d SA LAUNCHES SOCIALIST NEW MEMBER EDUCATIONAL SERIES! ACTION P. 3 VOL. 38, NO. 8, AUGUST 2020 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. $1 / CANADA $2 Which Way for Today’s Mass Radicalization? Capitalism’s Impending Catastrophe... Or a Socialist Future By Jeff Mackler Predatory capitalism is facing its great- est crises ever. The gap between the ex- ploiting few, who rule by guile and deceit – and brute force when necessary – and the vast majority, who are compelled to sell their labor to survive, has never been greater. A stunning half of the work- ing-age population stand unemployed or subjected to a low-wage, part-time, gig economy wherein unprecedented num- bers live paycheck to paycheck in fear of eviction or foreclosure. One in five fam- ilies are unable to provide food for their children. 27 million Americans and their family members have lost health insur- ance coverage during the pandemic. That systemic racism permeates every institution of U.S. society is only de- nied by an ever-declining tiny minori- ty, cheered on by racist hatemongering Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday Donald Trump, who persists in increas- Daily COVID-19 infection rates soar any concerns about the predicted mas- Yet astonishingly, several of the na- ingly irrational rants and threats of vio- sive loss of human lives. tion’s top research groups, including the lence despite the counsel of his frequent- A month ago, when the rate of new dai- The phased re-openings brought on Centers for Disease Control and Preven- ly-fired sycophant advisors and the top ly COVID-19 infections “plateaued” for disaster. Insanity prevailed. One month tion (CDC), now advocate reopening leadership of the Republican Party. Even a week or so at 22,000, all 50 state gover- in, by July 27, close to 70,000 new in- public schools. Their previously released the worst of them fear going down with nors, Democrats and Republicans alike, fections were registered daily for a total stringent guidelines to do so, they now Trump’s sinking ship. CNN reports that devised plans for a return to work. Ig- now exceeding 4.5 million, with epide- insist, are “suggestions” only. They pre- 84 percent of Americans support the an- noring the generalized opposition of the miologists estimating that perhaps ten tend ignorance of the hundreds of bil- ti-racist demonstrations that have mobi- scientific community, the ruling class as times this number have been infected, lions needed to implement them – an lized an estimated 15-26 million in over a whole calculated that “the economy,” with most infections going undetected. amount that is absent from the new round 2000 cities and towns. The times are that is, the trillions of dollars in profits The number of daily deaths has risen to a-changing indeed. extracted from their workers, trumped over 1,000. To date, 164,000 are dead. (continued on page 3) A manifesto for our times The Challenge to Abolish Systemic Racism Initiated by Alice Walker, Glen Ford, Pam Africa, Jeff Mackler, and many more! REQUEST FOR SIGNERS Massive opposition to SYSTEMIC demonstrators. An estimated 15-25 mil- times the rate of whites. Sixty-three per- We reprint this Manifesto at the re- RACISM and the inseparable general- lion have participated in the protests. cent of those recently killed by Minneap- quest of its original signers. It is be- ized social inequality that permeate ev- It is this SYSTEMIC RACISM, not olis police – 19 people – were Black; 17 ing circulated far and wide with the ery institution in U.S. society, are the just the police murders of George Floyd, percent – or 5 people – were white. intention of opening a broad-ranging discussion of how today’s unprece- only serious explanations for the mag- Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and INGRAINED RACISM: And a century dented movements against systemic nificent, unprecedented, defiant dai- Rayshard Brooks, that has infuriated the and a half before these murders, during racism and class oppression might ly multi-racial mass mobilizations in vast majority. That daily racist police the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era, develop toward new and independent 2000+ U.S. cities and towns. In the face murders of unarmed Blacks have been 1865 to 1876, 2,000 racist lynchings of organizations capable of challeng- of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and the norm for decades is no longer denied Black men, women and children were ing the ever-deepening incursions police repression courageous millions with impunity. Minneapolis is but one recorded, that is, after the Emancipa- on fundamental social, political and have taken to the streets. The resounding example: Twenty percent of the popu- tion Proclamation. And another 4,400 economic rights. The initiators an- declarations of Black Lives Matter! and lation of 430,000 are Black. But when lynchings between 1877 and 1950. And ticipate many activists will add their No Justice, No Peace! have reverberated the police employ violence – with kicks, countless more since. And two more in names and help circulate this text. To across the world. An unprecedented 84 chokeholds, punches, shoves, take- Los Angeles a few weeks ago. And four add your name/organization, email: percent of the U.S. population, according downs, Mace and Tasers – nearly 60 per- [email protected] to CNN polls, agree with the anti-racist cent of their victims are Black – seven (continued on page 6) Mumia Speaks - 2 U.S. War Machine - 7 Trump & Immigration - 12 INSIDE New Member Classes - 3 AMLO-Trump Meeting - 9 Free Mumia Rally - 13 SOCIALIST ACTION Marx, Lenin & Elections - 5 Northern Lights - 10 NY Mayor Busts Occupy - 14 Mumia Abu-Jamal Speaks WHERE TO System Change, FIND US Not Climate A Little Matter Bay Area, CALIFORNIA Change! P.O. Box 10328 Oakland, CA 94610 [email protected] CLIMATE CRISIS COMMENTARY of History (510) 268-9429 By James Fortin North Bay, CALIFORNIA [email protected] Boulder, COLORADO [email protected] You don’t say!? A group of the largest pension funds in the U.S. jointly man- Chicago, ILLINOIS aging a trillion dollars of investments, P.O. BOX 578428 now says the looming climate catastro- [email protected] phe “poses a systemic threat to finan- cial markets and the real economy, with Lexington, KENTUCKY significant disruptive consequences to [email protected] asset valuations and our nation’s eco- Louisville, KENTUCKY nomic stability.” And you are going to [email protected] do what for Mother Earth? Brunswick, MAINE No exemptions for heroes on ped- [email protected] estals. Cop brutality and murders of Blacks has transformationally altered Detroit, MICHIGAN the way U.S society thinks. Not ex- [email protected] empt from this sea change is the Sierra Kansas City, MISSOURI Club, a leading environmental group of [email protected] 3-plus million members. Its founder, (816) 221-3638 John Muir, was an avowed racist whose ideal of a white man in sync with na- Statue of Thomas Jefferson pulled down in Portland (Jamie Goldberg/The Oregonian) Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN ture to the exclusion of people of color [email protected] is now being questioned by the organi- By Mumia Abu-Jamal America, “One hour suffered under zation. Get ready slave master George such conditions was fraught with more Buffalo, NEW YORK [email protected] Washington, another tumbling wall is When I was a young man – a boy re- misery than ages of that suffered under shaking the ground. ally – I found barbershops to be fasci- the British by white Americans who nating places, for there men gathered rose in rebellion to oppose them.” NEW YORK CITY [email protected] Mass movements 3, fossil fuel pipe- in an air of relaxed familiarity and dis- This is really a quite astounding (212) 781-5157 lines 0. Keystone XL – not now says cussed things they didn’t do elsewhere. statement by not only an American the Supreme Court. Dakota Access I heard tales of ancient African empires, slave-owner but a revolutionary. It tells Salem, OREGON pipeline – shut it down orders a federal of unknown roads, of unknown roads of us that Jefferson knew well the miser- [email protected] judge. Atlantic Coast pipeline – can- Black history, and often the name of the ies inflicted by him and his class. One (503) 910-5988 celled by big business and celebrated brilliant self-taught historian J. A. Rog- might say, he knew it intimately. by opponent Appalachian communi- ers. I’d later search many a bookstore If we take Jefferson seriously, he sug- Dallas-Fort Worth, TEXAS ties. We can almost smell the clean air. for his work often, without success. gests something else: That Blacks have [email protected] I thought of those days because of a a greater right to revolution than did “Social Cost of Carbon,” under- little-known quote I’d read in the work British Americans under a foreign, dis- played. It comes as no surprise that the of two late Black scholars and his- tant king. Socialist Action Trump regime uses every opportunity torians, Ishakamusa Barashango and Think on that. A little matter of his- to minimize the impact of growing lev- Lerone Bennett. The quote was from tory. n CANADA els of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Thomas Jefferson, president and slave- This commentary was originally pub- socialistaction.ca believing that will help Trumps’s bud- owner, and it reflected his paradoxical lished at PrisonRadio.org and recorded [email protected] dies in the fossil fuel industry. Cli- nature. by Noelle Hanrahan. Mumia’s audio is 1-647-986-1917 mate expert Michael K. Dorsey states, Said Jefferson of African slavery in available here.