of The civil war that the United States the Cuban Revolution, Longan, who country to foreign drove forward in Guatemala hit the started his career as a police officer in investment in home regions of Felipe Gómez and Oklahoma, moved on to work with the megaprojects like Jakelin Caal—the two children who just CIA, providing security assistance— died in U.S. custody—hard. In an ear- under the cover of the State mining and lier Nation essay, we described the waves Department—to allied anti-commu- hydroelectric dams... of land theft, terror, and immigration nist nations. Put simply, Longan taught that, for much of the 20th and all of the local intelligence and police agencies 21st centuries, have washed over Caal’s how to create death squads to target Alta Verapaz, in the country’s north. political activists, deploying tactics that The U.S. role in that civil war wasn’t, he had earlier used to capture migrants Felipe Gómez Alonzo was born in of course, limited to the covert opera- the western highlands, in the depart- on the border. He arrived in Guatemala tions of one former Border Patrol ment of Huehuetenango, in an isolated in late 1965, where he put into place a agent. Throughout the Cold War, village called Yalambojoch, a ten-hour paramilitary unit that, early the next Washington intervened multiple times drive from Guatemala City and not far year, would execute what he called in Guatemala, funded a rampaging from the Mexican border. The village Operación Limpieza, or Operation army, ran cover for the death squads sits in a sunken valley surrounded by Clean-Up. Within three months, this that its own security agents, like pine-tipped hills. In the middle of this unit had conducted over 80 raids and Longan, helped create, and signaled valley is a knoll, looking like a baby in multiple extrajudicial assassinations, that it would turn a blind eye to geno- its mother’s womb. In Chuj, the Maya including an action that, over the cide. Even before Ronald Reagan’s language of this region, this knoll course of four days, captured, tortured, 1980 election, two retired generals is unin witz, the child hill. and executed more than 30 prominent playing prominent roles in his cam- left-opposition leaders. The military paign traveled to Central America and Where Jakelin was Q’eqchi’, Felipe dumped their bodies into the sea while told Guatemalan officials that “Mr. was Chuj, part of a community of for- the government denied any knowledge Reagan recognizes that a good deal of mer tenant farmers with a long history of their whereabouts. dirty work has to be done” (for this of fighting for their land. As in the Longan’s Limpieza was a decisive quote, see Allan Nairn’s 1980 Q’eqchi’ region, the U.S.-orchestrated step forward in the unraveling of “Controversial Reagan Campaign 1954 coup in Guatemala, which over-

36 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 turned agrarian reform, kicked off on to the United States, beginning the tenure structure or the concentration decades of political strife in great movement of Guatemalans to “el of political and economic power in the Huehuetenango, pitting local land- Norte.” All told, 1.5 million people country. That chance was lost with the owners allied with the military against were displaced by the Guatemalan 1954 coup and the counterinsurgency impoverished Maya peasants desperate army’s scorched-earth campaign in of the early 1980s, as, time and again, for land and a better future. Many 1981 and 1982. Guatemala’s the U.S. government tipped the bal- communities in this region were influ- Commission for Historical Clarification ance of power in favor of the status quo enced by the Catholic social-justice called the violent displacement in the in Guatemala. Elites in Guatemala are doctrines of liberation theology that Maya-Chuj region an “act of geno- only too happy to see people emigrate, swept through Central America in the cide.” Young Felipe Gómez Alonzo’s as banks controlled by the oligar- 1960s and ’70s. When the Guerrilla father, Agustín Gómez Pérez, was a chy reap financial dividends from the Army of the Poor (Ejército Guerrillero child of 11 during that exodus. transfer of remittances, and beginning de los Pobres) entered Huehuetenango Yalambojoch’s villagers stayed away in the 1990s international development in the mid-1970s, large numbers of vil- for 14 years, returning only after the banks began to promote the idea of lagers greeted them as allies in the signing of the peace accords in 1996. remittances as development. struggle against the “army of the rich,” Instead of pursuing a people-cen- and by 1980, the province was in open Why couldn’t they survive? tered rural development, the rebellion against Guatemala’s corrupt Already, Huehuetenango was the Guatemalan government’s postwar and violent military government. one of the top migrant-sending regions. strategy, backed by international devel- On June 17, 1982, Guatemalan sol- Why couldn’t these returnees survive opment loans, has been to open up diers under the command of Ríos Montt in postwar Guatemala? large swaths of the country to foreign entered the San Francisco cattle estate One explanation is the genocide’s investment in megaprojects like mining immediately adjacent to Yalambojoch. legacy: The army’s broad purpose was and hydroelectric dams. As Guatemalan The estate’s owner, a military colonel, not just to beat back the guerrillas but economist Luis Solano notes, there is had fled because of guerrilla activity in also to destroy hope for a different not a single Maya name among the list the area. Soldiers went house to future in Guatemala. People from of investors in these projects, where the house rounding up workers and their Yalambojoch were scattered in Mexico profits go to international conglomer- families, whom they accused of sup- after 1982. Only half of the community ates in association with elite family porting the guerrillas. They separated returned to Guatemala, and those who networks in Guatemala. children from their parents and killed did were strangers to each other. Young One such project is the Northern them by slashing their stomachs or adults who had fled as children didn’t Transversal Highway, a project initiat- smashing their heads against poles. know much about the land or how to ed by Guatemala’s military govern- Women were raped and then burned farm it. When Mexican and U.S. labor ments to open up the northern reaches alive. The soldiers killed the men with recruiters arrived in Huehuetenango to of the country to oil drilling and other bullets or by beheading. After a day of hire Maya youth for jobs in U.S. agri- forms of extraction. Guerrilla sabotage slaughter, 350 people were dead. A lone culture and poultry plants—as Mexican halted the project during the war, but survivor made his way into Mexico, workers unionized, the Guatemalan since the peace accords it has returned where Guatemalan anthropologist and workers were seen as more pliable— with a vengeance. The Transversal now Jesuit priest Ricardo Falla interviewed these youth jumped at the chance to spans the whole region from northern him. The San Francisco massacre was go. As Ricardo Falla and Elena Huehuetenango, where Felipe Gómez highlighted in Guatemala’s 1999 Truth Yojcom describe in El sueño del Norte Alonzo lived, to Alta Verapaz, where Commission report. en Yalambojoch (The Dream of the Jakelin Caal Maquín’s grave is. After the massacre, Yalambojoch North in Yalambojoch,) remittances In Yalambojoch, people banded residents fled along with thousands of rebuilt these war-ravaged communi- together to stop construction of the others, leaving the border corridor ties. With few exceptions, international highway through their village, not between Guatemala and Mexico com- migration was the only reparation they because they don’t want a road, but pletely depopulated, as government had, as Guatemalan anthropologist because the Israeli company contracted troops razed their villages. Some were Ruth Piedrasanta shows. to build it threatened to cut down hun- captured and killed by the army as they Residents of Yalambojoch subsist dreds of trees in a protected forest fled. Others ended up in refugee camps on plots of only a few hectares of mar- reserve next to the community’s only or dispersed throughout Mexico’s ginal land per family. The peace accords supply of fresh drinking water. A few southern states. Still others continued didn’t change the inequitable land- kilometers away, community and envi-

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 37 ronmental activists opposing the mega- refugees from that civil war, including common practice during the Cold War projects have been jailed, attacked, families from Yalambojoch, tried to to send former Border Patrol agents, or killed, and Guatemalan security return home, many found they couldn’t like Longan, to train foreign police forces have militarized the zone once survive in the society created by war. through CIA-linked “public safety” again. The most recent killings in this According to news reports, Felipe’s programs, since they were more likely region occurred the day before Felipe father was drowning in debt. Suffering to speak Spanish than agents from and his father crossed the U.S. border. yet more violence, more displacement, other branches of law enforcement. In Finally, there is climate change. and more dispossession, doing their countries like El Salvador, Honduras, While it is too simplistic to claim that best to fend off the worst social and and Guatemala, they did the “dirty Central American migrants are “cli- environmental effects of resource work” that Reagan’s envoys said need- mate refugees” (the claim is dangerous, extraction and grinding poverty, many ed doing. Until the early 1970s, the too, since it ultimately justifies even try to escape, with the only viable route United States, according to a 1974 Los more apocalyptic border-enforcement being north, to a militarized border, Angeles Times report, was flying its policies,) there is evidence that in some where, in a way, it all began. Latin American death-squad appren- regions, climate change may be erod- tices up to the Border Patrol academy ing people’s ability to stay on their in Los Fresnos, Texas, to receive “training from CIA instructors in the design, lands. In Huehuetenango, including in ...when refugees from manufacture, and potential use of Yalambojoch, the potential to earn that civil war, including bombs and incendiary devices.” cash by growing coffee on small plots is families from Longan himself, in 1957, clearly being undermined by the spread of a described what he thought he was plant-choking fungus called la roya, or Yalambojoch, tried to doing at the border: “we’re fighting a coffee-leaf rust, which some scientists return home, many war” on a “wide battle front.” attribute to climate change. found they couldn’t sur- As the Drive-By Truckers wrote in Circles within circles vive in the society creat- a 2016 song—about a murderous There are circles within circles, all ed by war... Border Patrol agent who went on to spinning forward to this dismal lead the NRA into its current militant, moment: A Border Patrol agent began right-wing phase—“It all started with working with the CIA, and helped put According to Stuart Schrader, in his the border. And that’s still where it is into place a death-squad regime that forthcoming Badges Without Borders: today.” accelerated a civil war that produced How Global Counterinsurgency Greg Grandin teaches history at New biblical levels of displacement; when Transformed American Policing, it was York University and is the author, most recently, of Kissinger’s Shadow. His new book, The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall, will be published in March 2019. Elizabeth Oglesby is associate professor of Latin American studies and geog- raphy at the University of Arizona. She is co-editor, with Greg Grandin, of The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics. —The Nation, January 3, 2019 https://www.thenation.com/article/ border-patrol-refugees-guatemala-cia- war-crimes/

Catarina Alonzo, mother of Felipe Gómez Alonzo, at her home in the village of Yalambojoch, Guatemala, on December 27, 2018.

38 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 200 Million Strike Against Anti-Labor Policies in India By Adam Pal

On January 8 and 9, 2019, around Students from various universities, while the loot and plunder by big busi- 200 million workers went on a two-day including Jawaharlal Nehru University, ness have achieved new heights. Modi strike across India, bringing the coun- have been protesting against the gov- won the election in 2014 on the slogan try to a grinding halt. The strike was ernment for many years now, and they of “Vikas,” or “progress” and vowed to called by ten central trade unions of also joined hands with the workers to produce ten million jobs every year. India against the anti-labor policies of raise their demands. After the failure of the Congress gov- the Modi government. Bharatiya The strike was called by a National ernment, these promises attracted huge Mazdoor Sangh (Indian Workers Convention of Workers, held in numbers of people, who voted for BJP Union,) affiliated with Rashtriya September 2018, and agreed jointly by ignoring their extreme, right-wing fun- Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya the ten central trade unions. The damentalist background. But during Janata Party (an Indian right-wing, 12-point charter of the convention his rule, Modi has been unable to Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volun- includes demands against price hikes, deliver on any of his promises, while teer organization that is widely regard- unemployment, privatization of public giving huge benefits to the filthy rich at ed as the parent organization of the sector units, and contract labor, amongst the top of big business. ruling party of India, the Bharatiya other things. The trade unions also In December 2018, the official Janata Party,) was the only central demanded universal social security cov- unemployment rose to 7.4 percent, trade union that was against the strike erage for all workers, a minimum wage which is the highest rate in the last 27 and tried to sabotage it. All others sup- of Rs. 18,000-per-month ($1800.00,) months. According to a report by the ported the strike and made huge efforts assured pensions, the abolition of con- Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, to make it successful. tractual labor and an end to employer- the country lost around 11 million jobs Public sector workers from the rail- friendly labor law amendments. in 2018. Most of the job losses were in ways, banks and power stations partici- the rural areas but the Information pated with full force in this strike, A challenge to Modi’s Technology sector of India has also along with workers from the private government of the rich faced big job losses in recent years. sector, including the mines, industrial The working class in India has suf- Apart from job losses, the recent sites, transport and even small traders. fered greatly under the Modi govern- surge of price hikes has also affected According to the reports of trade ment, with price hikes and unemploy- the workers in the most devastating unions, a large number of informal ment reaching unprecedented levels, way and deprived them of their meager workers also participated in the strike, including workers from the construction sector, street vendors, domestic and home-based workers, auto-rick- shaw and agricultural workers. “Biggest strike in history” This is being claimed as the largest ever strike in world history, as it also got huge support from farmers and students across the country. Farmers have been protesting for many months in huge numbers across different states against the callous attitude of the government and their falling living stan- dards, which have driven them into extreme poverty. The general strike gave them an opportunity to unite with the industrial and public sector workers to press their demands.

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 39 savings. Wages have not increased in extremely low wages. The trade unions 40 percent. Private insurance compa- proportion with inflation and the lives have demanded the end of this law, nies are looting the common citizens of these workers have become unbear- along with other anti-labor amend- but the government is still hell-bent on able as a result. In an interview ments to existing labor laws. privatizing existing public sector com- with News Click on the day of the panies, which will then lay off thou- strike, many workers in Delhi talked The workers united! sands of employees. about their plight, saying that they are The public sector workers also came All banking unions also supported earning from 7000 to 12,000 Rupees- out in big numbers in this strike. They the strike and came out strongly against per-month (about $99.00-$168.00 U.S. were demanding an end to Foreign the privatization of public sector banks. dollars) after 12-hour working days. Direct Investment (FDI) in the public The All India Bank Employees The workers demanded the govern- sector, which has left hundreds-of- Association and Bank Employees ment raise the minimum wage to thousands jobless. The central trade Federation of India supported the 18,000 Rupees (about $255.00 U.S. unions have demanded an end to strike. According to the Times of India, dollars) per month to make ends meet. privatization of areas of the public sec- the mining sector reported 100 percent The industrial workers also have to tor under the control of central or state strike participation, along with tea work under precarious conditions, governments, especially railways, plantation and beedi (a thin cigarette mostly without safety equipment. In insurance and defense. or mini-cigar filled with tobacco) the construction sector especially, The workers of the Life Insurance workers. which has grown rapidly in recent Corporation held a demonstration at The General Secretary of the All years, on-site deaths have become a the Jeevan Bharati Building in India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), common phenomenon, but still, the Connaught Place in Delhi on January Amarjeet Kaur, talking to the Press workers continue to do their jobs 8, 2019. The leader of the All India Trust of India claimed that in five because they have no other option. If Insurance Employees Association states, life came to a complete standstill they leave, they will have to face death addressed the demonstration there. on the first day of the strike. These from hunger. Talking with the media, Anil Kumar include the eastern states of Assam, The Modi government has also Bhatnagar, Vice President AIIEA, said Manipur, Maegahalya and Odisha, introduced fixed-term employment to that two public sector insurance com- along with the southern state of Kerala make it “easier” to do business. This panies have already been privatized by where communist parties are ruling. In means that an employer can hire a the government, while others are also these states, all types of establishments, worker only for a specified project or a being targeted. The labor leaders said including schools, colleges, hospitals, specified time without any further that the rejection rate in case settle- post offices, banks and industrial sites, requirements. This has led to much ments in public sector companies is remain closed. deeper exploitation of the workers, three to four percent, while in the pri- Kaur also said that, in the rest of who face dangerous conditions and vate sector it ranges from 25 percent to country, banks and postal services were affected. In many states, the trade union activists staged demonstrations to stop trains, causing a disruption of the railway service. Reports of such actions came from Odisha, Tami Nadu and other states as well. In the southern state of Telangana, two million government employees were reported to be on strike, while transport and electricity workers in the industrial city of Mumbai were also on strike. In Karnataka, the bus service was halted as workers of Karnataka State road Transport Corporation were fully on strike. Industrial workers of Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan were also on strike, and reports of clashes

40 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 between workers and police were also In its long tenure in power, Congress This strike has once again posed a reported from Rajasthan. According to has also not solved any of the problems challenge for political leadership that a report by the Times of India, workers faced by the masses and has imple- can lead the working class out of the of the National Federation of Atomic mented its neoliberal agenda, leading oppression of capitalism, through a energy Employees were also on strike. to mass unemployment, poverty and socialist transformation of the society. The strike was observed in West misery across India. Modi continued The current leadership of the commu- Bengal, and clashes were also reported those policies more aggressively, which nist parties is completely rotten and between the leaders of the Communist has led to more poverty and destitution unable to offer a way out. It is up to the Party of India (Marxist) and the police among the masses. new generation of workers and stu- in various places. In the northern state The policy of state capitalism has dents to unite and move toward a of Jammu and Kashmir, the leader of also failed miserably in India, which was socialist revolution by revisiting the the CPI(M), Yousaf Tarigami, led a the hallmark of the Congress-led gov- ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and demonstration in Jammu and spoke ernments before 1990. The Soviet Trotsky, on the correct lines. against the anti-people policies of the bureaucracy supported this Nehruvian —In Defense of Marxism, January Modi government. model and called it a sister economy. 11, 2019 The strike was also observed in After the collapse of the Soviet Union, https://www.marxist.com/india- small islands and tribal areas of the India turned toward liberalization and 200-million-strike-against-anti-labor- country, showing its huge breadth and privatization of the economy. Installing policies.htm strength. One of the 12 demands raised Manmohan Singh from the World Bank by the trade unions includes withdraw- as India’s Finance Minister first, and al of the Land Acquisition Amendment later as prime minister for two consecu- bill/ordinance. This amendment has tive terms, the road taken was to open affected more than one million people up the economy for the looting and ...this strike action living in tribal areas, allowing local and plunder of multinational companies. multinational companies to bypass FDI was prescribed as the cure to all ills, has once again their rights and confiscate their land but this eventually intensified the class without any compensation. divide, and poverty and misery have brought class risen to unprecedented levels. Under The lie of capitalist “progress” Modi, neoliberal policies have achieved solidarity on the This was the third general strike new heights, creating a divide between against the Modi government by the the rich and poor in India never seen agenda. All the efforts central trade unions, and the most before in history. Last month, India’s powerful. The anti-labor policies of richest man, Mukesh Ambani, spent an to divide the masses the Modi government have affected estimated $100 million on his daugh- more and more workers in recent ter’s wedding, while millions are strug- along religious lines, years and the illusion of “progress” gling to survive the harsh, cold weather, has lost its shine. In recent state elec- while facing hunger and disease. not only by the tions, the Modi government lost elec- All this has created seething anger tions in three states, which shows the and frustration among the working government but also change in mood amongst the masses. class, which can be seen in numerous With the real class character of this protests and agitations, involving hun- the opposition pro-rich government exposed, the dreds-of-thousands in recent years. BJP-led regime is now using religious The communist parties have also not parties led by fundamentalism aggressively to divide offered a way out for the masses during and rule the country. But this strike this impasse and have degenerated into Congress, have been action has once again brought class corruption and dirty parliamentary solidarity on the agenda. All the efforts cretinism. These Stalinist parties have seriously challenged to divide the masses along religious ruled different states over the last four lines, not only by the government but decades but have, again and again, suc- by this strike... also the opposition parties led by cumbed to the whims of capitalists and Congress, have been seriously chal- attacked the working class and rural lenged by this strike. poor under their rule.

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 41 Afghanistan in 2019: Fewer U.S. Troops, More CIA Torture and Killings By William Boardman

“No other country in the world his formulation about Afghanistan and Perhaps it’s just another sign of symbolizes the decline of the the decline of the American empire American psychic numbing, but the American empire as much as perfectly fits the historical reality of Times story seems to have provoked Afghanistan. There is virtually no U.S. defeat in Vietnam. little response from other media, from possibility of a military victory over politicians of any stripe, or from the the Taliban and little chance of leav- public. More American war crimes in ing behind a self-sustaining democracy—facts that Washington’s poli- All sides have been kill- some Muslim country? Well, Happy New Year! cy community has mostly been ing civilians at the rate unable to accept…. It is a vestigial The U.S. invaded Afghanistan on limb of empire, and it is time to let it of about 8,000 a year for October 7, 2001, under Operation go.” —Op-Ed by Robert D. Kaplan, several years now, with Enduring Freedom, accusing the New York Times, January 1, 2019 Taliban of harboring some of the 9/11 This is the voice of American impe- the U.S. and allies doing attackers, most of whom were Saudis. rialism speaking through one of its most of the killing. More to the point, the U.S. has been more reliable hand-puppets. Foreign creating havoc in Afghanistan at least Policy has twice named Robert Kaplan since 1979, when we started training On New Year’s Eve, the day before one of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers.” the mujahedeen to fight the Russians Kaplan’s op-ed, the lengthy lead story In his op-ed, Kaplan blames only to receive “our” Islamist radicals’ in the Times was headlined: “CIA-Led Afghanistan’s current problems on the blowback at the Twin Towers. Afghan Forces Leave Grim Trail of illegal U.S. war on Iraq in 2003, adding Afghanistan is a country about the size Abuse.” This report is based on months parenthetically and without further of Texas with a population of about 35 of reporting on night raids, torture, explanation: “which I mistakenly sup- million (almost 40 percent literate.) and summary executions of Afghan ported.” The unintended joke here is Some 63 percent of the population is civilians carried out by CIA-trained that he frames the Iraq War as a misunder 25 years old and so has little death squads, euphemistically called take largely because it diverted the U.S. conscious memory of a time when from nation-building in Afghanistan. “strike forces” in the paper. The Afghans weren’t the targets of the Yes, he says exactly that. He has noth- instances described in the report are American war machine. ing to say about either war’s criminali- horrifying and savage. In one, the death ty or U.S. atrocities. Those are not squad puts bags over the heads of two Presently the U.S. has about 14,000 serious concerns for the imperial brothers, executing them with their troops in Afghanistan, but nobody now mindset—those are just the necessary families in the next room. For good quite knows how long they’ll be there. inconveniences of maintaining an measure, the death squad blew up the Mostly what U.S. troops do is protect empire. He even appears unaware that room where the bodies lay. the official government from the apparent majority of the population that prefers the Taliban or some imaginary other option. The Afghan government controls little more than half the country most of the time. All sides have been killing civilians at the rate of about 8,000 a year for several years now, with the U.S. and allies doing most of the killing. At least 18 CIA operatives were killed in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2017. This disproportionately deadly toll has not done much to win the hearts and minds of the people, but in seventeen years, the U.S. hasn’t figured Adel Shah, 10, left, was wounded by shrapnel when the strike force blew up one of the compound’s out how to do anything else better than doors. His father bled to death. create carnage.

42 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 The CIA-run death squad campaign ticularly on CIA drones to kill massive the use of air and artillery strikes isn’t new, but it has been seriously numbers of people, mostly civilians, against the Afghan people in expanded during the past two years. ultimately to no useful purpose. Taliban-held areas, almost all of Death squad personnel run into the whom are Pashtuns. Again, the pur- thousands, mostly Afghans, but are pose of this campaign is not to recruited, trained, equipped, and con- achieve a political settlement or rec- Death squad personnel onciliation, but to brutally subjugate trolled by CIA agents or CIA contrac- run into the thousands, and punish the people, mostly rural tors. They operate independently of Pashtuns, who support the Taliban the U.S. military command, typically mostly Afghans, but are and will not give in to the corrupt without the military’s knowledge. They recruited, trained, American run government in are effectively terrorist cells. They carry Kabul.” equipped, and con- out night raids, long opposed by the Since 2001, the U.S. has watched Afghan government and the popula- trolled by CIA agents or passively as three presidents waged war tion at large. The night raids target CIA contractors. on Afghanistan, each committing war civilians the CIA thinks it has reason to crimes and crimes against humanity assassinate or capture and torture. The that would surely, in a just society, Times report describes survivors of In 2016, President Trump cam- constitute impeachable offenses. For night raids, all of whom insist on their paigned on getting out of Afghanistan. all the public splutter of self-designated innocence. There is no official account- Once in office, trump appointed Mike serious people over the possible with- ability for these terrorist tactics: Pompeo to run the CIA. Pompeo set drawal of 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria, “A spokeswoman for the C.I.A. out to expand CIA killing, particularly the absence of real reaction to how would not comment, nor would with the death squads discreetly called badly it’s all going in Afghanistan is Afghans directly involved with the “strike forces” by the Times. This para- sort of amazing (or would be for any- forces. Afghan security officials in military escalation, primarily against one still capable of amazement.) Kabul tried to play down the level of the Taliban, was first reported in —Reader Supported News, January the forces’ autonomy and the nature October 2017, creating little stir. Six 3, 2019 of their abuses. When pressed with months later, the CIA still denied the details of specific cases, they did not story was true. In the fall of 2017, https://readersupportednews.org/ respond.” Pompeo expressed U.S. policy this way: opinion2/277-75/54260-rsn-afghani- And there is no evidence that these “We can’t perform our mission if stan-in-2019-fewer-us-troops-more-cia- terrorist tactics are doing any good in a we’re not aggressive. This is unfor- torture-and-killings country that has despised foreign giving, relentless. You pick the word. invaders for centuries. Virtually the Every minute, we have to be focused same U.S. terror tactics failed spectacu- on crushing our enemies.” In 2009, President larly in Vietnam. There the CIA At the same time, the Institute for mounted the infamous Phoenix Obama declared Public Policy had a different perspec- Program to terrorize South Vietnamese Afghanistan the “smart tive, offered by former State villages with CIA-run death squads Department career officer Matthew war” and decided to who “neutralized more than 80,000 Hoh, who served in Afghanistan. Hoh real or suspected Viet Cong.” escalate it without really had resigned in 2009 in protest against Once Osama bin Laden escaped the Obama administration escalation figuring out why. capture in 2001, the U.S. war in of the war there. Calling the 2017 CIA’s Obama relied Afghanistan lacked any clear mission. expanded death squads part of “the particularly on CIA The Bush administration and the mili- broader war campaign of the United tary shifted their attention to making States in the Muslim world,” Hoh drones to kill massive war on Iraq instead. Failing to disen- accurately predicted: numbers of people, gage sensibly from Afghanistan, the “This CIA program of using mostly civilians, U.S. let the war drift on mindlessly. In Afghan militias to conduct com- 2009, President Obama declared mando raids, the vast majority of ultimately to no useful Afghanistan the “smart war” and which will be used against civilians purpose. decided to escalate it without really despite what the CIA states, falls in figuring out why. Obama relied par- line with American plans to escalate

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 43

Environment ENVIRONMENT

Disaster Capitalism in Brazil Mining greed produces a horrific death toll By Vijay Prashad On January 25, 2019, a dam burst in Vale admitted in an internal document Men who never pay the town of Brumadinho, north of Rio that the dam was weak and that its col- Vale, a Brazilian firm whose market de Janeiro, Brazil. The dam was built lapse would cause a large loss of life. It capitalization is at $77.4 billion, is one of by the iron-ore company, Vale, to store mentioned the fact that in the sludge’s the world’s largest producers of high- residue after the iron ore had been path was the workers’ cafeteria. The quality iron ore. Last year, Vale extracted. Once the dam began to dam burst just after noon. Workers announced record profits from its sale crumble, it did not take long for its 13 were in that cafeteria eating lunch. of iron ore. The Chinese economy has million cubic meters of iron waste to They took the first brunt of the mud’s slowed down, which means Chinese sweep down onto the workers and into force. This is what had been predicted firms are more circumspect when it their town. by Vale’s study, which was leaked to comes to sourcing iron ore. Vale pro- Approximately 300 people have been the press after the disaster. duces low-impurity iron ore, which pro- killed in this disaster. Many more have It is also what Brazil’s Mining duces less pollution and allows steel been injured. Within four hours of the Agency had found last September. It mills to improve their blast furnace breach, the sludge had swept down into said that the dam had a “low risk of productivity. This is why Vale has seen the Paraopeba River, threatening to pol- rupture,” but that if the dam went, it an increase in its sales and its profits. lute the entire region’s water. would have a “strong impact” in terms Warnings about dam ruptures and other of loss of life and environmental dam- accidents were not going to interrupt Accidents that are not accidents age. The agency had obviously miscal- the flow of money into Vale’s coffers. It is difficult to focus attention on culated regarding the chance of rup- The Brazilian government has hast- these disasters, which are not really ture but had been correct in terms of ily gone after local-level managers, but disasters. On April 18, 2018, nine the impact. it has not touched senior management months before the dam was ruptured, including Fábio Schvartsman, one of

Aerial view of rail bridge taken down by a mudslide after the collapse of a dam at an iron-ore mine belonging to Brazil’s giant mining company Vale near the town of Brumadinho, state of Minas Gerias, southeastern Brazil (Photo: BNN)

44 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 the most powerful Brazilian business- stop its operations at the Brucutu mine, Canada’s ugly side men. Two years ago, the UN the second-largest in Brazil after Vale’s The firms know that. Franklimberg Environmental Program and the Carajás—the largest iron-ore mine in had been on the advisory board of Belo Norwegian foundation GRID-Arendal the world. But all this is temporary. Sun, a Canadian mining firm with its did a study of mine failures and found Vale knows that business will proceed tentacles in Brazil. Belo Sun is not the that most of them gave sufficient warn- once the tears have dried. only Canadian mining firm to operate ings and that these warnings could in Brazil. Most of those with their have led to prevention of the disasters. machines deep into Brazilian earth are “The tragedy,” they wrote in their The large corporations from Canada—Barrick Gold, Reunion study, “is that the warning signs were Gold, Kinross Gold, Jaguar Mining, either ignored or not recognized by have declared a war Largo Resources, Emerita Resources, under-resourced management.” It is against the planet, their Equinox Gold, Yamana Gold and these “under-resourced managers” machinery digging Leagold Mining Corporation. Along who often hold together the under- with the British firm Anglo American capitalized mines that are pushed hard deeper and deeper to and the Australian firm Mirabela Nickel, to produce more to increase the firm’s make mountains of these firms take a pause each time there overall profits. profit for the few as is a disaster and then proceed all guns Policy is not set at the level of the blaring into the sacrifice zones. mine, but from the boardrooms. No many millions of people If you are confused by Canada’s role one like Schvartsman, however, is going perish into starvation in the Lima Group that seeks to over- to pay the cost. People like him will and disorientation. throw the government in Venezuela, stand alongside the Brazilian President pause and read about the Canadian Jair Bolsonaro and cry crocodile tears. companies that are tearing South There will be no real reform of the sys- Not far from the Carajás mine, Vale America apart. tem, since any real reform would has vast concessions to extract copper, The Brazilian Solicitor General undermine the economic and political gold and manganese—putting it at André Mendonça went to the town of power of men like Schvartsman. odds with nature and the local resi- Brumadinho and said that Vale must dents, the Kayapo community. In 2015, Sacrifice zones change its behavior. Vale said that it the Kayapo community asked a profes- would cooperate with the authorities Brumadinho lies squarely in Brazil’s sor from the Federal University of Pará sacrifice zones. Living in these zones and it would provide support for the to measure the water in the Cateté families who had been affected. The are people who are being treated as River. The professor—Dr. Reginaldo disposable—people whose land is right noises have been made. There will Saboia de Paiva—found shockingly soon be silence. And then the sound, being destroyed as corporations drive elevated levels of iron, chromium, cop- their giant excavators to tear into the once more, of the engines from the per and nickel in the water. The pol- 793F CMD Caterpillar 240-ton trucks earth and to leave the soil polluted and luted water is what the Kayapo com- the landscape destroyed. The large cor- as they carry iron ore away from the munity must use, even as it poisons mine, away from the sacrifice zone. porations have declared a war against them. They live in a sacrifice zone. the planet, their machinery digging They are being sacrificed so that Vale —Common Dreams, February 5, deeper and deeper to make mountains can make its fabulous profits. 2019 of profit for the few as many millions The capacity of the Kayapo to take https://www.commondreams.org/ of people perish into starvation and views/2019/02/05/disaster-capitalism- disorientation. on Vale and the Brazilian state is negli- gible. President Bolsonaro has appoint- brazil-mining-greed-produces-horrific- The sacrifice zones are in every ed General Franklimberg Ribeiro de death-toll country, from the lands on which live Freitas to run the indigenous affairs Native Americans in North America to agency (FUNAI). Neither Bolsonaro Adivasis in central India. No tree is nor Franklimberg has any care for the There is money to be safe; no stream is to be left alive. survival of the Kayapo. Policy will sup- made, nature and people As long as the newspapers keep port the bulldozers and the heavy dig- be dammed. Brumadinho and Vale in the news, the gers, the mining and the agro-business corporations will keep their heads corporations. There is money to be down. Vale has already been forced to made, nature and people be dammed.

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 45

Incarceration Nation INCARCERATION NATION

Alleged Government Interference in Governor Cuomo’s Parole Denial A Letter to Friends and Supporters from Jalil A. Muntaqim

On December 11, 2018 I met with onment—especially after the negative Therefore, it is incumbent on friends the New York State Board of Parole for backlash from my co-defendant’s and supporters across the country and the tenth time. Once again, I was release—and Governor Cuomo’s pub- around the world to call, fax, text, denied parole, although my co-defen- lic comments, has made my fight for email, tweet, write and petition New dant had been granted release earlier in freedom a human rights issue. Having York State Governor Andrew M. the year. When my co-defendant was spent nearly twice as much time in Cuomo to grant my application to com- released, New York State Governor prison as Nelson Mandela, I have ful- mute the sentence to time served. We Andrew M. Cuomo, New York City filled every obligation and expectations, collectively need to let Governor Cuomo Mayor Bill DeBlasio, and New York as a model prisoner after 47-plus years know I will not be held hostage for his State Senator Gallivan each made pub- in prison, to be granted parole. political ambition and benefit. I ask that lic statements opposing the decision to Unfortunately, the laws governing New you join and actively support this cam- release him, siding with the New York York State parole procedures have been paign for my freedom. That you bring City Police Benevolent Association usurped by the political aspirations of this campaign to the attention of your (PBA). Governor Cuomo specifically governor Cuomo. It is alleged and affiliate organizations, faith-based insti- said that if he were on the parole believed he will seek the office of the tutions, progressive social groups, dem- board, “I would not have made that President in 2020, or seek to be the Vice ocratically and fair-minded elected offi- decision.” In essence, he poisoned the Presidential choice of the frontrunner. cials and activists, encouraging them to well, prohibiting me from obtaining a actively support this campaign. fair and impartial parole hearing. Ultimately, this campaign is a test of In anticipation of the possibility of In essence, he poisoned our collective will and ability to forge a being denied parole, on December 13, the well, prohibiting me national and international determina- 2018, I submitted to Governor tion to free our political prisoners. I Cuomo’s office an application to com- from obtaining a fair sincerely hope all of you who support mute the sentence to time served. and impartial parole the freedom of our political prisoners Recognizing the political dynamics hearing. will utilize every social media tech- surrounding my fight for freedom, it nique and tool available to disseminate has become necessary to put the onus information about this campaign and of my continued imprisonment at the Governor Cuomo’s political maneu- my fight for freedom. doorstep of the Governor. He has the vering should remind us of the “Willie For more information about my case check my authority and power to commute this Horton” fiasco when George H.W. website, www.freejalil.com. sentence and grant my immediate Bush used the horrendous crime of Communications to Governor Andrew M. release from prison. However, in order that released prisoner to scuttle his Cuomo’s office must refer to me as: to persuade Governor Cuomo to act opponent, Michael Dukakis’s bid for Anthony Bottom #77A4283 accordingly, a national and interna- the Presidency. As a counter measure Sullivan Correctional Facility Fallsburg, New York 12733-0116 tional campaign needs to be mounted. to such a fiasco, and to not be accused Write to: of being “soft on crime,” Governor As former Black Panther Party and The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo Cuomo will seek to scuttle any oppor- Black Liberation Army member, as well Governor of the State of New York as the co-founder of the National tunity for my release until after the Executive Chamber Jericho Movement (see www.thejericho- 2020 election. These nefarious political State Capital Building movement.com), my continued impris- machinations cannot be permitted. Albany, New York 12224 Hence, my Call: 1-518-474-8390 fight for free- Tweet: @NYGovCuomo dom is now a Email: http://www.governor.ny.gov/content/ human rights governor-contact-form political issue. —January 2019

46 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 Death Row Inmate Asks California Governor Newsom for Innocence Investigation By Kevin Cooper

Update: On February 22, Governor used to convict me was falsified. The blood was taken from a vial of blood Newsom issued an Executive Order documents will show I am innocent, drawn when I was arrested and planted ordering DNA testing on the additional could lead to the real killers and, hope- on that shirt. The test result was with- five items Kevin refers to below. Death fully, uncover who in the sheriff’s drawn after its import became known, penalty abolitionists continue to press for department framed me. and the judge refused to grant another. a full innocence investigation and the In my February 2016 clemency peti- The vial later was found to have my formation of an independent Innocence tion to Governor Brown, I asked for an blood and the blood of at least one Commission, like ones set up in other “innocence investigation” and listed unknown person. I want to see the states that have led to exonerations. the type of documents I need the courts chain of custody for that tan T-shirt On his way out of office, Governor to review: one showing what happened that went missing from the sheriff’s Jerry Brown ordered limited DNA test- to a blue short-sleeve shirt with blood department evidence locker for many ing in my capital murder case, but it will on it that was found near the crime months prior to trial. take the broader investigation I request- scene and disappeared in the San Also, I would ask for any documents ed if I’m going to have a meaningful Bernardino Sheriff’s Department’s relating to a sheriff’s department opportunity to prove my innocence. custody; and another proving Midge attempt to intimidate a witness into Old cases like mine require substan- Carroll, warden of the California not testifying in my 2004 habeas hear- tial investigations to prove innocence. Institution for Men from which I had ing about seeing three strangers with Numerous judges, others in the legal escaped, called the sheriff’s department blood on them in a neighborhood bar community and investigative report- to correct the prosecution’s false claim near the crime scene the night of the ers have concluded that the San that crime-scene shoe prints were from Ryen-Hughes murders. The witness Bernardino County Sheriff’s shoes sold exclusively to prisons. (The testified anyway. shoes were available at retail stores.) Department framed me in 1983 for a Some testing was done, but testing Some jurors said this claim helped lead crime I did not commit—the horrific was withheld from tiny blood spots them to find me guilty. murders of Doug and Peggy Ryen and found near a slightly larger blood spot, their daughter, Jessica, 10, and of their the only piece of evidence that suppos- neighbor, Christopher Hughes, 11. edly linked me to the Ryens’ house. My Josh Ryen, 8, survived and said from ...the San Bernardino lawyer believes the large blood spot his emergency room bed the killers County Sheriff’s was planted; a test for EDTA on the were three white men. I am Black. Department framed me larger spot (marked as exhibit A-41) As Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of was denied by the judge in 2004. Appeals Judge William Fletcher put it in 1983 for a crime Continued on page 61 in 2009, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s I did not commit... Department “manipulated and planted evidence in order to convict Cooper. In the course of their investigation, the I want documents relating to testing sheriff’s office personnel discounted, done on incriminating cigarette butts disregarded, and discarded evidence in the Ryens’ station wagon, and docu- pointing to other killers.” Finding out ments from the Scripps Research what happened to that evidence that Institute that initially concluded there was planted, disregarded and discount- were high levels of the blood preserva- ed, and testing what evidence might tive ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid FREE still exist, is crucial to show I did not (EDTA) in a spot of my blood found commit the “Chino Hills” murders. with Doug Ryen’s blood on a medium- The sheriff’s department has numer- size, tan T-shirt believed to be worn by KEVIN ous documents never given to my law- the killer. I wear a size large. yers that will show how exonerating The EDTA results, presented in information was ignored and evidence my 2004 habeas hearing, proved the COOPER

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 47 Prison Report Mass Media Chose to Ignore By Adam Johnson

The United States, by all metrics, And what images did papers use to The narrative being advanced by has one of the cruelest prison systems convey these luxurious “steak” din- the Post and others here is simply an in the world. ners? Professionally done stock photos updated version of this. By reinforcing In addition to having 25 percent of of steaks from gourmet restaurants— caricatures of prisoners living it up the world’s prison population (with like a “flat iron topped with hotel but- while others suffer, these outlets rein- just five percent of the world’s people,) ter from St. Anselm Restaurant in forced deeply racialized notions of U.S. prisons use tortuous solitary con- Washington” in the Post (price: “welfare.” finement, tolerate widespread sexual vio- $24.00.) My guess is the stories were fed by lence, host massive racial disparities, and If they showed what actual “steak prison guards. After all, they started routinely abuse children, among other dinners” look like in prison—think coming out less than 48 hours after the human rights violations. Salisbury, not filet mignon—it might release of a federal report that showed The idea that the U.S. is “too soft” accidentally solicit pity towards people rampant abuse and sexual violence in to people in prison is something even in prison. federal prisons—including 524 cases at right-wingers rarely bother to argue Numerous studies have shown pris- the very same Coleman prison. anymore. on food is barely edible and causes high Too many outlets overlooked this So it may come as a shock that rates of illness. “Lapses in food safety story in favor of inflammatory click- ostensibly mainstream outlets like USA have made U.S. prisoners six times bait. Clickbait that’ll soon be forgotten Today, the Washington Post, the Atlanta more likely to get a foodborne illness after these guards have gotten their Journal Constitution, and NBC than the general population,” The back pay, and the prisoners in question News thought it newsworthy to report Atlantic reported in 2017. Indeed, one go back to eating barely edible that prisoners at Coleman federal pris- of the primary demands for last fall’s Nutraloaf the other 364 days a year. on in Wildwood, Florida got a routine multi-state prison strike was for higher —Truthdig, February 3, 2019 quality and more nutritious food. holiday meal—steak—that was slightly https://www.truthdig.com/articles/ above their normal, bottom-of-the- It gets worse. the-harrowing-prison-report-mass- barrel provisions. “Adding to the staffers’ bitter feel- media-chose-to-ignore/ This “outrage” was contrasted with ings,” NBC added, “the working prison guards not receiving paychecks inmates were still drawing government due to President Donald Trump’s paychecks for their prison jobs, which “government shutdown.” How dare include painting buildings, cooking those hardened criminals live it up, the meals, and mowing lawns.” stories seemed to ask, while correction NBC didn’t note that prisoners “Lapses in food safe- officers work for free? make slave wages—23 cents to $1.40 Worse were the racist stereotypes an hour. The guards, prison reform ty have made U.S. about greedy, lazy prisoners—like expert John Pfaff notes by contrast, will the Post’s headline, which quoted a pris- get full back pay after “the showdown” prisoners six times oner saying “I Been Eatin’ Like a Boss.” ends. more likely to get a The quote was allegedly taken from For decades, the single uniting a prisoner’s personal mail by a guard theme in white supremacist propagan- foodborne illness and selectively leaked to the Post— da has been the idea that African which not only published it without Americans live high off the govern- than the general any context, but led the whole story ment hog while “working class” whites with it, African-American vernacular struggle to survive. It was the subtext of population,” and all. Ronald Reagan’s infamous 1976 Is it standard for guards to comb speech accusing a “strapping young though prisoners’ personal mail to leak buck” of using food stamps to buy to newspapers? T-bone steak.

48 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 Women Politicals of the American Empire By Linda Ford

There have been many women dis- which fly in the face of civil rights or put in black site prisons, beaten and senters who have been jailed by the constitutional law. We’ve seen the use of tortured. When she was finally put on American government as political pris- the grand jury as bullying tactic, whole- trial, she was a broken woman, and had oners. There are women in jail now sale surveillance, sweeps to arrest dis- only to be disposed of by a kangaroo who are undergoing punishment as senters, and entrapment to create “ter- court—sentenced to 86 years at perceived enemies of the American rorists” when real ones do not exist. Carswell. She has been visited by Empire. Two such women are nuclear Pro-Palestinian activists have been Pakistan’s Consul General in Houston, resister Elizabeth McAlister and alleged victimized, along with young Muslim who has complained to the U.S. Justice “terrorist” Aafia Siddiqui. When I women who have been candidates for Department about Siddiqui’s continued wrote about Pakistani-born Aafia entrapment. In 2013, Rasmea Odeh, brutal treatment. She says Siddiqui suf- Siddiqui as one of the “women politi- deputy executive director of the Arab- fers “immense physical and sexual tor- cals (not) in the news” eight years ago, American Network, was indicted by the ment.” Pakistani and American author- she had just begun her 86-year sen- U.S. government for “immigration ities all say they are looking into the tence at Carswell Federal Prison in fraud” when she applied for citizenship. matter, but nothing has happened. One Texas for allegedly assaulting U.S. sol- Although the State Department was Pakistani official’s statement was that diers of the Empire in Afghanistan. well aware of the circumstances of her the U.S. treats its prisoners “humanely Now 46, she recently appealed to moving to the U.S., Israel Lobbyists and in a manner that complies with our Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan worked to get her arrested. Caught in a human rights obligations.” Indeed. for help: “I want to get out of prison, “security sweep” in Israel in 1969, she Anti-nuclear prisoners my imprisonment in the U.S. is illegal was—although innocent—imprisoned The Empire applies its “humane” as I was kidnapped and taken to the for a supermarket bombing. During her treatment to more than its accused U.S….” Dr. Siddiqui was accused of ten years in Israel’s jails, she was tor- Muslim “terrorists.” Women of the being a would-be assassin and an Al tured and raped. After coming to the anti-nuclear Plowshares movement, Qaeda terrorist. But she was the one U.S. in 1994, she became an activist for who was grievously wounded in the Arab-American women, and found stomach. She was the one whose herself jailed again. She was deported in youngest child was killed when she was September of 2017. In 2015, Asia taken, “disappeared” in Pakistan, and Siddiqui and Noelle Velentzas were her other two children imprisoned sep- arrested in New York City by the FBI’s arately for years. She was the one who Joint Terrorism Task Force, and was beaten, raped, tortured and kept in charged with conspiracy to “use a solitary in black site prisons of the weapon of mass destruction.” They American Empire. Her “crime” was were skillfully entrapped by an FBI being a doctor in Boston who was a informant, never planning or even Muslim activist, and who, through a thinking about bombings until the series of unfortunate and skewed con- agent suggested they should. They await nections, ended up on Attorney their trial. The climate of fear existing General Ashcroft’s “watchlist.” For her in America, along with “terrorism” “crime,” she had to endure the conse- charges needing no habeas corpus or quences of an extreme anti-“terrorist”/ rules of evidence, mean no justice and anti-Muslim era which began with the no sanity for Muslim women caught by September 11, 2001 bombings. the U.S. “justice” system. Crimes against Muslims globally, and As a “terrorist” enemy of the Empire immediate repression of Muslims with- and its soldiers, Aafia Siddiqui had no in the U.S., although not starting then, chance at all. She was mistakenly Pakistani demonstrators hold pictures of Aafia greatly intensified after 9/11. The FBI, in Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist who is currently accused initially. She was “disappeared” serving an 86 year prison term in the U.S. after its zeal to root out Arab “terrorists,” has in Pakistan by helpful agents, and when being found guilty of attempted murder of a U.S. been involved in questionable activities, her true story began to emerge, she was military officer in Afghanistan in 2008.

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 49 who bear witness against weapons Latin American death squads. Ann “Harrisburg 7,” charged with conspir- threatening potential annihilation of Tiffany and Nancy Gwin of Syracuse, ing to raid federal offices in order to the planet, are also considered “terror- both served six months at Danbury for bomb underground conduits—and to ist” threats. Elizabeth McAlister, for- “illegally entering” military bases, and kidnap Secretary of State Henry mer nun and widow of anti-nuclear shining light on the Empire. Mary Anne Kissinger. They had kidded about activist Philip Berrigan, at age 73, is in Grady Flores (of Ithaca) got a year for doing that in letters, but J. Edgar jail in Georgia for her part in an anti- anti-drone action, and very busy anti- Hoover was not amused. The govern- nuclear action: Kings Bay (GA) Empire activist Kathy Kelly has had four ment eventually had to downgrade the Plowshares, carried out on April 4, stints in federal prison for protesting charges to anti-draft actions. McAlister 2018. Seven stalwarts, three of whom against the death and destruction brought and Berrigan both left their orders and were women—McAlister, Martha by unmanned bomber drones in the married in 1973. Jonah House was Hennesy of New York City and Clare Middle East. Women who resist the omi- founded by Elizabeth McAlister and Grady of Ithaca—entered the naval nous nuclear arms threat of the United her husband in Baltimore, as one of a base which houses Trident submarines States can receive particularly stiff sen- number of “resistance communities” armed with nuclear warheads. They tences, as “terrorist” threats to govern- begun in the ’70s; and was, and is, a were there to commemorate the 50th ment property and national security. base and training ground for civil dis- anniversary of Martin Luther King’s obedience and anti-nuclear actions. assassination. Their banners included King’s “The ultimate logic of racism is Such activists provide Plowshares genocide.” They smeared the base’s On Thanksgiving morning 1983, the logo with human blood. way too much “Plowshares 7” entered the Griffiss Air And they carried with them indict- transparency for the Force Base in Rome, New York. They ments of the U.S. government, American Empire. hammered dents into and spilled blood President Trump and the base com- on a B-52, there on alert, armed with mander Brian Lepine, for war crimes. nuclear weapons. They had to wait out- They were charged with the felonies of In part inspired by Catholic Worker side over an hour, singing and march- conspiracy and destruction of govern- founder Dorothy Day, priests Daniel ing with their banner before security ment property. Clare Grady and and Philip Berrigan began a movement came to arrest them. The “7” included Elizabeth McAlister were jailed, and to beat swords into plowshares by tak- four women—Jacqueline Allen (of McAlister remains in jail today. ing on the American nuclear arms (mil- Hartford, Connecticut), Kathleen According to nukeresister.com, itary and corporate) juggernaut. Rumpf (of Marlboro, New York,) Clare McAlister is in prison to fight the Women—for the most part Catholic Grady (then 25, of Ithaca,) and in her Empire: “We resist militarism that has nuns—were enthusiastic participants first Plowshares action, Elizabeth employed deadly violence to enforce from the beginning. Sister Anne Mcalister. Their judge decided the global domination. …The weapons Montgomery took part in six Plowshares defendants could not use a defense from one Trident have the capacity to anti-nuclear actions including the first, addressing the “imminence of the end life as we know it on planet Earth.” along with four men (with the two harm” of the weapons because they did Such activists provide way too much Berrigan brothers,) and Molly Rush, in “acts of destruction” to government transparency for the American Empire. 1980 in King of Prussia (Pennsylvania.) property. He sentenced them to federal The U.S. considers those who object Montgomery spent 11 weeks in jail in prison: two years for Rumpf, Allen and to its global empire with its drones, King of Prussia; she was indicted in Grady and three for McAlister. bombs, universal surveillance and sup- 2009 at age 83 for her final action— Daughter Frida Berrigan has said that port for fellow oppressive nations— Disarm NOW Plowshares in Bangor her family has paid a price for her par- whether in the Middle East or Latin (Washington.) Sister Montgomery was ents’ fight against nuclear weapons: America—as potential terrorists. So trained in civil disobedience at the they were separated from each other or women who protest against the School of McAlister/Berrigan Jonah House. their children for a total of 11 years. the Americas (SOA) or unmanned drone Sister Elizabeth McAlister was an art The work continues for Plowshares attacks from U.S. bases are arrested and history professor at Marymount women. Through the 1980s and 90s jailed. Since the ’80s, women protesters College when she met Father Philip and beyond, they have been jailed by have been jailed from six to 15 months Berrigan and was inspired by him to the Clinton, Bush (both,) Obama and for speaking out against the SOA, an become an activist. Such activism led Trump administrations—administra- American institution, which has trained to them becoming two of the tions which all featured massive nuclear

50 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 build-ups. Sisters Jackie Hudson, worked, mind you—at the end of ist threats because, like Aafia Siddiqui, Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert spent January, and a trial date will be set. they are part of a group deemed an years in jail for, as Gilbert said, “sym- McAlister and her fellow protesters enemy race; or considered terrorist bolically disarming America’s weapons were charged because they dare to resist threats because, like Elizabeth of mass destruction.” After 2001 such militarism that employs “deadly vio- McAlister, they resist and expose women would be treated as terrorists. lence to enforce global domination.” America’s global domination—such Sister Megan Rice, 82, for her part in Elizabeth McAlister, in jail since women will be made political prisoners the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant April, remains steadfast, modest and of the Empire. (Tennessee) action of 2012, got three unassuming. She hesitates to give inter- To learn more about America’s years as a “violent offender.” Elizabeth views. She did write after her arrest women political prisoners, please consult McAlister was jailed for the Kings Bay about why she resists the Empire’s my new book Women Politicals in action in April. She was charged under weapons: “We came to Kings Bay America. Georgia state law, according to nukere- Submarine Base animated by the Linda Ford is a retired history profes- sister.org, for misdemeanor criminal absurd conviction that we could make trespass, but also for two felonies: pos- sor, living in Madison New York. She is some impact on slowing if not ending, the author of Iron-Jawed Angels: The session of tools to commit a crime and the mad rush to the devastation of our interference with government property. Suffrage Militancy of the National magnificent planet.” Such sentiments, Woman’s Party, and is currently finish- The defense team has mounted a such absurd convictions, that anyone defense based on the Religious Freedom ing her new book, ‘Women Politicals’: can interfere in the Empire’s global From Mother Jones to Lynne Stewart. Restoration Act, that the protesters destruction, have to be punished. Such were acting “from privacy of conscience female dissenters have to be jailed and —CounterPunch, January 10, 2019 rooted in their faith.” The judge will silenced. There should be no more https://www.counterpunch. decide on that—and never has any sort silence surrounding America’s women org/2019/01/10/women-politicals-of- of defense based on moral grounds ever politicals. Whether considered terror- the-american-empire/

Life Imprisonment For Profit Is the Crime By Ted Kelly

When Pennsylvania Governor Tom tors, who are responsible for the smug- copied by prison authorities, thereby Wolf ordered an unprecedented state- gling of illicit drugs into facilities. negating any pretense of the right to wide lockdown of prisons last summer, Despite these revelations, the private counsel, as outlined in the Sixth the state’s Department of Corrections Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. claimed that the crisis was prompted already signed a $4 million contract Moreover, prisoners are never noti- by prison staff becoming sick from with Smart Communications, a corpo- fied when their outbound mail has illicit drugs somehow smuggled into ration that profits from mass incarcer- been opened or rejected. Grounds for state facilities. It was just a coincidence, ation by acting as an expensive middle- rejection are sometimes as simple as the authorities said, that the lockdown man for all prisoner correspondence. writing the recipient’s first initial was ordered in the midst of a national Currently, all prisoner mail in instead of the full name. More com- strike by prisoners to demand improved Pennsylvania must be forwarded to the monly, letters are sent back by Smart conditions and pay for their labor. third-party facility in Florida where the Communications without any indica- Now, over six months later, mail is opened and photocopied. The tion of the reason why. Pennsylvania authorities in Harrisburg facsimiles are then returned to the have admitted that toxicology reports respective prisons in Pennsylvania. Lockdown measures persist showed only one prison staff employee This costly process has caused prison- In Frackville State Correctional was exposed to anything resembling ers to receive mail as late as two months Facility in central Pennsylvania, the illegal drugs. Multiple prisoners in var- after correspondence was sent. It also lobby and visiting room look much the ious corrections institutions across the poses serious constitutional issues, as same today as they did last July. Rows state have claimed that it is the guards correspondence between prisoners and of vending machines that were previ- themselves, not prisoners or their visi- their lawyers is also opened and photo- ously stocked with snacks and drinks

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 51 for visitors to purchase and consume parole for a crime he didn’t commit. He State Senator Sharif Street and State with their loved ones stand empty, six has led a boycott of the new third-party House Representative Jason Dawkins months after their contents were raid- mailing system, as well as against the have recently proposed bills, SB942 ed by corrections officers for “safety draconian new visitation policy. As he and HB135, respectively, that would reasons.” No prisoners have been has said previously, “I’m not going to eliminate “life without parole” sen- allowed to take photographs with their subject my grandchildren to this.” tencing in Pennsylvania, thereby visitors since the lockdown, either. (“Inmates in Pennsylvania prisons enabling thousands of inmates, includ- While these lockdown measures were launch boycott of prison profiteers,” ing Arroyo, the ability to appeal for supposed to be lifted after 90 days, just Workers World, September 25, 2018.) parole. While Arroyo is represented by in time for inmates to break bread and The continued crackdown on pris- the Innocence Project and is on a mis- take pictures with their families for the oners’ rights after the 2018 lockdown is sion to clear his name, he is meanwhile fall and winter holidays, the state arbi- an act of “deliberate maliciousness, dedicated to making sure no one is trarily extended the ban. Photos and imposed on whimsical pretenses,” says sentenced to death by life in prison. food won’t be allowed back into visitors’ Arroyo. “They could have addressed “Twenty-five birthdays, 25 room until sometime this Spring, the alleged issue like any other time Christmases, 25 New Year’s Eves. Twenty- authorities say. And the microwave that this cropped up.” five of a lot of things. If there’s somebody was in the visiting room to heat up com- Arroyo has suggested that if prison who could say, ‘Woe is me,’ I’d say I’m missary food items like small frozen piz- authorities were truly concerned about pretty qualified.” Instead, Arroyo is intent zas has been permanently removed. drug smuggling and didn’t just use the on freeing himself and freeing everyone lockdown as a way to disrupt the strike subject to the form of modern slavery Prison activist for 25 years called mass incarceration. speaks out activities in Pennsylvania prisons, they could have easily used existing proto- “For that reason, I am calling on “They’ve made the innocent pay the cols to address such events. There is everyone to contact their local leaders piper for everyone else,” says Bryant already a “two-strike” policy where and representatives to support SB942 Arroyo, folding his hands in front of individuals who are caught passing and HB135. This is an all-hands-on-deck him. “Including my family.” contraband face the indefinite suspen- moment. I want better for everyone else Arroyo is an indefatigable 47-year- sion of their visitation rights. The because I want better for myself.” old prison activist. Mumia Abu-Jamal third-party mailing system could like- Arroyo also expressed solidarity and once dubbed him “the world’s first wise have been imposed in specific support for Philadelphia rapper Meek jailhouse environmentalist” for his suc- cases of misconduct, Arroyo says. Mill, who was recently a victim of the cessful campaign to cancel a $100 mil- “I don’t need to tell you what the “capricious and arbitrary” U.S. justice lion plan to build a toxic coal plant near threat of no visits means for lifers,” system. Mill was released on “extraor- the Frackville facility. Twenty-five years says Arroyo, who speaks often of his dinary relief” after his arresting offi- ago he was sentenced to life without inexhaustible love for his daughter, cer’s history of rampant abuse and Genesis Hernandez, whom he had to evidence tampering was revealed. Since

Bryant Arroyo “raise from between the bars.” then, Mill has voiced support for pris- “There are times I think nobody’s on reform movements. Arroyo says paying attention except her. But when- this is the perfect campaign for Mill ever there is a moment that, for what- and other prominent musicians and ever reason, you feel alone or aban- activists to join. doned or trapped in an uncomfortable “Meek, it’s time to put your money situation, you are given a reminder of where your mouth is.” the people God has given you.” Meanwhile, Arroyo continues to try The sound of his daughter’s laugh- to support his fellow inmates and be a ter, Arroyo says, always gives him that good father behind bars. In the 25 reminder. years since he was unjustly incarcerated, Bryant has become a grandfather. End prison slavery—aka “life He tells stories of how he had to meet without parole” his daughter behind a bulletproof win- Arroyo’s newest campaign is dedi- dow for five years before her 18th cated to freeing all lifers from prisons. birthday—obvious retaliation against

52 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 the Arroyo family because of his advo- Indiana Case Shines Spotlight on Solitary Confinement cacy for other prisoners. By Olivia Covington He relates how photos of him and his daughter would sometimes be confiscated by male prison guards. A dis- Twenty-eight years. meaningful nor non-pretextual, as gusted but faultlessly calm Arroyo once That’s how much time, in total, required under Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. retorted to guards: “I’m not going to Aaron Isby-Israel has served in solitary 460 (1983). Instead, DOC staffers dem- tell her why you’re taking the photos confinement within the Indiana onstrated a “personal animus” toward away. You tell her why.” An abashed Department of Correction since his Isby and “showed a reckless or callous guard returned the photos. 1989 incarceration. Some of that time indifference to his due process rights.” Arroyo also decries the sexist treat- has been broken up by stints in general Magnus-Stinson’s December 19, ment of female visitors who are forced population, but Isby has consistently 2018 ruling was an about-face from to remove their bras and undergar- served his time in administrative segre- her earlier grant of summary judgment ments in order to pass through security gation at the Wabash Valley and to the DOC defendants on Isby’s checkpoints. “It’s cruel. It’s unusual. Westville correctional facilities since Eighth and 14th Amendment claims. It’s perverted,” Arroyo says. October 2006. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in “No matter glass, concrete or steel. No one denies that Isby has made May 2017 affirmed the lower court’s Nothing can hold back my love for my bad, even criminal, choices. He was ruling on the Eighth Amendment daughter and her children. I con- first incarcerated at the Pendleton question but reversed for trial on the quered. We conquered.” Correctional Facility for a conviction due process claim. Shortly before our last meeting, of robbery with serious bodily injury, That’s when Dan Kelley and a team Arroyo’s cell was shaken down by pris- and his initial move to solitary was of his colleagues at Faegre Baker on guards. Among other property they premised on a 1990 incident in which Daniels were appointed as counsel for arbitrarily confiscated, corrections offi- he stabbed two correctional officers Isby, and “striking testimony” from cers took down the photos and inspira- and killed their canine. DOC caseworker Charles Dugan came tional posters he’d hung on the walls. But what is disputed is whether Isby out. According to Dugan’s deposition, His last cellmate was transferred to a should have remained in segregated the 30-day review process consisted of different facility and no one has replaced housing as the decades passed. Though him simply changing the names and him yet. It’s the first time Arroyo has DOC argued in Aaron Isby-Israel v. James dates on a letter informing inmates been alone in a cell for over 25 years. Wynn, et al., 2:12-cv-00116, that Isby’s that their restricted housing status would not be changed, without any “It feels foreign and awkward. It’s ongoing non-cooperation with and hostility toward prison staff justified his investigation into the inmates’ behav- weird, being alone,” Arroyo says. He ior or records. prides himself on never having been placement in solitary, his counsel, and thrown in the hole (solitary confinement,) now a federal judge, believe DOC has not That deposition stood in stark con- even after a quarter of a century. He has a sufficiently reviewed Isby’s behavior over trast to an affidavit earlier submitted monk’s calmness and the decades-long the years to determine if his continued by defendant Beverly Gilmore, who foresight of what Mumia calls a “long- segregation was warranted. said DOC caseworkers review inmate distance revolutionary.” Being alone, he Specifically, Indiana Southern files and speak with other staffers to thinks about solitary confinement and the District Chief Judge Jane E. Magnus- determine if prisoners can be returned effect it has on prisoners. Stinson ruled last month that DOC’s to general population. But Kelley said DOC did not try to discredit Dugan, “My wall is barren now. And I don’t required 30-day reviews of Isby’s segregation were not sufficient to satisfy and other caseworkers agreed with his have any tape to put the stuff back up. testimony. But that’s okay. Because I’m getting his 14th Amendment due process out of here, too. Slowly but surely.” rights. Now DOC must develop a plan Further, Dugan testified that to transfer the inmate back to general Gilmore had trained him to conduct Free Bryant Arroyo! Free Mumia! population at Westville, a result Isby’s what the 7th Circuit described as “per- Free em’ all! counsel said was more than expected. functory” reviews. What’s more, Kelley —Workers World, January 27, 2018 said Isby went without a negative con- https://www.workers. “Perfunctory” performance duct report for at least two periods of org/2019/01/27/life-imprisonment-for- The issue, Magnus-Stinson said, is four years, evidence that his behavior profit-is-the-crime/ that Isby’s 30-day reviews were neither did not support continued segregation.

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 53 With Dugan’s testimony part of the strength Harris said is present in Isby. While due process claims like Isby’s record, Kelley said DOC switched its Indeed, Daniel Greenfield, a solitary are common, Greenfield said it’s also argument to an assertion that volun- confinement appellate litigation fellow common for segregated prisoners to tary 90-day reviews, rather than the with the MacArthur Justice Center at raise Eighth Amendment claims argu- required 30-day reviews, were the criti- Northwestern University Pritzker ing they are not receiving adequate cal reviews that must meet due process School of Law, said research shows the mental healthcare. Despite that, he said requirements. But Magnus-Stinson opposite is usually true: that is, pro- prisons continue to isolate inmates for rejected the argument switch and longed isolation causes or exacerbates extended periods of time because soli- found that the 30-day reviews did not mental illnesses. tary confinement is widely viewed as meet the Hewitt standard. an effective means of controlling pris- As a remedy, Kelley’s team sought on populations. damages and asked the court to order in Washington, DOC to follow its internal policy requir- Colorado and Reform efforts ing legitimate reviews of inmates’ place- The problem with that theory, ment in restrictive housing. But Mississippi—states Greenfield said, is that research now Magnus-Stinson, expressing doubt as to where solitary confine- shows that isolating inmates as a puni- whether the department would follow ment reforms have led to tive measure does little to improve that order, instead ordered Isby’s release prison safety. He pointed to another into the general population at Westville. fewer prisoners serving amicus brief in the same 1st Circuit In response, the department pro- time in isolation— case in which former corrections direc- posed a plan by which Isby would be assaults against prison tors maintain that solitary can actually transferred to a general population increase prison violence. unit at the New Castle Correctional staff fell by 40 to 50 per- “Amici submit that prolonged isola- Facility where he could participate in cent and assaults against tion has proven dangerous and ineffec- the Striving Toward a New Direction, other prisoners fell by 50 tive, whereas alternative prison manage- or STAND, transitional program. ment methods have successfully elimi- Kelley declined to comment on the to 70 percent. nated prolonged solitary confinement proposed plan to remove Isby from while decreasing prison violence,” the solitary confinement because it is still Greenfield pointed to an amicus amici wrote in a November brief in Jwainus under review. brief filed in a 1st Circuit Court of Perry v. Luis S. Spencer, et al., 16-2444. A DOC spokesman declined to com- Appeals solitary confinement case, in Jane Henegar, executive director of ment on Isby’s case or the department’s which a group of psychologists and the American Civil Liberties Union of administrative segregation practices, psychiatrists wrote about research Indiana, noted courts have upheld the and the Indiana Attorney General’s demonstrating the potential psycho- use of administrative segregation for Office, which represents DOC in the logical damage of prisoner isolation. smaller durations and specific, targeted litigation, also declined to comment. The research argues that without reasons. But nationwide, Henegar said “meaningful human contact” or “posi- the ACLU has filed litigation challeng- Mental health risks tive environmental exposure,” inmates ing the perceived overuse and misuse As a sociologist who has followed in solitary can begin experiencing of inmate isolation. and assisted in Isby’s litigation, David insomnia, depression, paranoia, hallu- In Indiana, for example, the 2008 Harris, managing director of the Charles cinations and/or rage, among other case of Indiana Protection and Advocacy Hamilton Houston Institute for Race mental health problems. Additionally, Services Commission, et al. v. and Justice at Harvard Law School, said the amici argued prolonged isolation Commissioner, Indiana Department of he viewed Isby’s time in isolation as a can slow cognitive abilities. Correction, 1:08-cv-01317, challenged “second sentence.” There have been “Placing someone for more than a the use of solitary as an Eighth times when Isby’s physical health dete- few hours or a few days in a tiny box Amendment violation. The result was a riorated because of his isolation, Harris does not do anyone any good,” 2012 judgment in favor of the ACLU said, though he praised the inmate for Greenfield said. “I think almost cer- clients and a ruling that the plaintiffs staying focused on his legal fight. tainly that it has a negative impact on were entitled to “the delivery of mental It’s unusual for inmates in solitary that which it’s designed to improve, healthcare which is within the bounds confinement to maintain the mental which is prison safety.” of the Eighth Amendment.”

54 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 That ruling opened the door for the Stunning Turn of Events has Hope for Mumia’s ACLU of Indiana to begin working with DOC on prison mental health Freedom Rising reforms. The result, Henegar said, has Adapted From an Article By Noelle Hanrahan at PrisonRadio.org been the development of new program- ming designed to provide inmates with Shortly after the discovery of six cent man and deny him any fairness in the mental health services they need. previously unreleased boxes of files the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Similarly, in their amicus brief, the and other materials from Mumia Abu- courts must be a complex process. former corrections directors cite statis- Jamal’s original 1982 trial, the You read that right. If Tucker’s rul- tics showing that in Washington, Philadelphia District Attorney has ing that Castille was fundamentally Colorado and Mississippi—states revealed that the storage unit con- biased in violation of the Pennsylvania where solitary confinement reforms tained an additional 100-plus boxes. Judicial Canons is upheld, then, hun- have led to fewer prisoners serving These boxes have not yet been invento- dreds of others similarly victimized by time in isolation—assaults against ried and could contain key evidence in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice prison staff fell by 40 to 50 percent and many other cases. Ronald Castille could get relief. Ok, so assaults against other prisoners fell by Mumia’s attorneys have access to why is Krasner appealing? Justice 50 to 70 percent. The difference, amici the first set of six boxes, but there has requires that the status quo is rocked. argue, is that prison directors in those been no report, yet, on what evidence And guess what, Larry Krasner? Ronald states are training their employees and has been found and whether it can be Castille, good friend of the Fraternal inmates to avoid behavior that could used to argue for a new trial. Order of Police, is part of the prob- land an offender in solitary before that lem. You may have cozied up to him, behavior occurs. At the same time the District Attorney was informing the court of this serious and put him on your transition advi- Greenfield said he has noticed in prosecutorial misconduct, they also sory board, but Lord have mercy, he is recent years a shift toward courts and filed a notice to appeal Judge Leon part of the problem. prisons crediting research like that Tucker’s late December order reinstat- This follows in the wake of the U.S. cited by amicus in the 1st Circuit case. ing Mumia’s direct appeals before the Supreme Court condemnation of Even so, Henegar said, more work Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Castille and the Pennsylvania Court needs to be done to ensure inmates system for a fundamental violation of a aren’t harmed by unnecessary segrega- Remember, this order was the very defendant’s due process rights. Ron tion. first time in 37 years that a Philadelphia judge had granted Mumia relief. The Castille was determined in all of his “We need to look at all aspects of order District Attorney Larry Krasner cases to be the prosecutor, the judge, that system, including the tendency to is trying to block, is literally a path to and then if allowed, the execution- misuse and overuse solitary confine- freedom that would allow Mumia to er. His exact words, which are echoed ment,” she said. reopen his direct state appeals. throughout the Pennsylvania judicia- —The Indiana Lawyer, January 23, Krasner’s reason: This ruling opens the ry were “I know I could be fair.” Sure. 2019 door for relief—not just for Mumia, Now why is Mumia’s case so impor- https://www.theindianalawyer.com/ but hundreds of others. To quote the tant? “Philadelphia is up south.” It is articles/49233-indiana-case-shines- DA’s press statement of January 30, ground zero for over-incarceration spotlight-on-solitary-confinement 2019, there will be “sweeping and, in and injustice. In Philadelphia, Mumia our view, problematic, implications for Abu-Jamal’s case is the proverbial a large volume of cases” if relief is “third rail.” If he gets relief—it is a granted for Mumia Abu-Jamal. In later whole new ballgame. Power will have interviews Krassner said that Mumia’s fundamentally shifted. Securing his case is “complex and nuanced,” in an freedom will involve revealing and effort to justify his delaying action— exposing decades of police, prosecuto- appealing Tucker’s ruling—which will rial, and judicial corruption. add years onto Mumia’s appeals pro- That is exactly what is at stake. Here cess. The “complexity” Krasner cites is the current context: must come from the fact that to indict, convict, frame up, sentence and keep Larry Krasner, a civil rights attor- incarcerated for over 37 years an inno- ney, a big “L” liberal, was popularly

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 55 elected to be District Attorney in a number and of a different class, they not be silent when a self-styled “progres- landslide, and took office in early 2018. are also desperate to maintain “busi- sive” sides with the reactionary and rac- His mandate—change the culture of ness as usual” at the Juanita Kidd ist fraternal order of police to continue injustice in Philadelphia. Criminal Justice Center. They are com- an ignoble and corrupt frame-up. That The Philadelphia Police force, 6600 pletely “comfortable” with the system his office has implemented many positive members strong, has grown fat on designed to use poor bodies as fuel. It changes makes it all the more important decades of brutality and corruption. is shocking how judges and lawyers in that he hears loud and clear that this This is still Frank Rizzo’s depart- that building justify this deeply dis- maneuver is unacceptable. Free Mumia. ment. Day in and day out, scandal after turbing system of grinding punish- This is not over by a long shot. It will not scandal, appear on the front pages of ment that is routinely rocked by police be until he is free.” —Abolitionist Law the Philadelphia newspapers. It is and prosecutorial scandals. Did it real- Center Attorney, Bret Grote. a predominantly white police force act- ly take rap artist Meek Mill’s victimiza- Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! tion for the world to see what it is like ing as an occupying army. The Fraternal Email District Attorney Krasner at justice@ Order of Police Lodge Five see every on the ground in Philadelphia? And phila.gov reform, every plea for justice, as threat- have you noticed that nothing has Write to him at: ening “business as usual.” John changed, Meek is still chained to the Lawrence E. Krasner, District Attorney McNesby President of Lodge Five probation system. District Attorney’s Office would be a laughable character if he “It is especially important for those Three South Penn Square wasn’t so brutally dangerous. who have offered critical support of Philadelphia, PA 19107-3499 Frankly, the Common Pleas Court Krasner and positive changes he has www.prisonradio.org Judges are no different. While fewer in made to speak out against this. We can- 215-686-8000

Remembering Martin King By Mumia Abu-Jamal

In the 20th Century few names in April 1968, made him a global icon He was denounced by major media (especially of Black people) ring louder of social justice. (like the Washington Post, for exam- than that of Martin Luther King. Born in 1929, if he were not mar- ple), and betrayed by his so-called allies His life, his dedication to the civil tyred, he would be enjoying his 90th in the civil rights movement, like the rights movement and his martyrdom year of life. But he was martyred, and NAACP. too, he was considered And because the U.S. government

“We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our an enemy of the state. and police considered him a commu- limited vision, but we must speak,” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther Why? nist, he was killed on April 4th, 1968, a King Jr. declared at Riverside Church in Manhattan in 1967. John year to the day of his Riverside speech. Goodwin Because he didn’t end He was on the side of the poor, the his struggle at the March oppressed, the damned, the “wretched on Washington, and his of the earth.” He was against material- “I Have A Dream” ism, greed and (remember?) capitalism. speech wasn’t his last word on the subject. If you want to remember him, remember him—but as he really was— His speech at an Enemy of the State. Riverside Church (in New York), where he —Prison Radio, January 18, 2019 denounced the Vietnam War, capitalism, militarism and racism, marked him as a man now walking the road of radicalism, albeit almost alone.

56 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 Fight for Decarceration By Dan Berger

Prison reform is now in vogue, but Reaction is also on the march in St. What is to be done police power remains as brutal as ever. Louis, where assistant prosecutors joined a Radical critics of the prison system, Policing in the U.S. continues to police union in seeming protest of the elec- including abolitionists and grassroots include the power to cage as well as the tion of reform-minded City Council mem- organizers in and out of prison, have a power to kill—a reality that is spectac- ber Wesley Bell to the district attorney difficult—but familiar—task in 2019. ularly evident at the southern U.S. position. Bell, the first Black person elected It involves at least three simultaneous border. By all accounts, 2019 promises as St. Louis County prosecutor, defeat- efforts. First, we need to advance our to be another brutal year in the arena ed Bob McCulloch, the district attorney own policy platforms that can supplant of prisons and policing. whose cavalier approach to the shooting of Michael Brown led officer Darren Wilson the narrowness of the current prison President Trump signed the First to escape accountability for the killing. reform agenda with an emphasis on Step Act in late December, while threat- mass decarceration, community rein- ening a government shutdown to secure The dangers of repression are, as vestment, full civil and human rights funding for a border wall. The act makes always, most cruelly applied in prison, for currently and formerly incarcerated it easier for some federal prisoners to where new waves of crackdown pre- people, and non-punitive approaches seek early release, widens federal judicial ceded the midterm election. Around to harm. Doing so means growing discretion in some low-level sentencing the country, many participants in across movements as well as bringing issues and limits some mandatory mini- the 2018 national prison new people into the fold. mum sentences in federal cases. strike were placed in solitary confinement or faced other repercussions Second, we need to expose and It is a limited reform program, less for demanding better healthcare, wages exploit the fault lines within the because federal prisoners account for and union representation for labor, the extreme center in the hopes of chan- just over ten percent of the prison sys- restoration of voting rights and other neling sincere efforts into transforma- tem and more because the crafters of basic human rights. Bowing to the tive change and undermining the cyni- the bill had such limited ambitions. prison guard union, the Pennsylvania cal and failed policies of right-wing The Koch-backed act defines reform Department of Corrections imple- prison reform. That requires monitor- through expanded “e-carceration,” the mented harsh censorship restrictions ing and challenging the contemporary use of surveillance technologies like over the summer, even if activists reform agenda. ankle monitors that turn people’s forced them to scale back the severity. Finally, we need to both push for a homes into their prisons. To repression action must be added seat at the table—especially for currently This move follows similar efforts at the cynical danger of opportunism. and formerly incarcerated people— the state level. In eliminating cash bail, Several Democratic 2020 presidential while changing the table itself. Now is for instance, California implemented hopefuls routinely but vaguely call for the time to hold people’s feet to the fire, similar digital surveillance and algo- “criminal justice reform.” Among the not genuflect at the halls of power. rithmic “risk assessment.” The move most consistent voices in this vein is It is all easier said than done, of led many activists who had campaigned California Senator Kamala Harris, who course, but it is also already in process. against cash bail to withdraw their sup- spent her time as a prosecutor and state The Movement for Black Lives platform port for the bill before it passed. The attorney general upholding “tough on (as well as a recent robust critique of the growing significance of e-carceration is crime” laws when it came to the drug First Step Act) and the demands from not the only warning sign about how war and the struggles of incarcerated the 2018 national prison strike are both politicians broker criminal legal people. Her grim record pales next to excellent models of crafting the kind of reform. In Florida, the incoming that of another 2020 contender, former policy platforms we need. So too is the Republican governor and some state Vice President Joe Biden, who champi- push for a Green New Deal, which legislators are threatening to block the oned harsh sentencing laws as a sena- remains the most promising example of will of nearly two-thirds of the state’s tor throughout the 1980s and 1990s. federal criminal legal reform, even electorate by refusing to honor a ballot Even without such baggage, other like- though it does not (yet) make any men- initiative that called for the restoration ly 2020 candidates, including New tion of criminal legal issues. The full of voting rights to 1.5 million formerly Jersey Senator Cory Booker, have employment and just transition vision incarcerated people. pledged “reform” without substance. of the Green New Deal offer far more

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 57

Reviews promising avenues to reduce the counter police or other agents of the car- require greater urgency and clarity as try’s reliance on policing and incarcera- ceral state. That is why local, rural jail “prison reform” occupies center stage. tion than much of what transpires expansion—often funded by the fed- Dan Berger is an associate professor of under the mantle of prison reform. eral government—threatens to grow comparative ethnic studies at the The federal government is likely to the number of people incarcerated University of Washington Bothell. He is remain a lost cause for the foreseeable while many people fawn over the pas- the author of Captive Nation: Black future. There’s little chance of enacting sage of a tepid federal reform package. Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights progressive legislation regarding crimi- As always, the path toward decarcer- Era and Rethinking the American nalization in a sphere governed by ation, reinvestment and transformation Prison Movement, among other books. people so fully committed to the car- requires fighting on multiple fronts Follow him on Twitter: @dnbrgr. ceral state. More to the point, the most simultaneously: pushing back against —Truthout, January 2, 2019 significant action remains at the state the hardliners, pushing beyond what the and local level, where almost 90 per- extreme center will allow and pushing https://truthout.org/articles/prison- cent of those incarcerated are held, and for the changes we really need. While reform-is-not-enough-in-2019-lets- where people are most likely to encoun- this stance may seem familiar, it will fight-for-decarceration/

REVIEWS U.S. Spent Billions to Change Outcome of Elections Worldwide Book Review By Danny Haiphong

Dan Kovalik is a labor and human murder millions of Filipinos and send rights lawyer, but most of all he is an both nations into a spiral of violence, anti-imperialist and an author of three instability, and poverty that continues books. Kovalik’s first two books tackled to this day. As Kovalik explains regard- the specific U.S. war drives against ing Haiti: Russia and Iran. His third install- “While the specific, claimed jus- ment, The Plot to Control the World: tifications for [U.S.] intervention How the U.S. Spent Billions to Change the changed over time—e.g., opposing Outcome of Elections Around the World, the end of slavery, enforcing the addresses the broad scope of U.S. elec- Monroe Doctrine, fighting tion meddling abroad. The book pro- Communism, fighting drugs, restor- vides much needed political and ideo- ing law and order—the fact is that logical life support to an antiwar move- the interventions never stopped and ment in the U.S that has been rendered the results for the Haitian people nearly invisible to the naked eye. have been invariably disastrous.” The Plot to Control the World is as U.S. expansionism has relied upon detailed in its critique of U.S. imperial- the ideology of American exceptionalism as it is concise. In just over 160 ism to silence criticism and weaken pages, Kovalik manages to analyze the antiwar forces in the United States. various ways that the U.S. political and American exceptionalism claims that military apparatus interferes in the the U.S. is a force for good in the world The Plot to Control the World: How affairs of nations abroad to achieve and completely justified in its wars of the US Spent Billions to Change the global hegemony. He wastes no time in conquest draped in the cover of spread- Outcome of Elections Around the World exposing the devastating lie that is ing “democracy and freedom” around American exceptionalism, beginning the world. Kovalik challenges American By Dan Kovalik appropriately with the U.S. imperialist exceptionalism by showing readers just The U.S. military state overthrows occupations of Haiti and the Philippines how much damage that U.S. expan- democratically elected governments that it at the end of the 19th century and sionism and militarism has caused for deems to be a threat to corporate interests. beginning of the 20th. The U.S. would nations and peoples in every region of

58 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 the planet. Russia, Honduras, the Russian President with a team of state utilizes an array of tools to over- Guatemala, the Democratic Republic U.S. political consultants and over a throw democratically elected govern- of the Congo, Vietnam and many other billion dollars’ worth of IMF ments that it deems to be a threat to nations have seen their societies devas- (International Monetary Fund) monies corporate interests. These tools include tated by U.S. “election meddling.” In directly to the campaign. U.S. political the U.S. intelligence agencies, so-called Honduras, for example, a U.S.-backed and monetary support allowed Yeltsin Non-governmental Organizations coup against left-wing President to rig the election in his favor despite (NGOs) such as the National Manuel Zelaya in 2009 made the nation his dwindling popularity. Kovalik Endowment for Democracy, and the one of the most dangerous places in shows that if anyone should worry various branches of the military itself, the world to be a journalist, indigenous about election meddling, it should be to name a few. Regardless of the tools person, or trade-union/environmental the people of Russia and not the U.S. employed, the mission is always the activist. Thousands of Hondurans have elites that control Washington. same: to destabilize independent been displaced, disappeared, or assas- nations that refuse to bow down to the sinated since the coup. dictates of U.S. imperialism. Thus, Another important aspect of The ...there is plenty of evi- while Nicaragua, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Vietnam may Plot to Control the World is its exposure dence that the United of U.S hypocrisy surrounding the sub- possess unique histories, their eco- ject of “election meddling.” Since the States is the most nomic and political development has end of the 2016 Presidential elections, depraved and dangerous been shaped by the destructive interference of the United States. the U.S. military, political, and media “meddler” in the affairs branches of the imperialist state have Dan Kovalik is not likely to be accused Russia of virtually implanting of other nations that his- reviewed in the New York Times or Donald Trump into the Oval office. tory has ever known... other corporate outlets. That’s because The U.S. public has been fed a steady Kovalik unapologetically speaks out dose of anti-Russia talking points in an against U.S. Empire and all that apparent effort on the part of the elites The Plot to Control the World takes upholds it. In doing so, Kovalik’s The to beat the drums of war with the readers into the Democratic Republic Plot to Control the World walks in the nuclear-armed state. No evidence has of Congo, where the CIA’s coup of footsteps of anti-imperialists such as been presented to prove the conspiracy, revolutionary Patrice Lumumba con- Michael Parenti and William Blum. as a recent National Public Radio (NPR) tinues to haunt the resource rich nation Blum, a former State Department analysis states plainly. However, there is in the form of endless U.S.-backed employee, spent his post-State plenty of evidence that the United genocide. It travels to Guatemala, Department life providing humanity States is the most depraved and danger- where the CIA overthrow of Jacobo with knowledge about how U.S. impe- ous “meddler” in the affairs of other Arbenz led to a U.S.-backed slaughter rialism operates on the global stage. nations that history has ever known. of a quarter-million Guatemalans The New York Times wasted no time Just ask the much-vaunted Russians. under the auspices of several military in slandering Blum in their obitu- Kovalik devotes an entire chapter to the dictatorships. Kovalik shows us that ary. This showed the great lengths that 1996 Presidential election in Russia that the election of the fascistic Jair the ruling elites will go to discredit, re-elected the wildly unpopular Boris Bolsonaro in Brazil was no aberration, defame, and condemn critics of the Yeltsin. The fall of the Soviet Union in as the U.S. was primarily responsible military industrial complex and how 1991 began an era of “shock therapy” in for the rise of fascism in Brazil through important it is for those who oppose the newly erected Russian Federation, a its direct role in placing the nation war to let go of any expectation that the euphemism for the wholesale theft and under the control of a military dicta- corporate media will cover Kovalik’s transfer of socialized wealth into the torship in 1964. The military dictator- work or anyone else who speaks out hands of oligarchs and multinational ship predated the CIA’s ouster of against war. corporations. Millions would perish in Chile’s Salvador Allende in 1973, which With that said, one of the reasons Russia from an early death due to the handed the once socialist state to that the left in the U.S. is so weak is sudden loss of healthcare, housing, Augusto Pinochet’s murderous and because it has been numerically and jobs, and other basic services. In 1996, repressive leadership. politically isolated by the lies of the President Bill Clinton ensured that The entire skeleton of the U.S. mili- Empire. White supremacy is the big- Yeltsin maintained his near total grip tary state is on full display in The Plot gest lie of all and is completely embed- on state power in Russia by providing to Control the World. The U.S. military ded in the ideology of American excep-

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 59

Letters to the Editors tionalism. Despite the ruthlessness of victims of the U.S. military state as sav- American exceptionalism and want to the austerity and incarceration regimes, ages worthy of slaughter. The Plot to be armed with knowledge that is essen- many Americans continue to be con- Control the World is based on a differ- tial toward changing it. vinced that the U.S. is the most excep- ent premise: internationalism. The tional nation in the world and do not book links the struggle against U.S. balk when its military wages wars imperialism to the needs of the —Black Agenda Report, January 2, abroad at the expense of U.S. tax dol- oppressed and working class living in 2019 lars and civilian lives. U.S. imperialism the heart of empire, making it an essen- https://www.blackagendareport.com/ has made sure that Americans feel that tial read for those who are sick and how-us-spent-billions-change-outcome- they are special colonizers who see the tired of the prevailing narrative of elections-around-world-review

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Dear Editors, This fight was handed down to me ing class, and as the rate of profit I am not an image for sale. My by my grandparents and parents, who dwindles and the planet becomes intention is not to gain a profit for dedicated their lives to the civil rights increasingly uninhabitable for future knowledge I share. What I’m doing is movement, women’s liberation move- generations—like the end of a game of sharing my experience. My experience ment, and the antiwar movement. Monopoly—the capitalist system inev- is part of what made me who I am I was born into a family of freedom itably consumes itself. today. My objective is not to exploit fighters and I refuse to lose sight of that Capitalism is not a sustainable sys- myself although we do live under a or let the fight slip through the cracks tem by nature of its mathematics. What capitalist system, which means time is like a child caught in the system. then is left for the future of humanity money and the bills have to get paid I’m not yet sure if capitalism was and the planet? What happens when and that’s why I take great honor in originally a system of human greed. the game is over? Why is it more being a tradesman. What I do know is that greed is defi- important to be good at this “game” My objective is to share the knowl- nitely a symptom of capitalism. Drug than to make sure our grandchildren’s edge I have gained from experience as addiction is a symptom of capitalism. grandchildren are able to enjoy this well as lessons taught Mass incarceration, depression, racism world in all its glory and abundance? by generations before me. It’s the and poverty are not only symptoms of Because we’ve been misinformed mise- responsibility of anyone with knowl- capitalism and prejudice-based fears, ducated and conditioned to value edge that can help another person— but weapons held by the bourgeoisie, material more than we value the lives especially future generations—to share or powers that be, and “owners” of of our brothers and sisters. it freely. (Realize how much progress is property and production designed to We are living in an unhealthy condition. made when we’re cooperating, com- divide and conquer the proletariat. The Like a boxer who’s been living a luxurious pared to holding out on knowledge working people of the world are those lifestyle has to get back in shape for the next that could be helping people succeed who actually control the means pro- fight, we can become healthy again too. and thrive and for money.) duction. We are also the ones who can We must challenge the status quo and not The history of San Francisco, change the world. And we happen to accept the current state of affairs. Oakland and the Bay Area is full of be the overwhelming majority. One of the arguments of people social awareness and activism. The civil And whether you work for a com- who opposed the civil rights move- rights movement wasn’t sold, women’s pany or are the boss of your own comment was “it’s always been that way so liberation wasn’t sold. These battles pany, if your goal is to earn a profit you it should stay that way.” This is obvi- won were for the greater good of the are working for the system that’s ous ignorance. Did Malcolm X, Martin community, and the world. designed to divide, conquer, pillage and Luther King, Harvey Milk, Cesar These battles for equality were won plunder, and are therefore a worker. Chavez, Rich Sorro, the Black Panthers for the greater good of humanity. One Ultimately capitalism leads to either as well as my grandparents, Nat and of the nearest lessons to my heart is to Barbarism or Socialism. When funding Sylvia Weinstein—and more—accept fight against the oppression due to the for social services and infrastructure is this argument? Not by any means. I’m capitalist system, which includes the continuously cut back and every avail- not willing to accept that ignorant oppression of the natural world. able penny squeezed out of the work- argument applied to capitalism, either.

60 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 These fighters against social injus- Patrice Lumumba that explains how he arms and fighting with the YPG, in tice knew they had to fight back against was murdered because the U.S. did not Rojava? Nearly every article I read, on a way of life that continues to kill. And intercede in the local Congolese con- the left and right, are in full support of I’m willing to accept that challenge and flict. First of all, I read that Allen Dulles the U.S. military helping the Kurds, carry this message to the ones who still personally stated that a military coup even thought they are embedded with suffer from the conditions of a barbaric against Lumumba was “an urgent the CIA and USAID? It all appears like system that’s only interested in seeing prime directive.” This way of thinking an old fashion coup to me, with leftist the money in a private bank account and actions led to his overthrow and, in Western mercenaries blindly carrying rise at the cost of humanity and the turn, prompted a U.S. supported dicta- out the intelligence agencies and natural ecosystem. tor. Does this added information dis- NATO’s Middle Eastern operations Working people of the world Unite! credit the footnotes mention of non- agenda. Thanks for your time and keep We can rise above any number in a U.S. involvement leading to his death? spreading love. computer and free ourselves and Secondly, I was wondering if it is —Ryan Policht Mother Earth from the bondage of true that the U.S. didn’t help out, capitalism. Together we can. would it have been okay for Western — By Johnny A. Gould intervention in military actions abroad? Editor’s response: The reader is cor- I thought that the left was supposed to rect on both points. The U.S. fomented be anti-imperialist. Is it not pro-colo- the coup and assassination of Lumumba. nialism to go to war in other countries, Socialist Viewpoint does not support Inside the cover ot the January/ on the other side of the world? U.S. troops fighting anywhere in the February issue of Socialist Viewpoint, And finally, what is your opinion on world. Bring them all home and dis- Vol. 19, No. 1, there is a footnote about members of the Western left taking up mantle all foreign bases!

Continued from page 47 be exonerated. In California, we do not https://www.sfchronicle.com/opin- We need the test results from the have an innocence commission dedi- ion/openforum/article/Death-row- smaller spots, which I believe could cated to investigating innocence claims. inmate-asks-Gov-Newsom-for-inno- exonerate me. The governor does have the power to cence-13559987.php For unknown reasons, Governor order such investigations related to Kevin Cooper is an innocent man on San Quen- Brown did not grant five of the DNA clemency and to obtain documents tin’s Death Row in California. He continues to struggle for exoneration and to abolish the death tests I requested, tests I believe could that have been denied to a person trying to prove his innocence. The judge penalty in the whole U.S. Learn more about his show who committed these murders case at: www.kevincooper.org. assigned could oversee the testing of and establish my innocence, including Write to: the items denied and conduct a wider DNA tests of hairs clutched in the vic- Kevin Cooper #C-65304 4-EB-82 investigation of the evidence. tims’ hands as well as the victims’ finger- San Quentin State Prison nail scrapings. Why withhold these tests? I now ask Governor Gavin Newsom San Quentin, CA 94974 Appellate courts are virtually to use those powers in my case. www.freekevincooper.org blocked from considering innocence claims—that’s why it sometimes takes —San Francisco Chronicle, January 20 years or more for innocent people to 24, 2019

FREE KEVIN COOPER

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 61

Arsenal of Marxism ARSENAL OF MARXISM

Paris Commune, the October Revolution and the Party Question By Howard Keylor

Without the lessons of the Paris thinkers were won to the Leninist con- have led the workers to power on Commune there would have been no ception of the party, the lessons of the September 4 rather than six months later: October 1917 revolution. Marx, Engels, Commune came together in 1917. “The workers’ party—the real Lenin, Trotsky and generations of pro- While writing State and Revolution one—is not a machine for parlia- letarians studied the Paris Commune in the midst of the tumultuous events mentary maneuvers it is the accumu- and developed the political theory that of the summer of 1917 Lenin turned to lated and organized experience of the led to the Russian Revolution and the the Paris Commune for the main ques- proletariat. It is only with the aid of the party, which rests upon the whole consolidation of the first workers state. tion facing the Russian revolution, the history of its past, which foresees The only major correction to the dictatorship of the proletariat: theoretically the path of develop- Communist Manifesto was made by “The Commune is the first ment, all its stages, and which extracts Marx and Engels in their introduction attempt by a proletarian revolution from it the necessary formula of to an 1872 edition: to smash the bourgeois state action, that the proletariat frees itself “…one thing especially was machine; and it is the political form from the need of always recommenc- proved by the Commune, vis-à-vis, ‘at last discovered,’ by which the ing its history: its hesitations, its lack that ‘the working class cannot sim- smashed state machine can and of decision, its mistakes.” must be replaced.” ply lay hold of the ready-made State Trotsky goes on to say: machinery, and wield it for its own Writing in 1920 from the car of a “The proletariat of Paris did not purposes.’” military train amid the flames of civil have such a party. The bourgeois Marx and Engels returned again and war, Trotsky’s “The Paris Commune socialists with whom the Commune again to this theme in their polemics and Soviet Russia” defends the harsh swarmed, raised their eyes to heav- with sections of the Second measures of the Russian proletariat in en, waited for a miracle or else a International, especially the German consolidating their revolution from prophetic word, hesitated, and dur- Social Democracy. Kautsky’s slanders. At the same time, ing that time the masses groped about and lost their heads because of The First International collapsed he offers a perceptive comparison between the new Soviet Republic and the indecision of some and the fan- after the defeat of the Paris Commune tasy of others. The result was that but Marx and Engels continued the the Paris Commune contributing to an understanding of the defeat of the the revolution broke out in their work of rebuilding an international very midst, too late, and Paris was Commune and the strengths of the still workers organization. encircled. Six months elapsed before threatened Soviet state power. Leon Trotsky, writing from a Czarist the proletariat had reestablished in prison cell in 1905 demonstrated how But it is in Trotsky’s Lessons of the its memory the lessons of democracy and it seized power.” his study of the Paris commune played Paris Commune written in 1921 for the an important part in the development young Communist movement of France All of the ministers with Thiers at of his theory of the permanent revolu- that he underlines more cogently than their head could have been taken pris- tion. He used the example of the Paris any prominent Marxist had done previ- oners with no one to defend them. The Commune to show that the decisive ously the main lesson of the Commune: remnants of the infantry who did not factor in proletarian revolution was the “We can thumb the whole history want to fall back to Versailles could relationship of forces between the of the Commune, page-by-page, and have been infiltrated and turned to the classes and the consciousness of the we will find in it one single lesson: a cause of the workers. The toying with working class, and these did not follow strong party leadership is needed.” “legality” through the communal elec- mechanistically from the level of the His close examination of the tions and negotiations with the mayors productive forces. When Lenin was Commune from the standpoint of revo- and deputies of Paris disarmed the essentially won to the dictatorship of lutionary leadership leads him to the proletariat. A rapid and violent attack the Russian proletariat supported by conclusion that a conscious and resolute against Versailles was precluded by the peasantry, and Trotsky and his co- proletarian revolutionary party could passivity and indecision based upon

62 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 respect for the “principle” of federa- have been lost due to Stalinist and their hatred of and indifference to the tion and autonomy. Thus the opportu- Social Democratic misleadership of the fate of the largely working class and nity to send agitators, organizers, and working class. Those of us who aspire farmer soldiers of the fourth infantry armed contingents throughout France to assimilate the terrible negative les- and third marine divisions who were was lost. The endemic particularism sons of working class defeats must being slaughtered in that incompe- and hostility to centralism of the return again and again to study the les- tently led battle. Parisian working class prevented a dis- sons of the Paris Commune as well as One of the lessons of the Paris ciplined center for consolidating and the history of the only successful prole- Commune is that the enraged forces of extending the revolution. tarian revolution, October 1917. the bourgeois state will exterminate Trotsky: To close with a personal observa- armed workers who seize power if the “Those fighters of ’7l were not tion: A turning point in my own aware- workers fail to consolidate that power. lacking heroism. What they lacked ness of social reality occurred when I The mass executions of Spanish work- was clarity in method and a central- was taken out of the infantry and ers by Franco’s forces, the slaughter of ized leading organization.” assigned to the 10th Army Headquarters the Shanghai proletariat, and the rivers Trotsky had before him the recent during the three-month battle of of blood following the failed Indonesian failed revolutions of Germany and Okinawa in the Spring of 1945. I was coup are within recent memory. The Hungary. Since that time a number of shocked to learn of the military incom- consolidation of proletarian power opportunities for proletarian power petence of the professional officers and must be uppermost in our minds.

War and the Workers By V. I. Lenin

Note: This is a lecture delivered by so much controversy, and, I would say, ety, which, by abolishing the division of Lenin in Petrograd on May 27, 1917, futile, hopeless and aimless controver- mankind into classes, by abolishing all about one month after his return from sy, is that people forget the fundamen- exploitation of man by man, and of one exile during the Russian Revolution, tal question of class character of the nation by other nations, will inevitably before the end of WWI, November 11, war; why the war broke out; the classes abolish all possibility of war. In the war 1918. The manuscript was not discovered that are waging it; the historical and for this socialist system of society, how- until twelve years afterward and pub- historico-economic conditions that ever, we will inevitably meet a situation lished for the first time in the Moscow gave rise to it. From what I have in which the class struggle in each Pravda, April 23, 1929. First published in observed of the manner in which the nation may collide with a war, caused English by International Publishers, Little question of the war is presented at by this very class struggle, between dif- Lenin Library, Volume No. 24, 1940. public and Party meetings, I am con- ferent nations. For this reason we cannot deny the possibility of revolution- The question of war and revolution vinced that the numerous misunder- ary wars, that is, of wars arising out of has been so often discussed lately in the standings, which have arisen in con- the class struggle, conducted by revolu- entire press and at every public meeting nection with it are due to the fact that tionary classes, and having direct, in discussing the war we very often that in all probability many of you are immediate, revolutionary significance. not only quite familiar with many sides speak in totally different languages. We cannot deny this particularly of this question, but are bored with it. I From the point of view of Marxism, because the historic European revolu- have not had an opportunity of speak- that is, of modern Scientific Socialism, tions during the past century, the past ing, or even of being present, at any the fundamental question for Socialists one-hundred-and-twenty-five to one- Party or public meeting in this district, in discussing how this war should be hundred-and-thirty-five years, shows and so I may repeat, or not deal in suf- appraised, and what our attitude that in addition to the majority of wars, ficient detail with, those sides of the towards it should be, is the objects of which were reactionary, there have question that greatly interest you. the war and the classes, which prepared been revolutionary wars; for example, It seems to me that the main thing for it and directed it. We Marxists are the war waged by the revolutionary that is usually forgotten in the question not among those who are absolutely masses of the people of France against of the war, which receives inadequate opposed to all war. We say: our object united, monarchist, backward, feudal attention; the main reason why there is is to achieve the socialist system of soci- and semi-feudal Europe.

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 63 Even at the present time there is no respective classes; that war can at any economic and historical connection more widespread deception of the time be regarded simply as aggression, between every war and the preceding masses in Western Europe, and lately which disturbs peace, followed by the politics of every country, of every class here in Russia, than references to revo- restoration of this peace. As much as to which ruled before the war and lutionary wars. There are wars and say: People quarreled, and then made achieved its objects by so-called “peace- wars. We must examine the historical up! This is a crude and ignorant opin- ful” means. So-called—because the conditions, which gave rise to each ion, refuted scores of years ago, and methods employed for ensuring particular war, the classes which con- refuted now by a more or less careful “peaceful” rule over the colonies can ducted it, and for what objects. Unless analysis of any historical epoch of war. hardly be described as peaceful. we do this, all our arguments about war will be reduced to futility; to a War is a continuation of politics The colonies wordy and barren controversy. That is by other means. Peace reigned in Europe; but this why I will take the liberty—since you War is a continuation of politics by peace was maintained because the rule have taken the question of the relation other means. When the French revolu- of the European nations over hun- between war and revolution for your tionary citizens and revolutionary dreds-of-millions of inhabitants of subject—of dealing with this side of peasants, at the end of the eighteenth colonies was exercised only by con- the question in detail. century, after overthrowing the mon- stant, uninterrupted and ceaseless wars, which we Europeans do not We know of the aphorism uttered archy by revolutionary means, estab- regard as wars, because often they by one of the most celebrated writers lished a democratic republic, and hav- resembled, not wars, but the brutal on the philosophy and history of war— ing settled accounts with their mon- massacre, extermination, of unarmed Clausewitz, which reads as follows: arch also settled accounts in a revolu- people. And the whole point is that to “War is a continuation of politics by tionary manner with their landlords— understand modern war we must first other means.” This was uttered by a these revolutionary class politics could of all glance over the politics of the writer who reviewed the history of war not but shake the rest of autocratic, European Powers as a whole. We must and drew philosophical lessons from it tsarist, monarchist, semi-feudal Europe not take individual examples, individ- soon after the epoch of the Napoleonic to its foundations. And the inevitable ual cases, which can easily be torn from wars. This was a writer, whose funda- continuation of these politics of the the general context of social phenom- mental ideas have now become an victorious revolutionary class in France ena, and which are valueless, because it undoubted acquisition for all thinking was war, in which, pitted against the is just as easy to quote opposite exam- people, eighty years ago combated the revolutionary class, were all the mon- ples. No, we must take the whole of the philistine and ignorant prejudice that archist countries of Europe which politics of the whole system of war can be separated from the politics formed their notorious coalition, and European states in their economic and of the respective governments, the waged a counter-revolutionary war against France. Just as within the coun- political concatenation, so as to under- try the French revolutionary people stand how the present war steadily and displayed a revolutionary energy wit- inevitably arose out of this system. nessed for the first time in centuries, so We constantly see attempts being in this war at the end of the eighteenth made, particularly by capitalist news- century they displayed enormous revo- papers—monarchist or republican, it lutionary genius; they remolded the makes no difference—to ascribe a false whole system of strategy, they broke all historical content to the present war. the old laws and customs of war; and in For example, nothing is more common place of the old army they created a in the French Republic than attempts new revolutionary people’s army and to depict the war, which France is now introduced new methods of warfare. waging, as a continuation and an image I think this example is particularly of the wars of the Great French worthy of attention, because it demon- Revolution of 1792. There is no more strates what bourgeois newspaper writ- widespread method of deceiving the ers now constantly forget when playing French people, the French workers, on the prejudices and philistine igno- and the workers of all countries, than rance of an absolutely uneducated peo- that of introducing into our epoch the V.I. Lenin ple, who do not see this inseparable “jargon,” some of the slogans, of that

64 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 epoch, and trying to make it appear not only be forgetting the fundamental there is not a patch of land that is not that even today republican France is demand of Scientific Socialism and of enmeshed by a thousand threads in the defending its freedom against monar- social science in general, but we shall net of British capital. By the end of the chy. They forget the “slight” circum- be preventing ourselves from under- nineteenth century and beginning of stance that at the time, in 1792, the war standing anything about modern war. the twentieth centuries this capital had in France was waged by a revolutionary We would place ourselves in the power grown to such enormous proportions class, which had made an unprecedent- of that fraud Milyukov,1 who is incit- that its activities extended far beyond ed revolution, had destroyed the ing chauvinism and hatred of one the frontiers of a single state and cre- French monarchy to its foundations nation for another by methods that are ated a group of giant banks possessing with the aid of the incredible heroism employed everywhere without excep- incredible wealth. Pushing this insig- of the masses, and had risen against tion, and which Clausewitz, whom I nificant number of banks to the front, united, monarchist Europe for no mentioned in the beginning, described it enmeshed the whole world in this net other object than that of continuing its eighty years ago, when, already at that of hundreds of billions of rubles. This revolutionary struggle. time, he ridiculed the opinion that, so is the main thing in the economic pol- to speak, people were living peacefully icy of England and the economic policy The war in France was a continua- and suddenly they quarreled! As if that of France, concerning which the French tion of the politics of the revolutionary were true! Can war be explained if it is writers themselves, for example, the class which had made a revolution, not connected with the preceding poli- contributors to l’Humanité,2 the news- gained a republic, settled accounts with tics of the given state, the given system paper now directed by ex-Socialists the French capitalists and landlords of states, the given classes? I repeat: this (for example, none other than the well- with hitherto unprecedented energy, is the fundamental question which is known writer on financial questions, and for the sake of these politics, in constantly forgotten; and the failure to Lysis,) wrote several years before the continuation of them, was waging a understand it transforms nine-tenths war: “France is a financial monarchy; revolutionary war against united, mon- of the arguments about war into use- France is a financial oligarchy; France archist Europe. less wrangling and bandying of words. is the user of the whole world.” Today, however, we are confronted, We say: if you have not studied the State capitalist production first of all by two groups of capitalist politics that both of belligerent Powers Powers. We have before us all the great have pursued—not taking facts at ran- On the other hand, opposed to this world capitalist powers—England, dom, not picking out individual exam- group, mainly Anglo-French, stands France, America, Germany—the poli- ples—if you cannot show the connec- another group of capitalists, even more tics of which for a number of decades tion between this war and the politics predatory and more piratical—a group which came to the capitalist feasting consisted of unceasing economic rival- preceding it, then you understand board when all the places had been ry for world supremacy, to strangle nothing about this war! small nationalities, to secure threefold taken, but which introduced into the And these politics show us only one struggle new methods of developing and tenfold profits for bank capital, thing: ceaseless economic rivalry capitalist production, better technique, which has enmeshed the whole world between two great world giants, two incomparable organization, which in the chains of its influence. These are capitalist systems. On the one hand transformed the old capitalism, the the real politics of England and of there is England, a state which owns a capitalism of the epoch of free compe- Germany. I emphasize this. We must great part of the globe; the wealthiest tition, into the capitalism of gigantic never tire of emphasizing this, because state in the world; which created this trusts, syndicates and cartels. This if we forget it we shall never under- wealth not so much by the labor of its group introduced the principle of state stand anything about modern war, and workers as by the exploitation of vast capitalist production, uniting the we shall be helplessly in the power of colonies, by the vast power of the gigantic forces of capitalism with the any bourgeois writer who palms off English banks which, constituting a gigantic forces of the states into one fraudulent phrases. numerically insignificant group of mechanism, and amalgamating tens- The real politics of both groups of three, four or five giant banks, stand at of-millions of people in a single orga- great capitalist giants—England and the head of all the other banks, con- nization of state capitalism. This is the Germany, who with their allies are trolling hundreds-of-billions of rubles, economic history; this is the diplo- contending against each other—the and controlling in such a way that we matic history of a number of past politics pursued for decades before can say without exaggeration: there is decades, which no one can get away war—must be studied and understood not a spot on the whole globe that this from. It alone provides the correct as a whole. If we fail to do that we shall capital has not laid its heavy hand on; solution to the problem of war and

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 65 leads us to the conclusion that the banks and rule the world.” This is what tions that will apply to the Germans, to present war is also the product of the a leading newspaper of the American the English and to the Russians. We say politics of the classes which are now at billionaires said. I must say that this that you will either decline to do this, grips in this war; the politics of the two cynical American phrase, uttered by a or we will immediately expose you.” great giants who long before the war swelled-headed and arrogant billion- Ryech was silent. We assert not a single had enmeshed the whole world, all aire, contains a thousand-times more newspaper—neither that of the ordi- countries, in their nets of financial truth than the thousands of articles nary chauvinists who simply say that exploitation, and who before the war written by bourgeois liars who claim we must defend the country, nor that had economically divided the world that this war is a war for some sort of of the social-chauvinists—has ever among themselves. They had to come national interests, national problems, given a definition of annexations that into collision because, from the point and other obvious lies of the same sort, would apply to Germany and to Russia, of view of capitalism, the redivision of which now throw all history overboard that could be applied to either side. this rule became inevitable. and take a single example, for instance, And it cannot give such definition, The old division was based on the the fact that the German robber because this war is the continuation of fact that for several-hundreds-of-years attacked Belgium. The latter is undoubt- the politics of annexations, that is, con- England had crushed her competitors. edly true. Yes, that group of predatory quest, capitalist robbery, on both sides, Her former competitor was Holland, powers did indeed attack Belgium with on the part of both groups engaged in which had ruled over the whole world; incredible ferocity; but it only did what the war. Hence, it is clear that the question as to which of these two robbers her former competitor was France, who the other group of robbers did yester- first drew the knife has no significance waged a war for supremacy for about a day by other means, and is doing today for us whatever. Take the history of the hundred years. By means of prolonged against other nations. naval and military expenditure of both wars England, on the basis of her eco- When we argue about annexa- sides for the past few decades; take the nomic power, of her merchant capital, tions—and this is part of the question history of the little wars they waged established her unchallenged rule over that I have tried briefly to explain to before this big one— “little” because the whole world. A new robber you as the history of the economic and few Europeans were killed in them; but appeared. In 1871 a new capitalist diplomatic relations, which gave rise to of the people who belonged to the Power arose, which developed ever so the present war—when we argue about nations that were being crushed hun- much faster than England. This is a annexations, we always forget that this dreds of thousands were killed. They fundamental fact. You will not find a is precisely what the war is being waged were not even regarded as nations single book on economic history that for: the division of the conquests; or to (Asiatics, Africans—can you call these put it more simply, the sharing of the does not admit this indisputable fact— nations?). Against these nations war loot between two gangs of robbers. And Germany’s more rapid development. was carried on in this way: they were when we argue about annexations we This rapid development of German unarmed; but they were shot down constantly see tricks employed, which capitalism was the development of a with machine guns. Can you call that from the scientific standpoint, are young and strong robber, who came war? Properly speaking, they were not beneath criticism, and from the social- before the league of European Powers wars, and one can forget about them. publicist standpoint, are such as cannot and said: “You ruined Holland, you This is their attitude towards this be otherwise described than crude defeated France, you have taken half wholesale deception of the masses of deception. Ask a Russian chauvinist or the world—please give us our share.” the people. What is “our share?” How can it be social-chauvinist to explain what determined in the capitalist world, in German annexations are—he will do The politics of conquest the world of banks? In that world, that excellently. But he will never give This war is a continuation of the strength is determined by the number you a general definition of annexations politics of conquest, of shooting down of banks; there, strength is determined that will apply to Germany, to England whole nationalities, of incredible atroci- in the way it was defined in an organ of and to Russia. He will never do that. ties perpetrated by the Germans and the the American billionaires with purely When the newspaper Ryech3 (to English in Africa, by the English and American frankness and purely pass from theory to practice,) jeering at Russians in Persia—I don’t know who American cynicism. It was put this way: our newspaper Pravda,4 said: “These did most—for which the German capi- “In Europe a war is going on for world Pravda-ites regard Courland as an talists regarded them as enemies. They supremacy. For world supremacy two annexation! What is the use of arguing said in effect: You are strong because things are needed: dollars and banks. with such people?”—our reply was: you are rich? But we are stronger than We have the dollars; we will create the “Please give us a definition of annexa- you, therefore we have the same “sacred”

66 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 right to rob as you have. This is what the In every resolution that is passed— But this makes no difference; other real history of British and German and scores of them are passed and nations, more experienced in the capi- finance capital for decades preceding published in, say, the newspaper talist art of fooling the masses and in the war amounts to. This provides the Zemlya I Volya (Land and Liberty)— writing “revolutionary” manifestoes, key to an understanding of what war is you will find the badly expressed reply: have beaten all records in this field. If about. This is why the story that is being We do not want war for supremacy you take the parliamentary history of circulated about the causes of the war is over other nations; we are fighting for the French Republic since it began to a fraud and deception. Forgetting the our freedom—this is what all the work- support tsarism you will find scores of history of finance capital, the history of ers and peasants say, and by this they examples, in the course of decades of how this war for redivision matured, express the workers’ opinion, the this history, of manifestoes written in they try to make it appear as if two workingman’s conception of the war. the most eloquent language, serving to nations had lived in peace, and sud- Thus, they say in effect: If the war were cover up the policy of most sordid denly one attacked and the other in the interests of the working people colonial and financial plunder. The defended itself. All science is forgotten, and against the exploiters, we would be whole history of the Third French the banks are forgotten; the nations are in favor of it. We, too, would be in Republic is the history of this plunder. called to arms, the peasants who know favor of it; and no revolutionary party This is the source of the present war. It nothing about politics are called to could oppose such a war. But the is not the product of the evil designs of arms. You must defend—that is all authors of these numerous resolutions capitalists, or the result of the mistaken there is to it! If we are going to argue in are wrong, because they imagine that policy of monarchs. It would be wrong this way it would be more logical to they are conducting the war. We sol- to regard it that way. No, this war was suppress all newspapers, burn all books, diers, we workers, we peasants, are inevitably called forth by the develop- and prohibit all discussion about annex- fighting for our freedom. I will never ment of gigantic large-scale capitalism, ations in the press—in this way justifi- forget the question that one of them particularly bank capitalism, which led cation of such an attitude towards put to me after a meeting: “Why do to a matter of four banks in Berlin, and annexations could be obtained. They you talk about capitalists all the time? five or six in London, ruling the whole cannot tell the truth about annexations Am I a capitalist? We workers are world, cornering all wealth and back- because the whole history of Russia, of defending our freedom.” It is not ing their financial policies with all the England and of Germany is an unbro- true—you are fighting because you are armed forces. Finally, they clashed, and ken record of ruthless bloody war for obeying your capitalist government; came to grips in an unprecedentedly annexations. In Persia and in Africa war the war is not being conducted by the fierce struggle, because the old method was waged by the Liberals, who flogged people, but by the governments. I am of seizing territory could no longer be political offenders in India for demand- not surprised when a worker, or a pursued; one or the other side must ing what we fought for in Russia. French peasant who has not studied politics, give up its colonial possessions. In the colonial troops have also oppressed who has not had the good fortune, or capitalist world such questions are not nations. Such is the preceding history. misfortune, to study secret diplomacy, settled voluntarily. They can be settled Such is the real history of unprecedent- to see this picture of financial plunder only by war. That is why it is ridiculous ed plunder! These are the politics that (this oppression of Persia by Russia to blame this or that crowned robber. these classes are continuing in the pres- and England for example) forgets this They are all alike, these crowned rob- ent war. That is why they cannot give history and naively asks: what have bers. That is why it is also absurd to the reply to the question of annexations capitalists got to do with it? I am fight- blame the capitalists of this or that that we give when we say: every nation ing. He does not see the connection country. They are only to blame for that is joined to another nation, not by between the war and the government; introducing such a system. It is done in the voluntary desire of the majority of he does not see that the government is accordance with all the laws, which are the population, but by the order of a conducting the war, and that he is a protected by all the forces of the civi- tsar, or government, is an annexed tool in the hands of the government. lized states. “I am acting fully within by nation, a usurped nation. The repudia- He can call his a revolutionary people, rights; I buy shares. All the courts, the tion of annexations means granting write eloquent resolutions—this is a lot whole police force, the whole standing every nation the right to form a separate for a Russian because this has only army and all the navies in the world state, or to live in alliance with any other recently come into vogue here. protect my sacred right to shares.” If nation it pleases. Such a reply is quite Recently, for example, the Provisional banks are established which manipu- clear to every worker who is at all class- Government published a “revolution- late hundreds-of-millions of rubles, if conscious. ary” declaration. they have enmeshed the whole world

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 67 in this net of bank robbery, if these our own)—we say: what is the good of have come to grips in war, it is because banks have come to grips in a life and your “revolutionary” Ministry, your they could not help it. This is why, in death struggle—who is to blame? declarations, your statements that you reply to the demand of the masses of Where will you find the culprit! The do not want a war of conquest—when the people to publish treaties, demands whole development of capitalism dur- at the same time you are calling upon which are becoming more and more ing the past half-century is to blame; the army to launch an offensive? Do persistent, the Cabinet Ministers, ex- and there is no way out except by over- you not know that you have treaties, Minister Milyukov and the present throwing the rule of the capitalists, which were concluded by Nicholas the Minister Tereshchenkovi (one in the except by a workers’ revolution. This is Bloody in the most piratical manner? government without Socialist Ministers the reply our Party arrived at after ana- You do not know that? One can forgive and the other in the government with a lyzing the war; that is why we say: the a worker or a peasant, who has not number of near-Socialist Ministers,) simple question of annexations has robbed, who has not read wise books, say: publication of the treaties means a been so confused, the representatives for not knowing this; but when edu- rupture with the Allies. of the bourgeois parties have lied to cated Cadets preach this, they know That is so; the treaties must not be such an extent, that they make it appear perfectly well what the treaties contain. published because all of you belong to 5 as if Courland does not represent These treaties are “secret,” but the the same gang of robbers. We agree with annexation by Russia. These three whole diplomatic press of all countries Milyukov and Tereshchenko that the crowned robbers divided up Courland is talking about them: “You will get the treaties cannot be published. From this, and Poland between them. They shared Straits; you—Armenia; you—Galicia; two different conclusions may be them for a hundred years, tore the liv- you—Alsace-Lorraine; you—Trieste, drawn. What follows from the fact that ing flesh from them; and the Russian and we will definitely divide up Persia.” we agree with Milyukov and robber tore off most, because at that And the German capitalist says: “And I Tereshchenko that the treaties must not time he was the strongest. And when will seize Egypt; I will crush the be published? If the treaties must not be the young robber who participated in European nations if you do not return published then we must help the the loot at that time grew up and my colonies, and with interest.” Shares Capitalist Ministers to continue the became a strong capitalist power— are the sort of thing, you know, that war. The other conclusion is: as the Germany—he said: Let me have a new cannot exist without interest. This is capitalists dare not publish the treaties, division! You want to stick to what why the question of the treaties, such a we must overthrow the capitalists. I will you’ve got? You think you are stron- simple and clear question, has given leave it to you to decide which of these ger? Let us match our strength! rise to the mass of outrageous, incred- conclusions is the correct one; but I ible, insolent lies that pours from the strongly urge you to consider the conse- The politics of plunder pages of all capitalist newspapers. quences. If we were to argue as the This is what war amounts to. Of Take Today’s Dyen. In it Vodovozov, Narodnik and Menshevik Ministers do course, this challenge—“let us match a man who cannot possibly be sus- it would work out like this: since the our strength!”—is only the expression pected of Bolshevism, but who is an government says that the treaties must of decades of the politics of plunder, honest democrat, says: I am opposed to not be published, then we must issue the politics of big banks. That is why secret treaties; I would like to say some- another manifesto. Paper has not nobody can tell the plain truth about thing about the treaty with Rumania. become so dear that new manifestos annexations, so that every worker and We have a secret treaty with Rumania cannot be written. Let us write a new peasant can understand, as we do. That and it provides that Rumania shall manifesto and launch an offensive. is why the question of treaties, such a receive power over a number of foreign What for? With what object? Who will simple one, is so shamelessly confused nations if it fights on the side of the determine the object? The soldiers are by the whole press. You say that we Allies. All the treaties of the other Allies being called upon to enforce the preda- have a revolutionary government, that are exactly like this one. They would tory treaties with Rumania and France. in this revolutionary government there not have started out to throttle every- Send Vodovozov’s article, which I men- are Ministers who are nearly one without treaties. There is no need tioned, to the soldiers at the front and Socialists—Narodniks and to delve into special magazines to find then complain: “It’s all the fault of the Mensheviks.6 But when they talk about out what is in these treaties. It is suffi- Bolsheviks; no doubt the Bolsheviks peace without annexations on the con- cient to recall the main facts of eco- invented this treaty with Rumania. But dition that peace without annexations nomic and diplomatic history. Yes, for then you will not only have to suppress is not defined (which means: we will years Austria fought in the Balkans to Pravda, but also deport Vodovozov for take the German annexations and keep strangle nations there. …And if they having studied history; you will have to

68 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 burn all Milyukov’s books, extremely lic or in a monarchy. If any savage Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. This dangerous books. Open any one of the country dares to disobey our civilized is the revolution, which has not yet said books of the leader of the “people’s free- capital, which establishes such fine its last word. This is the revolution that dom” party, the ex-Minister for Foreign banks in the colonies, in Africa and Western Europe did not have under Affairs. They are good books. What do Persia; if any savage nation disobeys such conditions. These are the organi- they say? They say that Russia has a our civilized banks we send troops zations of the classes who really need “right” to the Straits, to Armenia, to there and they introduce culture, order no annexations, who have no millions Galicia and to East Prussia. He shared and civilization, as Lyakhov9 did in deposited in the banks, and who, per- out everything, and even appended a Persia and as the French “republican” haps, are not interested in whether the map. It will not only be necessary to troops, with equal savagery, extermi- Russian Colonel Lyakhov and the exile the Bolsheviks and Vodovozov to nated the people of Africa. What differ- British, Liberal Ambassador divided up Siberia for writing such revolutionary ence does it make: it is also “revolu- Persia properly. This is the guarantee articles, but also to burn Milyukov’s tionary” national defense, only it is that this revolution can go still further. books, because if we now collected sim- displayed by broad unconscious mass- It lies in the fact that the classes who ple excerpts from these books and sent es of the people who do not see the are really not interested in annexation, them to the soldiers at the front they connection between the war and the notwithstanding their extreme faith in would have more inflammatory effect government, who do not know that capitalist government; notwithstand- than the most inflammatory leaflets. this policy is backed by treaties. The ing the terrible confusion, the terrible treaties have remained, the banks have deception that is contained in the very “Revolutionary national defense?” remained, the concessions have term “revolutionary” national defense, It remains for me now, in accor- remained. In Russia the best men of notwithstanding the fact that they are dance with the short plan that I drew their class are at the head of the admin- supporting the loan, supporting the up for today’s lecture, to touch on the istration; but this has not changed the imperialist war government—not question of “revolutionary national character of the world war in the least. withstanding all this, they have suc- defense.” I think that after what I have The new “revolutionary” national ceeded in creating organizations in had the honor of relating to you I can defense is merely the use of the lofty which the masses of the oppressed be brief in dealing with this question. concept revolution to cover up the sor- classes are represented. These are the “Revolutionary national defense” is did and bloody war for the sordid and Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and the name given to the justification of disgusting treaties. Peasants’ Deputies, which in many the war by means of arguments such The Russian revolution has not places in Russia went much further as: We have made a revolution, we are changed the character of the war, but it than the Petrograd Soviet in their revo- a revolutionary people, we are a revo- has created organizations the like of lutionary work. This is quite natural, lutionary democracy. What is our reply which exist in no other country, and because in Petrograd we have the cen- to this? What sort of revolution have did not exist during the majority of tral organ of the capitalists. we made? We have overthrown revolutions in the West. In the major- Yesterday Skobele10 said in his Nicholas. This revolution was not so ity of revolutions a new government speech: We will take all the profits, we difficult, if we compare it with a revo- came forward consisting of men of the will take a hundred percent. But this lution that would completely over- type of our Tereshchenkos and was a wide gesture, a wide, Ministerial throw the landlord and capitalist class- Konovalovs, while the country gesture. If you take today’s Ryech you es. Who came into power after our remained in a state of passivity and will see what their opinion is about this revolution? The landlords and the cap- disorganization. The Russian revolu- passage in Skobelev’s speech. That italists—the very classes that have long tion went further. This fact contains paper writes: “Why, that means starva- been in power in Europe. There, revo- the embryo of the possibility that it will tion, death; hundred percent—why lutions like this took place a hundred conquer the war. The fact is that in that is—everything!” Minister Skobelev years ago; there, the Tereshchenkos7, addition to the government of “near- goes further than the most extreme Milyukovs and Konovalovs8 have long Socialist” Ministers, the imperialist war Bolshevik. It is not true to say that the been in power; and whether they have government, the government which Bolsheviks are on the extreme Left. a Civil List for their kings or do with- started the offensive, the government Minister Skobelev is much more to the out this article of luxury, makes no which is connected with Anglo-French “Left.” They hurled more awful abuse difference. A bank remains a bank, capital, in addition to it, and indepen- at me because, they alleged, I proposed capital is invested in concessions, prof- dently of it, we have all over Russia a to take the clothes off the backs of the its remain profits, whether in a repub- network of Soviets of Workers’, capitalists. At all events, Shulgin11 said:

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 69 “Let them take the clothes off our He proposes both control and one wrote a great deal about control? He backs!” Picture a Bolshevik going up to hundred percent. We do not want to repeated a thousand times the words: citizen Shulgin to take his clothes away. take one hundred percent; we say: “We state control, public control, appoint- He would have more reason to accuse will not believe you until you have ment of senators. During the two Minister Skobelev of this. We have begun to do something.” This is the months that have elapsed since the never gone so far. We have never pro- difference between us; we do not revolution the manufacturers have posed that profits be taken one hun- believe words and promises, and do plundered the whole of Russia. Capital dred percent. The promise, however, is not advise others to believe them. The has made hundreds-percent profit; valuable. If you take our Party’s resolu- experience of parliamentary republics every report shows this. And when the tion you will find that in it we propose teaches us that we must not believe in workers had the “impudence” to say exactly what I proposed, except that paper declarations. If you want con- two months after the revolution that the grounds for the proposal are more trol, then start introducing it. One day they want to live like human beings, the fully formulated: Control of the banks, is sufficient to pass a law on control. whole capitalist press of the country and a fair income tax. That is all! The Employees’ Council in every bank, raised a howl. In every issue Ryech Skobelev proposes to take a hundred the Workers’ Council in every factory, raises a savage howl about the workers kopeks in the ruble. We have not pro- every Party must receive the right to robbing the country. And yet we only posed and do not propose anything of control. We will be told that this is promise control over the capitalists. the kind. And even Skobelev only made impossible, that there are commercial Cannot we have fewer promises and a gesture. He does not seriously intend secrets, the sacred right of property. more deeds? If you want control by to carry it out; and if he does intend to Well, do as you like; but choose! If you officials, control by bodies such as do so he will not be able to, for the want to save all these books, accounts existed in the past, then our Party simple reason that to promise all this and the operations of the trusts, then expresses the profound conviction that after having made friends with do not chatter about control; do not you must not receive any assistance in Tereschenko and Konovalov is some- say the country is on the verge of ruin. this even if you had in the government what ridiculous. It is possible to take not a half-a-dozen, but a dozen eighty or ninety percent of the million- Narodnik and Menshevik Ministers. aires’ incomes; but not by walking arm “In Europe a war is Control can be exercised only by the in arm with such Ministers. If the going on for world people. You must organize control of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ the Bank Employees’ Councils, Deputies were in power they would supremacy. For world Engineers’ Councils and Workers’ really take it; but even then they would supremacy two things Councils, and start this control tomor- not take all, because they do not need row. Every official must be held respon- it. They would take a large part of the are needed: dollars and sible and liable to criminal prosecution incomes. No other form of govern- banks. We have the if he gives false information in any of ment can do this. Minister Skobelev dollars; we will create these institutions. The fate of the coun- may be prompted by the best inten- try is at stake. We want to know how tions in the world. I have seen these the banks and rule the much grain, how much raw material, parties in the course of several decades; world.” and how many workers are available, I belong to the revolutionary move- and how they should be employed. ment for thirty years. That is why I am least of all inclined to doubt their good In Germany the situation is still How to end the war intentions. But that is not the point; it worse. In Russia we can obtain bread; Now I come to the last question. is not a matter of good intentions. The in Germany they cannot. In Russia This is the question of how to end the road to hell is paved with good inten- much can be done with organization. war. We are credited with the absurd tions. All the chancelleries are filled In Germany nothing more can be done. idea that we want a separate peace. The with documents signed by Citizens the There is no bread, and all the people German capitalist robbers are taking Ministers, but this has altered nothing. must perish. People are now writing steps towards peace and are saying: We Start introducing control if you like, that Russia is on the verge of doom. If will give you a piece of Turkey and just start! Our program is such that that is the case, then it is a crime to Armenia if you give us ore-bearing ter- reading Slobelev’s speech we can say: protect “sacred” private property. What ritory. This is what the diplomats are We do not demand more. We are far does the word control mean? Have you talking about in every neutral city! more moderate than Minister Skobelev. forgotten that Nicholas Romanov also Everybody knows it. It is only covered

70 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 up by conventional diplomatic phras- ing their country for a long time. That The peasants are refusing to sell es. They would not be diplomats if they is why, although it has not come yet, their grain for money and are demand- did not speak in diplomatic language. the revolution is inevitable there, no ing implements, boots and clothes. What nonsense it is to say that we want matter how many revolutionaries may This decision contains a large share of to end the war by a separate peace! The suffer, as Friedrich Adler and Karl extremely profound truth. Indeed, the idea that a war is being waged by the Liebknecht are suffering. The future is country has been reduced to such a capitalists of all the richest countries, a with them, and the workers of all state of ruin that we see here, although war called forth by decades of eco- countries are with them. And the work- in a smaller degree, what has existed in nomic development can be brought to ers of all countries must be victorious. other countries for a long time: money an end by one side ceasing hostilities is has lost its power. The rule of capital- so stupid that we think it is ridiculous ism is being so thoroughly undermined to repudiate it. The reason why we ...this is precisely what by the progress of events that the peas- repudiated it in a special resolution is the war is being waged ants, for example, refuse to take money. that we are dealing with broad masses They say: “What is the use of money to in whose ranks slander is being spread for: the division of the us?” And they are right. The rule of about us; but this idea is not worth conquests; or to put it capitalism is not being undermined talking about seriously. The war now because somebody wants to usurp being waged by the capitalists of all more simply, the sharing power. It would be absurd to “usurp” countries cannot be brought to an end of the loot between two power. The rule of capitalism could without a workers’ revolution against gangs of robbers... not be brought to an end if the whole these capitalists. Until control has economic development of capitalist passed from the sphere of phrases to countries were not leading to this. The the sphere of action, until a govern- As regards America’s entry into the war has accelerated this process, and ment of the revolutionary proletariat war I will say the following. It is argued this has made capitalism impossible. has taken the place of the capitalist that in America there is democracy, No power on earth could destroy capi- government, the government will be that there is a “White House” there. I talism if it were not being washed away condemned to do nothing more than say: slavery was abolished half-a-centu- and undermined by history. moan: we are doomed, doomed, ry ago. The war over slavery ended in Here is a striking example. The peas- doomed! Today, in “free” England, 1865. Since then billionaires have ant says what everybody sees: the power Socialists are being imprisoned for say- sprung up. They hold the whole of of money has been undermined. Here ing what I am saying. In Germany, America in their financial grip, are pre- there is only one way out: the Soviet of Liebknecht is in jail for saying what I paring to strangle Mexico, and will Workers’ and Peasants” Deputies must am saying; and in Austria, Friedrich inevitably go to war with Japan over agree to the peasants’ being given Adler12 is in jail for saying the same the partition of the Pacific. Preparations implements, boots and clothes in thing, only with the aid of a revolver for this war have been going on for exchange for their grains. This is what (perhaps he has been executed by several decades already. A heap of things are coming to; this is the reply now.) The sympathy of the masses of books has been written on the subject. that life is suggesting. If this is not the workers in all countries is on the And America’s real object in entering granted, tens-of-millions of people will side of these Socialists, and not on the this war is to prepare for war against go hungry, unshod and without clothes. side of those who have deserted to the Japan. The American people enjoy Tens-of-millions of people are faced side of their capitalists. The workers’ considerable freedom, and it is difficult with death, and we have no time to revolution is growing all over the to believe that they will tolerate con- bother about protecting the interests of world. In other countries, of course, it scription, the creation of an army for the capitalists. The only way out is to is more difficult. There they have no aims of conquest, for a struggle against transfer all power to the Soviets of half-wits like Nicholas and Rasputin. Japan, for example. The Americans can Workers, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ There, the best people of their class are see from the example of Europe what Deputies, which represent the majority at the head of the administration. this leads to. And so the American of the people. Perhaps mistakes will be There, the conditions are not for a capitalists were obliged to intervene in made in the course of this. Nobody revolution against autocracy; there this war in order to find a pretext to argues that his difficult task can be they already have a capitalist-class gov- create a powerful standing army under accomplished at one stroke. We do not ernment. The most gifted representa- cover of the lofty ideal of fighting for say anything of the kind. We are told: tives of this class have been administer- the rights of small nationalities. “We want the Soviets to take power,

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 71 but they do not want to take it.” We say The only way out tion like the American Bebel—Eugene that experience will suggest to them, Let those who are interested in the Debs—who is extremely popular and the whole people will see, that there Socialist movement read the Basle among the American workers says: “If is no other way out. We do not want to Manifesto of 1912, which was adopted I were in Congress, I would be shot “usurp” power, for the whole experi- unanimously by the Socialist Parties all before I would vote a dollar for such a ence of revolution teaches that only a over the world; a manifesto which we war. …I am opposed to every war but power that is backed by the majority of published in our Pravda, a manifesto one; I am for that war with heart and the people can be durable. Consequently, which cannot be published now in any soul, and that is the world-wide war of the “usurpation” of power would be other belligerent country, neither in social revolution.”13 This is how the merely an adventure; and our Party “free” England, nor in Republican ranks of Socialists are split all over the would not agree to anything of the France, because it told the truth about world. The social-patriots in all coun- kind. The government that will be a the war even before the war broke out. tries think that they are defending their government of the majority may pur- It stated: war would break out between country. They are mistaken; they are sue a policy, which may prove to be a England and Germany because of capi- defending the interests of one capitalist mistaken one at first, but there is no talist rivalry. It stated: so much powder clique against another. We advocate other way out. If that happens, there has been accumulated that the guns proletarian revolution—the only true will be a peaceful change of policy will go off of themselves. It stated what cause for which scores have gone to the inside these organizations. No other the objects of the war would be and scaffold, and hundreds and thousands organizations can be devised. That is said that it would lead to proletarian are in jail. These Socialists in jail are a why we say that we cannot imagine any revolution. That is why we tell the minority; but behind them is the work- other solution of the problem. ing class, behind them is economic How can war be brought to an end? development. All this tells us that there What would we do if the Soviets of We Marxists are not is no other way out. This war can be Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies took brought to an end only by means of a power and the Germans continued the among those who are workers’ revolution in several coun- war? Those who are interested in our absolutely opposed to all tries. Meanwhile, we must prepare for Party’s views may have read in our war. We say: our object this revolution, help it along. As long newspaper Pravda the other day an as the tsar conducted the war the exact quotation from what we said is to achieve the socialist Russian people, in spite of their hatred abroad as far back as 1915: if the revo- system of society, which, of war and their determination to secure peace, could do nothing against lutionary class of Russia, the working by abolishing the divi- class, comes into power, it must offer it except prepare for the revolution to conclude peace. And if our terms are sion of mankind into against the tsar, and overthrow the rejected by the German capitalists, or classes, by abolishing all tsar. And it was so. History confirmed by the capitalists of any other country, this for you yesterday, and it will con- the working class will be entirely in exploitation of man by firm it for you tomorrow. Long ago we favor of war. We do not propose to end man, and of one nation said: We must help the growing Russian the war at one stroke. We do not by other nations, will revolution. We said it at the end of promise this. We do not advocate such 1914. For saying this, our deputies in an impossible task as ending the war by inevitably abolish all the Duma were exiled to Siberia. We the desire of only one side. It is easy to possibility of war. were told: “You do not answer. You make promises of this kind, but it is talk about revolution when strikes have impossible to carry them out. There is ceased, when the deputies are in exile no easy way out of this terrible war. Socialists who signed this manifesto and when not a single newspaper is Fighting has been going on for three and then deserted to the side of their published!” We were accused of declin- years. You will either go on fighting for capitalist governments that they have ing to answer. Comrades, we heard this ten years or agree to make a difficult betrayed Socialism. All over the world accusation for a number of years. We and severe revolution. There is no a split has occurred in the Socialist replied: You may be as angry as you other way out. We say: the war, which ranks. Some are Cabinet Ministers; like, but nothing can be done against was started by the capitalist govern- others are in jail. All over the world, war until the tsar is overthrown. Our ment can be brought to an end only by one section of the Socialists advocated forecast proved to be correct. It is not a workers’ revolution. preparation for war, while another sec- yet fully confirmed, but it is beginning

72 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 to be confirmed. The revolution is capitalists will oppose us; but the work- first Provisional Government and later vice beginning to change the war from the ers will support us. Then—the war, Prime Minister in the Kerensky Government. Russian side. The capitalists are still which the capitalists started, will come —Ed. continuing the war; and we say: the to an end. This is the reply to the ques- 9 Colonel V. P. Lyakhov—Helped to suppress the revolutionary national movement in war cannot stop until the advent of a tion of how to end the war. the Caucasus after the Revolution of 1905. Par- workers’ revolution in several coun- Transcribed by Debbie Weinstein ticipated also in the crushing of the revolution tries, because the people who want this in Tabriz, Persia, in 1906. —Ed. war are in power. We are told: Things 10 M. D. Skobelev—Menshevik mem- seem to be asleep in a number of coun- 1 Note: Footnotes are from the 1929 edition ber of the bourgeois Provisional Government. tries. In Germany all the Socialists are P. N. Milyukov—Founder and leader of the —Ed. Constitutional-Democratic Party, ideologist of unanimously in favor of war; only 11 V. V. Shulgin—Monarchist, former the Russian liberal bourgeoisie. Minister of For- member of the State Duma. Member of the Liebknecht is opposed to it.” To this I eign Affairs in the first Provisional Government counter-revolutionary government headed by reply: This one Liebknecht represents formed after the February Revolution in 1917. General Denikin. —Ed. the working class; in him alone, in his Actively supported the counter-revolutionary 12 Friedrich Adler—One of the leaders adherents, in the German proletariat, movements after the establishment of the Soviet of the Social-Democratic Party of Austria and lie the hopes of all. You do not believe Government and still a leading exponent among Secretary of the Second International. Social- the emigrés of the policy of foreign intervention pacifist during the first imperialist war. —Ed. it? Continue the war! There is no other against the Soviet Union. —Ed. 13 Speeches of Eugene Victor Debs, edited road. If you do not believe in 2 During the first imperialist war, l’Humanité Liebknecht, if you do not believe in the by Alexander Trachtenberg, International Pub- was the official organ of the French Socialist lishers, 1927, pp. 64-65. —Ed. workers’ revolution, in the revolution Party which supported the war. After the for- that is maturing, if you do not believe mation of the Communist Party, as a result of this, then believe the capitalists! the split at the Tours Congress in 1921, l’Humanité, as the organ of the Communist Nobody will be victorious in this Party, became consistent revolutionary and Peace reigned in war except the workers’ revolution in anti-imperialist spokesman of the French work- several countries. War is not a game; ing class. —Ed. Europe; but this peace war is a terrible thing; war entails mil- 3 Ryech (Speech)—Organ of the Constitu- lions of victims and it cannot be tional-Democratic Party. —Ed. was maintained brought to an end so easily. 4 Pravda (Truth)—Founded in 1912 and continues to the present as the official organ of because the rule of the The soldiers at the front cannot tear the Bolshevik Party. —Ed. European nations over the front away from the state and 5 Courland as part of Russia. After annex- decide things in their own way. The ation by the Russian Empire, the territory of the hundreds-of-millions soldiers at the front are part of the former Duchy formed the Courland Governorate. of inhabitants of country. As long as the state is fighting From the time of the Northern Crusades in the the front will suffer. There is nothing early 13th century, most land was owned by nobles colonies was exercised to be done about it. The war was called descended from the German invaders. only by constant, unin- forth by the ruling classes; it can be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courland brought to an end only by a working 6 Narodniks, from the Russian word narod, terrupted and ceaseless class revolution. The question as to meaning people, representing a populist move- whether you will get a speedy peace will ment with utopian socialist tendencies. For a wars, which we be determined solely by the process of full appraisal of their role, see The History of the Europeans do not development of the revolution. No Communist Party of the Soviet Union, pp. 8-16. Mensheviks, reformist Socialists, first an orga- regard as wars, because matter what sentimental things may be nized faction in opposition to the program and said, no matter how much you may be policies of the Bolsheviks in the Russian social- often they resembled, told: let us put an end to the war ist movement; after the October Revolution, immediately, it cannot be done with- engaged in counter-revolutionary activities not wars, but the bru- out the development of the revolution. against the Soviet Government both in the tal massacre, When power passes to the Soviets of U.S.S.R. and abroad. —Ed. Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ 7 M. I. Tereshchenko—Wealthy industrial- extermination, of ist, first, Minister of Finance in the Provisional Deputies the capitalists will oppose us: Government, later succeeded Milyukov as Min- unarmed people. Japan—opposed, France—opposed, ister for Foreign Affairs. —Ed. England—opposed; the governments 8 A. I. Konovalov—Wealthy textile manu- of all countries will oppose us. The facturer, Minister for Trade and Industry in the

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 73 S o c i a l i s t V i e w p o i n t Where to find us: www.socialistviewpoint.org [email protected] (415) 824-8730

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74 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 19, No. 2 Capitalism in Crisis By Mumia Abu-Jamal

As a new year dawns, it is important When the U.S. has rises and falls on Because movements are always in to view developments happening in the the stock market that hearkens back to flux, they never stand still. West with new, cool eyes. the 1930s, when the Great Depression The same could be said for the Socialists often see each critical was raging, something is happening. movements of workers, the poor, and event as “a crisis in capitalism.” True, And when we factor in the West’s national minorities. but how often must it be said, before recent penchant for toying with fascist If we don’t take advantage of this the cry sounds like the little boy crying movements—well, something is indeed moment, this hour of chaos, we shall wolf? happening—and it ain’t pretty. all come to regret it. As we examine events in France, Is this a crisis of capitalism? —Prison Radio, December 31, 2018 specifically the explosion of the “Yellow Yes, for it is global, as opposed to Write to Mumia at: Vests,” mostly working class rural national, and the incipient rise of fas- Smart Communications/PA DOC communities, who dare to compare cist movements follows inexorably Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335 their present political leaders with from the neoliberalism that brought us SCI Mahanoy French Revolution-era kings, who were unprecedented mass incarceration— P.O. Box 33028 sent to the guillotine—well, some- the result of state and police repression St. Petersburg, FL 33733 thing’s happening. against Black, Latinx and poor white When Britain faces what is essen- communities. tially a self-imposed expulsion from That repression opened the door to the EU (European Union), and its con- the rightist movements we see waxing comitant loss of billions in world trade on the periphery. and almost countless jobs lost, something is happening. Why?

Vol. 19, No. 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 75 Aerial view of rail bridge taken down by a mudslide after the collapse of a dam at an iron-ore mine belonging to Brazil’s giant mining company Vale near the town of Brumadinho, state of Minas Gerias, southeastern Brazil (Photo: BNN) Read Disaster Capitalism in Brazil on page 44.

On the Front Cover: Demonstrations in France s and Venezuela.

Kevin Cooper wins new order to test additional evidence and Police use Mace to move war protesters blocking access to the appeals to California Governor Newsom for a full innocence inves- Oakland Induction Center on October 17, 1967. Read Lessons from tigation. Read Death Row Inmate Asks California Governor Newsom the FBI’s Secret War on Activism on page 31. for Innocence Investigation on page 47. « « « Attention Prison Mail Room: « « « Prisoners retain their free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That means you cannot legally suppress the expression and consideration of ideas. Prison walls do not form a barrier separating prisoners from the protection of the Constitution, according to the Turner v. Safley ruling. [482 U.S. 78, 107 Sct 2245 (1987)] If you exclude printed matter on an improper basis, or give a false pretext or rationale for its exclusion, because of the ideas expressed in it, you are breaking the law. The prisoner denied access to material s/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.”